Black Pumas @ Mission Ballroom

The Black Pumas rocked the Mission Ballroom with their infectious soul music on June 14th, 2024 in Denver, CO. Abraham Alexander opened up the evening, getting the crowd moving with ease.

Abraham Alexander

Born in Greece, where he spent the early part of his life with the Acropolis as his playground, Abraham was transplanted to Texas in the early 2000s at 11 years old to escape the ever-present racial tension of his birthplace. A torn ACL sidelined those ambitions but opened the door to a new path. A friend handed him a guitar during this downtime, and unlocked his soul.

Songs he did not know that he had in him poured out. A series of increasingly incredible chance meetings led him to nurture this newfound musical voraciousness. One of these was with Leon Bridges. Those roads have converged on his album Sea/Sons, released on Dualtone Records in April 2023.

Co-produced by Alexander with the help of several folks including Matt Pence and Brad Cook, the album is a lush, seductive affair that showcases the 31-year-old singer-songwriter’s beguiling voice — one which offers both honey and grit — and supple acoustic guitar work. The 11 tracks on Sea/Sons display a cool assuredness. The songs themselves play with themes of loss, redemption, longing, anguish, and joy informed by a complex life. There is a refreshing genre fluidity at play as elements of folk, pop, rock, R&B, and gospel. Ineffable backing vocals, sparse but rich arrangements, and a sense of emotional purpose draw the musical threads together into a cohesive whole that is simultaneously warm and cool.

pulled from First Avenue

Black Pumas

When Black Pumas made their self-titled debut in 2019, the Austin duo set off a reaction almost as combustible and rapturous as their music itself. Along with earning a career total of seven Grammy Award nominations, singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada achieved massive success as a live act and delivering a transcendent show Burton aptly refers to as “electric church.” As they set to work on their highly awaited sophomore album, the band broadened their palette to include a dazzling expanse of musical forms: heavenly hybrids of soul and symphonic pop, mind-bending excursions into jazz-funk and psychedelia, starry-eyed love songs that feel dropped down from the cosmos.

In creating the follow-up Chronicles of a Diamond, Black Pumas made a point of tuning out any sense of anticipation from the outside world. “I knew the first record was good when we finished it, but I had no idea people would respond like they did,” says Quesada. As a result, Chronicles of a Diamond wholly echoes an essential intention behind its creation. “More than anything I wanted to make something we’d be thrilled to play live 200 days a year,” says Burton.

pulled from Spotify