"Native Speaker" is the eighth album by bassist Mark Saltman and pianist William Knowles, who together compose and arrange new music for their jazz quintet SaltmanKnowles. The concept of "Native Speaker" is to celebrate the African American artform of jazz and to present a manifesto of inclusion that is needed more urgently than ever. As the duo puts it in the album booklet: “whether you are a ‘Native Speaker’ of my language or not, you're welcome here. You’re welcome in my country, my land, my music, my clothes, my home, our dreams and in our art. We wouldn’t want it any other way.”
