On her Grammy-nominated debut when the poems do what they do, aja monet leaned her surrealist poetry against a vibrant jazz ensemble. On the follow-up the color of rain (May 2026), she widens the sound further. It’s a record that moves in the spaces between – between genres, between dream and reality, between political anger and inner reflection. Musically, it bounces between jazz, soul, hip hop, and R&B without quite landing in any of them.
Where the debut had a softer live-jazz framing, the color of rain is bigger, rawer, and more experimental. The record features a cast of kindred innovators: Meshell Ndegeocello, Cory Henry, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Georgia Anne Muldrow each leave their mark across the album’s many shifts.
aja monet has been called a blues poet – with recitation as her instrument. She bends tone, cadence, and rhythm toward the music, and the music answers back. As a poet and bandleader, she has performed at the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. In 2025 she was named Artist in Residence at the EFG London Jazz Festival. She now returns to Stockholm with new music.
