WILLOW - The Thread

The latest phase in the extraordinary transformation and growth of Willow Smith, born in 2000 and – it should of course be mentioned – daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, marks a further step forward for an artist who, year after year, is proving to be one of the most surprising figures on the American scene, if not the global one. In particular, starting with “Empathogen” (2024), Willow began immersing herself ever more deeply in a blend of funk, fusion, soul and jazz that draws on both past and present in a proud exploration of Black tradition brought up to date for modern times.
That's saying something, in a landscape where many of her peers are still stuck on autotune or wandering with ever greater confusion into hyperpop. Smith, on the other hand, reimagines herself as a vocalist from another era, drawing on elegant, refined musical traditions, with plenty of room for vocal invention, instrumental talent and genre fusion, virtually without limits. What's more, she's deeply committed to it: her other album released this year, “Petal Rock Black”, follows the very same path.

On “The Thread”, an album she herself has described as “devotional”, Willow goes even further and all but transforms into a new Esperanza Spalding – said without wanting to be, precisely, “blasphemous” – and indeed this is clear right from the opening track, “She’s My Religion”, a jazz/gospel number that reassures us of a musical direction growing more mature and daring with every album. The song is a Sapphic love confession with a (deliberately) sacrilegious framing – not unlike Madonna's “Like A Prayer” – accompanied by elegant, understated acoustic guitar and intricate vocal arrangements.
“The Thread”, the title track, is more imaginative and rhythmic, with funk touches and an incisive, instantly memorable refrain, while Unconditional will certainly appeal to fans of a certain kind of prog jazz, packed with technique and invention. Much more accessible and lively is “Talk On The Hill”, an almost radio-friendly jazz-rock number that nonetheless remains high in quality, pairing well with the following “Hell To Pay”, where a lean toward neo-grunge emerges – a sound that at some point in recent years became a touchstone for many Gen Z artists, herself included, as heard on her 2022 album “Coping Mechanism”.
Particularly noteworthy, on the track “Crush On Eternity”, is the collaboration with the talented up-and-coming guitarist Mei Semones (who, incidentally, is the same age as Willow), who explores various guitar directions poised between folk and fusion, evoking the more imaginative and unpredictable Joni Mitchell of the 1970s. The intention to make music for music lovers (and for musicians) is here clearer than ever, standing in stark contrast – at the risk of sounding rhetorical – to any algorithm- or social-media-driven logic.

“The Thread” demonstrates, in its entirety, a clear personal and artistic growth on the part of Willow Smith, who – having by this point moved past the “nepo baby” stereotype of someone making music only because she's the daughter of famous people – admits she has finally reached a point where she feels satisfied with the music she makes. In an interview with the New York Times, she stated: “Before I was wandering in the dark, now I have a candle”. And it's remarkable how, for her, having found a direction to pursue translates into making increasingly structured and ambitious music, rather than the other way around, as so often happens.
There should therefore be no hesitation in calling the collection of ten songs on “The Thread” a set of tracks of real depth and quality, full of exceptional, daring ideas and inventions that one would never expect to find, in 2026, outside the refined circles of jazz. But it is precisely in those circles that Willow, initially welcomed as an outsider, now seems to feel at home, determined to make her mark in a significant and memorable way. “The Thread”, certainly among the best jazz records of the year, succeeds in doing just that.

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29/07/2026