André 3000 has announced a run of intimate live shows in support of his polarizing 2023 debut solo album, New Blue Sun, which features the renowned OutKast wordsmith playing a variety of flutes and delivering no vocals. A press release about the tour reiterated the wordlessness of the project: “New Blue Sun is an entirely instrumental album; a celebratory piece of work in the form of a living, breathing, improvised, aural organism.” Sorry, ATLiens, this is not a rap show.
Co-produced by André and lauded multi-instrumentalist Carlos Niño, 3K’s primary collaborator on the album, the tour will also feature instrumentalists Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina, Deantoni Parks, Diego Gaeta, Matthewdavid, V.C.R, Diego Gaeta, Jesse Peterson, and Mia Doi Todd.
The André 3000 New Blue Sun tour is set to begin next Monday, January 29th at Brooklyn, NY’s Crown Hill Theatre. 3000 and company will cross the bridge to Manhattan two days later to kick off a three-night, six-show stint at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club (1/31–2/2, early and late shows). After returning to Brooklyn for a pair of shows at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church (2/5, 2/6), the New Blue Sun crew will finally leave New York City and hit the road for shows at notable jazz clubs in Detroit, MI (2/8, 2/9), Chicago, IL (2/12, 2/13, 2/15), San Francisco, CA (2/20, 2/22, 2/24), and 3000’s native Atlanta, GA (2/27, 2/28, 2/29, 3/2). The tour will finally come to a close with a five-night stint in Los Angeles, CA at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever (3/5, 3/6, 3/7, 3/8, 3/9).
New Blue Sun, released in November via Epic Records, marked the first album-length release from André 3000, real name André Lauren Benjamin, since OutKast went on ice in 2006. While he has delivered a handful of guest verses on other rappers’ songs in recent years—often to critical acclaim—he explained to NPR‘s All Songs Considered that the flute-centric, ambient, improvised instrumentals on the new album feel more sincere to him today. “I love rap music because it was a part of my youth,” he explained, “so I would love to be out here with everybody rapping, because it’s almost like fun and being on the playground. I would love to be out here playing with everybody, but it’s just not happening for me. This is the realest thing that’s coming right now. Not to say that I would never do it again, but those are not the things that are coming right now. And I have to present what’s given to me at the time.”
While the album itself features no lyrics, the tracklist does its best to fill in the blanks for listeners with outlandish, scene-setting names like “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time”, “The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?”, and “That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control … Sh¥t Was Wild”.
Tickets for the upcoming André 3000 New Blue Sun tour dates go on sale beginning on Wednesday, January 24th at 10:00 a.m. local time here. Click below for a complete list of upcoming dates.
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