Author Ralph Ellison once wrote, “...because jazz finds its very life in an endless improvisation upon traditional materials, the jazzman must lose his identity even as he finds it.”

Lauryn Hill once said, "As artists, we have an opportunity to help the public evolve, raise consciousness and awareness, teach, heal, enlighten, and inspire in ways the democratic process may not be able to touch. So we keep it moving." This week's Needle Drop Record absolutely did all of that.