Jazz singer and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant, who won the MacArthur “genius” grant in 2020, has announced her new album Ghost Song. It’s her label debut for Nonesuch and it arrives March 4. Today, she’s shared the album’s title track with a new video. Watch it below.
“What if the love has gone, the love has left you and you have the emotions around that, and you’re still going through them, still engaging with the ghost of that love,” Salvant said in a statement. “Some songs are so painful to come out but this one came out pretty quickly. I’ve had some loss the last couple of years: my grandmother, the drummer in my band [Lawrence Leathers].”
The follow-up to 2018’s The Window, Ghost Song features seven original songs, in addition to interpretations of other works, including the opening cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights.” Every song on the album is themed around ghosts. “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before—it’s getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator,” Salvant added. “I’m embracing my weirdness!”