Released on October 11, 2019 by Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group, Humanité is unlike any album GRAMMY® Award Winner and global recording artist Kirk Whalum has ever made–the synergistic result of encounters made, and relationships formed both onstage and off with some of the most renowned recording artists from around the world.
Kirk’s collaborators on the album include Japanese pianist Keiko Matsui; the young bass phenomenon Barry Likumahuwa, gifted singer/songwriter Grace Sahertian and global pop star singer/actor Afgan, all hailing from Indonesia; vocalist/guitarist Zahara, one of South Africa’s biggest stars; Kasiva Mutwa of Nairobi; and the veteran UK jazz vocalist Liane Carroll, long considered by cognoscenti as one of the finest voices in the genre.
Over a period of three months in 2018, Kirk and his longtime friend and producer, the British jazz trumpeter and session musician James McMillan, recorded tracks in locations ranging from studios in Jakarta, Tokyo, Paris, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Hastings, to hotel rooms, office buildings and even Kirk’s living room in Memphis - tracks that showcase the album’s harmonious mix of jazz, blues, funk, pop along with global indigenous musical forms abound on Humanité.
