Immanuel Wilkins: Tiny Desk Concert

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:57:48 +0000

Suraya Mohamed | February 24, 2026
Always inspirational, the music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is also heavy and thought provoking. In the harmonic tension of his music you can hear sepia tones of the Black experience — an ancient and modern struggle told through melody and overlaid with hope. Complex time signatures swing and sway with spiritual incantations that instill reflection and peace.

We've had the good fortune to showcase works from across Wilkins' exceptional catalog. His Tiny Desk (home) concert features selections from his debut album, Omega. Here at the Desk, he opens with "AFTERLIFE RESIDENCE TIME" from his Grammy-nominated album, Blues Blood, a piece that traces Black trauma passed down by the generations through blood, which contains salt. Sodium has a long duration of residence, or time that a substance remains present, and this song is a portrait of that construct. "Fugitive Ritual, Selah," from The 7th Hand, is a hymn to the Black church and how its Sunday rituals provide the freedom to exalt, or Selah, and pause for the Holy Spirit. "THE BIG COUNTRY" is a new song from an upcoming three-volume project recorded live at The Village Vanguard. Wilkins tells me, "It's not a 'concept album,' so to speak, but rather it's about capturing the internal technologies and logics of the band as the theory."

His masterful band, with Micah Thomas on piano, bassist Ryoma Takenaga and drummer Kweku Sumbry, has a special synergy. "There's so much that happens through the music even outside of the normative realm of 'language' that I feel is important to capture in this new stage of this unit," Wilkins tells me. "I'm just always trying to push the band to new places, do something unique for myself and for the Tiny Desk audience. I thought it was important for us to attempt to bring the heat and keep it as hot as possible."

SET LIST
"AFTERLIFE RESIDENCE TIME"
"Fugitive Ritual, Selah"
"THE BIG COUNTRY"

MUSICIANS
Immanuel WIlkins: alto sax
Micah Thomas: piano
Ryoma Takenaga: bass
Kweku Sumbry: drums

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Director: Joshua Bryant
Audio Engineer/Mix: Josephine Nyounai
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Video Editor: Nikki Birch
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Maia Stern
Audio Engineer/Director: Josh Newell
Production Assistants: Dora Levite, Dhanika Pineda
Photographer: Alanté Serene
Tiny Desk Team: Ashley Pointer, Felix Contreras
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton