Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad - The Midnight Hour: Lost Tapes JID028

The Midnight Hour: Lost Tapes JID028 brings previously unheard music from Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to the Jazz Is Dead catalogue. Muhammad is a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, while Younge is a Los Angeles composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer whose work has helped connect classic soul, jazz and cinematic arranging with contemporary hip-hop production.

The pair first formalised their collaboration as The Midnight Hour in 2018, releasing a self-titled album recorded to tape with a live rhythm section and full orchestra. By 2020 they were deep into sessions for a follow-up, but the shutdown of the music world halted the project before completion. Those recordings remained shelved and unheard until being revisited for this Lost Tapes release.

Across eight tracks, the album retains the duo’s characteristic attention to warm analogue texture, orchestral detail and deep rhythm. The material moves through jazz, Brazilian influence and soul with the compositional discipline associated with Jazz Is Dead, balancing live instrumentation with the pair’s shared background in beat-driven music. Titles such as The Midnight Stroll, Constellation and Donato’s Run underline the nocturnal, cinematic character of the set.

This standard LP edition presents the recovered sessions as a concise document of a creative partnership interrupted at full momentum. It is a strong fit for listeners of Jazz Is Dead, A Tribe Called Quest, Adrian Younge’s solo work and modern records that treat jazz and soul as active, evolving languages rather than museum pieces.