Description
Immanuel Wilkins – The 7th Hand – Double Vinyl Records
The 7th Hand, released on January 28, 2022, is the second album by rising alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins, and a profound artistic statement that cements his place as one of the most important voices in 21st-century jazz. Issued on Blue Note Records, the album follows Wilkins’ critically acclaimed 2020 debut Omega and continues his exploration of spirituality, identity, freedom, and Black experience through a deeply expressive and forward-thinking musical lens. Where Omega established his credentials, The 7th Hand pushes further—it is more ambitious, more spiritual, and more abstract, while still grounded in the traditions of Black American music.
Wilkins composed the album as a seven-movement suite, with each piece representing a stage in the process of spiritual purification and surrender to divine will. The number seven—symbolically significant across spiritual traditions—represents completion and transformation. Wilkins describes the album’s progression as moving from the individual’s control to the moment where they are “possessed” by the spirit, which culminates in the final track. This conceptual arc gives the album a cohesive and ceremonial structure, yet the music flows with an organic looseness, allowing for deep improvisation and interaction.
The album features Wilkins’ working quartet, a deeply connected group that balances emotional expressiveness with intellectual rigor:
Immanuel Wilkins – alto saxophone
Micah Thomas – piano
Daryl Johns – bass
Kweku Sumbry – drums
Together, they perform with an intuitive sensitivity, able to shift between explosive freedom and meditative restraint in an instant. Wilkins’ tone on the alto sax is piercing yet fluid, often evoking the emotional intensity of Jackie McLean or Ornette Coleman, while his phrasing and melodic invention remain unmistakably contemporary.
The album opens with “Emanation,” a mysterious and meditative introduction that gradually blossoms into lyrical interplay, setting the stage for the spiritual journey ahead. As the suite progresses through tracks like “Don’t Break,” “Fugitive Ritual, Selah,” and “Witness,” Wilkins and his quartet explore themes of struggle, affirmation, lament, and transcendence, with compositions that feel both structured and open-ended. The music combines elements of post-bop, avant-garde, gospel, and free jazz, woven together by the group’s emotional clarity and rhythmic elasticity.
One of the most powerful tracks, “Witness,” unfolds with a mournful grandeur, Wilkins’ alto voice crying out over somber harmonies and resonant drumwork, conjuring the feeling of sacred ritual. Meanwhile, “Lighthouse” offers a sense of hope and melodic uplift, grounded in a gospel-inflected groove that connects deeply to the Black church tradition.
The culmination of the album is “Lift,” a 26-minute improvised suite that serves as the seventh and final movement. This piece is the realization of Wilkins’ conceptual goal: a total surrender to the moment, to spirit, and to collective improvisation. It’s a spiritual and musical exorcism, at once ecstatic and searching, unbounded in form yet unified in purpose. The quartet is joined here by the Farafina Kan percussion ensemble, adding a layer of African polyrhythmic depth and ancestral resonance. “Lift” is not just a track—it’s an invocation, a celebration, a catharsis. The sense of possession and transcendence Wilkins sought is fully realized, and the result is one of the most daring and emotionally raw moments in recent jazz.
From a critical standpoint, The 7th Hand received widespread acclaim, with many calling it a modern spiritual jazz masterpiece. Wilkins has drawn comparisons to artists like John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Pharoah Sanders, but his voice remains distinct—intensely personal, politically engaged, and rooted in a deep understanding of Black musical tradition. Yet what makes the album extraordinary is how it blends these historical echoes with a vision that feels urgent, current, and boundary-pushing.
The 7th Hand is a deeply spiritual, conceptually bold, and musically transcendent work that represents the future of jazz while honoring its most profound legacies. Immanuel Wilkins has crafted an album that is at once a suite, a sermon, and a sonic ritual, inviting listeners not just to hear the music, but to be transformed by it. It is a shining example of how jazz in the 21st century can be intellectually rigorous, emotionally fearless, and spiritually expansive all at once.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Emanation
Don’t Break
Fugitive Ritual, Selah
Shadow
Witness
Lighthouse
Lift
