Emmanuel Ohemeng III & Perpetual Motion
Bourbon & Branch
705 N 2nd St.
Philadelphia
Aug. 26, 2026
In his landmark 1963 book Blues People: Negro Music in White America, poet and jazz critic Amiri Baraka lays out an expansive study of the evolution of Black music in this country. In a chapter titled “The Blues Continuum,” Baraka posits the origins of rhythm and blues as a reaction to (or deviation from) mainstream white America’s co-opting of jazz in the 1940s. In Baraka’s analysis, rhythm and blues was created and incubated within a subculture of the Black social and cultural world in which musical genres were stratified by race and segregation. Despite the demands of these overarching social dynamics, jazz and R&B have evolved concurrently, with each great musical innovation borne out of one feeding and shaping the other. While Baraka was writing in the 1960s and studying the ‘40s, he left behind a nugget of truth that still speaks to jazz’s relationship to R&B:
“The good jazzmen never wanted to get rid of the blues. They knew instinctively how they wanted to use it.” - Amiri Baraka
Emmanuel Ohemeng III & Perpetual Motion is a Philly-based ensemble of musicians who keep the twin spirits of jazz and R&B intertwined. With their monthly residency “The R&B Lounge,” at Bourbon & Branch in Northern Liberties, Ohemeng and crew inject beloved R&B tunes (and a bit of hip-hop) with the fire and complexity of jazz. With Ohemeng on vocals and trumpet, Dwayne Williams Jr. on saxophone, Christian Heneck on bass, keyboardist Zephyr Kremer and drummer Jeremy “Caleb” Reynolds, Perpetual Motion tore through two fun hour-long sets of music. An early highlight of the night was their funky, uptempo take on Chris Brown’s “Fine China,” a song which worked surprisingly well with a jazz-funk arrangement. Williams’ played a sax solo that was full of sharp, creative melodic lines while the crowd cheered him on. The band’s version of Carlos Santana’s Latin-tinged R&B hit “Maria Maria” went over well when remixed with Rihanna’s “Wild Thoughts.” Ohemeng got on the mic and performed the “Wild Thoughts” verses before returning to trumpet to play a tag team solo where he exchanged blistering licks with Williams every four bars.
With an incredibly tight and adventurous band and an enthusiastic crowd, “The R&B Lounge” stayed true to that rich continuum of music that Baraka wrote about over a half-century ago. The accessibility of the songs drew the crowd in and each musician’s thoughtful playing gave color and new life to these recognizable tunes. As one of the best young bands working in Philly today, Emmanuel Ohemeng III & Perpetual Motion pour talent and history into each note they play. Go see them when you can.
