$ 20.00 - $25.00 / Age 21 And Up
Additional Info:
Doors 7pm | Show 8pmNotes on Seating:Open seating, may be limited or standing room only. First come, first seated. Open dance floor may obscure sightlines.In September 2024, McKinley Dixon stumbled across a copy of Grant's Annual of Magic in a Portland bookstore. Printed nearly a century earlier near Dixon's then-home in Chicago, it offered a how-to guide for demystifying illusions-an ethos that paralleled Dixon's own artistic mission: to drag magic into hip-hop and infuse hard-won realism with a sense of the mystical. That concept fuels Magic, Alive!, his most imaginative and audacious album yet.Dixon has been making music for over a decade, turning his experiences as a Southern native and literary-minded wanderer into vivid explorations of joy, grief, and perseverance. He gained wide acclaim with 2021's For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her and 2023's Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, albums brimming with lush instrumentation, personal trauma, and dense lyrical storytelling, blending Toni Morrison references with intimate confessions. But pouring out his grief nightly on stage eventually left him drained, even as it connected deeply with fans.So he shifted focus. "I believe that the way to live forever is to write stuff that is dedicated to children," Dixon says. Magic, Alive! tells the story of three kids mourning a friend and imagining ways to reunite, questioning whether friendship really ends with death. The album wrestles with the idea of magic itself: Could it be the trickster who evades the law, the surreal tilt of the world after a drink or a joint, or the faith in things unseen? Dixon, a son of the ghost-haunted South, answers yes to all of it.The album began with an email from UK producer Sam Yamaha, a longtime fan. Their collaboration brought Dixon to London, where they dug through Yamaha's archives to find the sonic foundation for Magic, Alive!. In July 2024, Dixon returned to Richmond, VA, to record, building on Yamaha's and Koff's beats with help from an ensemble including Anjimile, Pink Siifu, Reggie Pace, and Eli Owens. The result is an immersive, expansive record that flows like a dream-connected, unpredictable, and bursting with color.Tracks like "Recitatif" feature wild transformations, with verses shifting from harp-backed poetry to roaring industrial chaos. "A Crooked Stick" hurls Dixon, Alfred., and Ghais Guevara into a swirl of saxes and synths. "We're Outside, Rejoice!" sparkles with psychedelic optimism, while "Listen Gentle" becomes a cinematic ode to belief itself, turning sadness into triumph-or vice versa."My target audience is everyone with heart," Dixon declares on "Run Run Run Part II," a track where tragedy begins to blur into possibility. His message is clear: magic isn't just smoke and mirrors-it's belief, connection, and imagination. Magic, Alive! insists that wonder still lives, if we're brave enough to see it. "We ran, we danced / Survived, we thrived," Dixon sings in the closing moments. "That's Magic, Alive!."
Tickets:
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/mckinley-dixon-jack-london-revue-tickets/14424143?REFERRAL_ID=twfb
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