Willow Smith shares emotional moment that moved her 'to tears' and inspired her jazz album

Willow Smith is known for her incredible talent. The musician continues to explore new sounds and melodies in her latest projects, including her sixth studio album 'Emphatogen.' The singer discussed her creative process during her latest interview with Rick Beato and shared an emotional moment that inspired her album.

"I just didn’t know what I was gonna do," the musician said about the creation of her project after releasing her 2022 album 'Coping Mechanism.' Willow detailed a friend's trip that partly inspired her to explore a new song, after listening to Chet Baker.

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"We took a trip down to Napa Valley and it’s the sunset, we are having a little glass of wine, looking at the sunset and they put on Chet Baker," she explained. "I really felt in that time after 'Coping Mechanism' that I just didn’t know what I was gonna do, because I felt like I had put so much energy [in the album]."

© Jason Koerner

Willow revealed how she felt after listening to 'My Ideal' by the legendary Jazz musician. "I’m listening to his voice and the trumpet solo and [it] moved me to tears," she continued. "It wasn’t necessarily about jazz. It was about the emotion and it was about the story and it was about how the music and the composition took you along with that story."

© Kayla Oaddams

She continued, "I just went on a whole deep dive and I was like here we go," Willow said, admitting that the emotional moment "opened" her mind and she realized that "there’s so much more for you to learn."

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The artist also talked about how she feels about jazz. "This is not only a genre of music," she said. "This is a legacy and weirdly enough, it’s all human legacy, but from a specific view of the African-American experience in this country, it’s like our legacy, and that just took me on a whole journey," Willow declared.