Mayozee Offers Exhilarating Praise on “Grace On Grace”

There’s a freeing element to Jazz music when it’s paired with gospel. For one, both genres emerge from nearby strains of the Black experience, created to lift the spirit in times of distress. On Grace On Grace, the record from the Nigerian artist born Adenekan Mayowa Adebayo (better known as Mayozee), there’s an exhilarating feeling of freedom captured through deliberate sonic choices. 

Utilizing the airy atmosphere of a saxophone to lead its procession, there’s a tender mood already set before Mayozee even begins to sing. Alongside drums and pianos, the instrument is quite favored in compositions of this kind, and not for mere decoration. Indeed, it’s a sound that seems to ascend from the player’s lips unto the clouds, that firmament of the heavens. 

Alongside this sax is the accompanying drum rhythm, a slow, relaxed presence which soars in parts where the artist’s voice soars too. Speaking of this voice, it’s actually the principal element of “Grace On Grace,” since it captures with striking verve the ceaseless joy of coming under the grace of the Lord. Appreciation is a feeling gospel musicians know to capture in its fullness, and here it’s no different, as Mayozee makes sure to contort his vocals to fit the exhilarating bliss he feels.

With its beautiful inflections of imagery, there’s a lot to admire about how subtly the artist makes his affections and concessions known. “Every single day by day, you throw my troubles away,” he sings at some point with his tone on-high, backed to an astute perfection by the cherry voices of the backup singers. 

This is one of those songs you wish were longer, built upon a more expressive sonic palette. I hear it; the backup singers delivering an entire section on their own, and then the singer returning to carry their tones to the highest echelon of divine praise. Still, the version we get is a compact record which reveals Mayozee’s fine contemporaneous understanding of gospel music. An underlying sense of fulfilment keeps the listener returning, so long as there will always be reason to offer praise on the account of grace that supersedes all human possibilities.