Out of all the producers on the groundbreaking album, To Pimp a Butterfly, Terrace Martin was someone you probably wouldn’t recognize next to musicians like Flying Lotus and Thundercat. But he’s incredibly talented in his own right.
He just released his solo album, Velvet Portraits, and the title couldn’t represent the project better. Velvet Portraits is so smooth and vibrant that it listens like velvet. It is gentle one-way, but rough and strong when rubbed in the opposite direction.
Velvet Portraits qualifies as a jazz album, but it is not entirely jazz. As a modern musician, Martin has an outsider’s perspective on the direction older music took as well as its limits. As a result, Velvet Portraits has songs that embody older genres like soul and funk, but hip-hop and other modern genres clearly influence it as well.
The opening four tracks are a great representations for the tone of the album. The record starts with the blissful self-titled track, where the piano, strings and distant saxophone all create a brilliant transition into the Latin jam “Valdez Off Crenshaw.” Kamasi Washington’s saxophone parts mixed with the light synthesizers build beautifully into an all-out Latin-fusion jam.
The most commercial song on the album is probably “Push.” The track begins with driven drums and percussion, funky guitar and quick horns that greatly resemble a soundtrack to a 1970s car chase scene. The soulful voice of Tone Trezure kicks in, taking the track a step closer to the heavens with her pristine gospel voice. Whether or not it has commercial appeal, “Push” jams and contains classic elements of funk and disco for what is a cool dance track.
The final of the first four songs, “With You” brings Martin’s hip-hop passion into the album. With an 808 and some high-pitched synths, “With You” is ’90s West Coast G-funk rap meets soul. It is a simplistic track, but the synthetic vocals and radiating tones take the album into space — a trend the legendary George Clinton started in the ’60s and still represents funk today.
The album finishes with a familiar track title, “Mortal Man,” the same name as the concluding track on To Pimp a Butterfly where Kendrick interviews Tupac. This is fitting because Martin’s version is just the session from recording Kendrick’s Mortal Man, and it’s just as beautiful without the chopped beat and lyrics.
Overall, the album is inconsistent in its styles and quickly jumps from soul to jazz to hip-hop. As a result, there is no one set tone of the album. It can be a bit confusing if looking at the album as a whole and what it stands for, but each track is special in its own right and exudes masterful musicianship.
Velvet Portraits is almost an antithesis of a hip-hop album. While hip-hop blends elements of the old school, Terrace Martin has created an old school album that blends elements of the new. To understand an album like To Pimp a Butterly, it is important to take a step back. This is where Terrace Martin has shown his brilliant musicality.
