Interview: Aubrey Johnson Celebrates Unique New Album THE LIVELY AIR at Birdland

Vocalist and composer Aubrey Johnson is back with The Lively Air, her second album marking her reconnection with composing after years of writer's block during a MacDowell residency. She’ll be celebrating the album’s release with a March 22 show at NYC’s Birdland Jazz Club, with Johnson leading the same unique six-piece band featured on the album.

Johnson creates exquisitely crafted arrangements characterized by lush, shifting textures and extended melodic lines where every instrument is calibrated around her voice. Her long-form pieces take listeners on emotional and dramatic journeys, favoring unusual numbers of sections over conventional structures. The album features Johnson's original compositions alongside arrangements of works by Joni Mitchell, late uncle and legendary keyboardist Lyle Mays, and collaborative pieces including one with her brother Gentry Johnson and contributions from Omura. Co-produced by bassist Steve Rodby, who worked extensively with Mays in the Pat Metheny Group, and mixed and mastered by Rich Breen, the recording continues Johnson's family legacy while establishing her own sonic space.

Known throughout the scene as the vocalist to call for the most daunting and intricate projects, Johnson brings her crystalline sound, liquid-mercury agility, and sophisticated compositional vision to a brilliant companion to her critically acclaimed 2020 debut Unraveled, creating music of startling and unapologetic beauty.

Read a conversation with Johnson about the new album and release concert.

How does it feel to be releasing your sophomore album?

It feels very exciting! I put out my first album one week into the COVID lockdown in 2020, so it didn’t feel like I ever really properly released it. This second album, which is being released six years later to the day, in fact, in many ways feels like my actual debut.

Did anything about the process of recording and releasing your first album help prepare you for this one?

Oh definitely. The first album has become something of a template for future albums. I used the same photographer (Lauren Desberg), same editor/co-producer (Steve Rodby), same mixing/mastering engineer (Rich Breen), and same graphic designer (Kassandra Charalampi). I am on a new label, trumpeter Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music, which has been a great experience so far. Half of my band members are the same, the instrumentation is the same. Of course my singing, my composing, and my arranging, have all come a long way since the first album, but whenever I doubt myself I remember how well (almost) everything worked out the last time.

Do you have any advice for artists dealing with writer's block? Did you read or experience anything that helped you break through that period?

Absolutely! First, writer’s block happens to everyone and is totally normal, so don’t judge or be hard on yourself! What helped draw me out of my own writer’s block was to build structure around my composing. I applied for and was awarded an artist residency in composition at MacDowell in 2023, and spending a month there really helped me get back to writing. Talking to other artists, even ones that practice different kinds of art (visual, literary, film, etc.) can be extremely helpful as well. I also read The Artist’s Way, and did my “morning pages” for two years. That practice really changed things for me musically—maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly.

What are you hoping people take away from listening to The Lively Air?

I’m hoping that people listen to the album and allow themselves to feel and process the emotions that arise in whatever way feels right. For me, the music feels free, joyful, and hopeful.

What's coming up next for you after this album comes out?

I have a lot of vocal arranging commissions to work on this summer, some touring with this album, teaching at the School for Improvised Music Summer Workshop, and I do plan to go back into composing mode and starting to plan for the next album! 

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me! I hope you enjoy the music! 

Learn more about the artist on her website at www.aubreyjohnsonmusic.com

Pre-Save/Pre-Order The Lively Air here.