Ears Wide Open: Jimetta Rose & the Voices of Creation

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Jimetta Rose & the Voices of Creation (Photo by Trish Angeles)

Jimetta Rose is a force of nature. She is a singer, songwriter, trash-talker, truth-teller, optimist, gospel siren and “Queen.” The latter is self-proclaimed, but nobody’s arguing.

The South Central native has circled in L.A.’s jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk and gospel worlds for years, having collaborated with the likes of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Anderson .Paak, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Teebs, Angel Bat Dawid, Shafiq Husayn, MED and Blu. Georgia Anne Muldrow produced Rose’s 2016 album. She memorably covered Gil Scott-Heron (Kamasi Washington sax solo alert). She’s turned up on some amazing compilations.

And earlier this year, her album “The Gift – Around the Way Queen” was released after sitting on the shelf for more than five years.

Her new project, Jimetta Rose & the Voices of Creation, is further illuminating the artist as a beacon of positivity. Already known for some electrifying live performances, the collective has announced that its six-track debut album, “How Good It Is,” will be out Aug. 26. File under: spirituals for the new millennium.

The “Voices” are a community choir of a dozen singers, mostly non-professional, whom Rose found via social media. “I recruited people based on their interest in healing themselves and others, not necessarily on their musical experience or being seasoned performers,” she says.

Made with music director and organist Jack Maeby, pianist Quran Shaheed and percussionist Allakoi Peete and produced by Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Seu Jorge) and his wife, Samantha Caldato, “How Good It Is” mixes originals and re-imagined covers that vary in genre. “It’s new Black classical music,” Rose says. “It’s all the hodgepodge of being an African American but also with creativity and vision for the future. It has a taste of what is to come and what we can do. What we have gone through and who we are now.”

“Let the Sunshine In” is the lead track, originating with Oakland 1960s/’70s fusionists Sons and Daughters of Lite.

So go ahead, let it.

||| Watch: The video for “Let the Sunshine In”