Image by Sho Hanafusa
A storybook breakthrough year in music goes something like this: Streaming numbers explode, a fan base grows and a world tour commences. But this year was less of a storybook and more of a Webster-length chapter book written in invisible ink and set on fire. It was impossible to get a read on, seemingly never-ending, and burned a lot of us while we were just trying our best. Still, for a handful of young musicians, some chapters had more than just doom and gloom.
For Jelani Aryeh, a year destined for passport filling and festival hopping became a pit-stop for family.