At the end of André 3000’s two-hour long woodwind recital Monday night at Thalia Hall, the rapper- turned-maestro received a standing ovation, a fitting reception for the modern orchestra he’s expertly crafted on his latest work, “New Blue Sun.”
Released in November, the instrumental epoch is André’s first solo album and his first iota of music since OutKast’s “Idlewild” in 2006. (As he jokingly reminded the crowd, “By the way, if you’re just meeting me, I’m in a group called OutKast. I had a whole rap career before this.”)
When it hit the streets, the flute-heavy “New Blue Sun” was a bit of a head scratcher — the artist behind “Hey Ya!” suddenly left all the beats and barbs at home to craft an ambient soundscape that doesn’t have a lick of rhymes on it. The only references are embedded within the song titles themselves, such as the highly descriptive opener, “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.”
Yet the work has been wholly praised for its creative flex, deeply meditative flow and the breath of fresh air that a known name brought to the music landscape. Upon release, “New Blue Sun” outsold top rap albums from Nas and Lil Wayne last year, as reported by The Fader, and went on to place in the Billboard Top 200 Chart (a high point for an instrumental album) while also breaking a record for the longest song ever to hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The lead single clocked in at 12-plus minutes.
Monday’s affair followed a pattern of mini-residencies André has been staging as part of delivering “New Blue Sun Live.” It was the first of three sold-out shows in the Chicago area (he and his musical entourage hit Salt Shed Tuesday and Garfield Park Conservatory Thursday), presented as a formal, seated event where patrons had to lock up phones in Yondr pouches to afford a distraction-free environment.
The quiet attentiveness of the room only elevated the musical furor that ebbed and flowed through various moody compositions. Laser beams that shot out of a downstage lighthouse prop and soft warm orbs behind the musicians were the only accoutrements to aid in the sensory adventure, as everything was improvised as one, large composition.
Just as it has been described in media materials, “New Blue Sun Live” is meant to be “a celebratory piece of work in the form of a living, breathing, improvised, aural organism,” and the live musical troupe did justice to that mission. With no set list or agenda, the performance was a free-willed exploration of sound and a beautiful energy exchange with the audience that gave the room a palpable heartbeat.
“Tonight will not be like any other night,” André said during one of the few breaks in which he spoke to the crowd, astutely comparing the otherworldly show to a spaceship ride.
“We’re just making music. This is not a show per se; there’s no song-and-dance numbers. It’s in much the same way as the album was made. We make it up as we go along.” He prodded the audience to get in on the spontaneity, however — “make noise as you feel like, get animalistic” — and then, later, guided the house in a deep-breathing exercise.
André 3000 has held many roles over the course of his three-decade career, from musician to actor to producer to style icon, but perhaps the role of meditative mystic suits him best. Joined by musical director Carlos Niño (whom André recalled meeting at an Erewhon grocery store in L.A. and bonding with at an Alice Coltrane tribute night); guitarist Nate Mercereau; keyboardist/synth player Surya Botofasina; and percussionist Deantoni Parks, they were a hypnotic crew that produced a medley that lived in a global hodgepodge of Native American tribal music, Amazonian rainforest soundscapes, Middle Eastern snake charmer bait, ‘70s noir score, and an underground jazz lounge.
The variety of expression was further exemplified by the full range of flutes André brought on deck, including Chinese and Thai bamboo flutes and a number of Mayan and Meso American wooden flutes.
The evening’s set was so gripping and awe-inspiring that at one point André had the room believing a spoken-word ramble was an introduction to a language he discovered. In fact, he confessed, it was made up.
All of it is just a byproduct of what Andre called his “crazy-ass imagination” spurred by being an only child who’d crawl around on the family floor pretending to be an animal.
“I’m tripping out that I’m 48 years old doing songs about panthers, all just trying to get back to that kid s- - -.”
If you are lucky enough to have tickets for one of the shows this week, go early, get a great seat and get as close to the experience as possible.
