Jamael Dean

On May 4th, 2024, Jamael Dean sat at the bench of a grand piano at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles. He didn’t know what he’d play until his fingers struck the ivory. For the next hour the prodigious jazz talent improvised a solo piano set, seamlessly weaving together original compositions, improvisations, and his reconstructions of jazz standards. Oriki Duuru, which means “piano poems” in Yoruba, is an unabridged recording of what unfolded that night.