Trumpeter Jaimie Branch died suddenly in 2022 at age 39, just as her career was taking off. It was a tragic loss, made all the more poignant by the arrival of her posthumous third solo album with her Fly or Die ensemble, 2023s thrilling Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)). Although forever tethered to the Chicago creative music scene where she started out, Branch studied at both the New England Conservatory in Boston and Baltimores Towson University before settling in Brooklyn. It was there in 2017 that she launched Fly or Die, a group whose dynamic sound balanced adventurous free jazz soloing with woody string harmonies, Latin grooves, and atonal group improvisations. The groups lineup solidified on 2019s Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, with Branch joined by bassist Jason Ajemian, cellist Lester St. Louis, and drummer Chad Taylor. That album also found Branch drawing upon her punk influences, crafting several fiery protest anthems that featured her singing. With Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), she takes all of what came before and pushes it to the limit, crafting a dynamic punk-jazz album underpinned by the groups textured acoustic chamber group improv and joyous street-party energy. Theres a psychedelic rock quality to much of the album, as on the propulsive "Burning Grey," where St. Louis and Ajemian play shimmering bowed chords against Taylors clattering klezmer-rock rhythm as Branch whoops and hollers in a kind of existential stream of consciousness, singing "I wish I had the time, I wish I had the time, I wish I had the time of my life…" That the song sounds like the Art Ensemble of Chicago fronted by punk icon Patti Smith feels intentional and speaks to the broad influences at play in Branchs work. She also takes a stylistically open approach on the instrumental pieces, bringing together Krautrock-sounding keyboards, quavering, cinematic strings, and Afro-Latin drums on "Borealis Dancing," while "Baba Louie" starts out like a Caribbean boat dance party replete with marimba before melting into a ghostly cloud of flute, vocals, and horn howls. Impressively, all of these disparate sounds hold together, even when Branch embraces a genre in its most traditional form as on the country-folk ballad "The Mountain." A cover of the Meat Puppets "Comin Down," the song is spare in its conception, marked by twangy vocal harmonies and mournful bowed basslines as well as a lyrical muted solo from Branch. It is a masterclass in how to make a cover song your own, turning the punk-country classic into a rustic, elegiac rumination on how the journey towards spiritual enlightenment is never straightforward. Even at her most D.I.Y. moments, Branch always seemed to be reaching for something bigger than herself, bridging musical styles and conjuring symphonies with just her horn, a bass, cello, and drums. Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) is both a pinnacle of that bold creative musical vision and a tantalizing spark of what might have been. ~ Matt Collar

Rovi