{"id":11776,"date":"2020-08-20T20:17:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T20:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=11776"},"modified":"2021-03-11T18:48:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T18:48:06","slug":"gregg-augusts-dialogues-on-race-is-jazz-facing-up-to-racial-history-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=11776","title":{"rendered":"Gregg August’s “Dialogues on Race” is jazz facing up to racial history and present"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Album cover of “Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1”<\/em><\/p>\n

Album review: Gregg August Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1<\/em>\u00a0 lacuessa Records 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bassist Gregg August\u2019s large jazz ensemble <\/span>Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1<\/i><\/em> exemplifies a dialogue necessary for reform and collective healing. Pointed, poignant poetry \u2013 from Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Francisco Alarcon, Carolyn Kizer, and others \u2013 adorns his pulsing orchestral canvas, verse sometimes recited, sometimes musically interpreted.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recording\u2019s heart and backbone is the 1955 murder and immolation of Emmett Till, which sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Marilyn Nelson’s poem \u201cYour Only Child,\u201d honoring Till, appears thrice: sung in jazz style, voiced in a reverential context, and concluding with August\u2019s solo arco bass interpretation. But the album\u2019s guts is \u201cMother Mamie’s Reflections\u201d \u2013 the recorded voice of Till’s mother recounts, with dramatic reverb enhancement, the experience of seeing her son’s mangled and charred body. 2<\/p>\n

Few recent artistic documents have carried such searing power, or been as fearless and ambitious. August\u2019s vivid scoring mirrors the poetry, and recalls one of Charles Mingus\u2019s most ambitious recordings, Mingus\u2019s own personal favorite of his work, L<\/i><\/em>et <\/i><\/em>M<\/i><\/em>y <\/i><\/em>C<\/i><\/em>hildren <\/i><\/em>H<\/i><\/em>ear <\/i><\/em>M<\/i><\/em>usic.<\/i><\/em>\u00a0That title\u2019s\u00a0eloquent generosity resounds through\u00a0the two-CD\u00a0Dialogues<\/i><\/em>, with\u00a0performances by August’s band\u00a0mate\u00a0saxophonist\u00a0JD Allen, pianist Louis Perdomo, trumpeter John Bailey and others.\u00a0In a sense, all Americans remain children, waiting to grow into a truly equal and just society.<\/p>\n

In the liner notes, August says, \u201cMy hope is that ‘Dialogues on Race’ can in some small way serve as an integrated musical bridge to awareness, and maybe even stand as an a\ufb03rmation against racism and injustice. Admittedly, these are lofty goals. However, through conversation, community and art, I know we can work together towards furthering understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording will be released on August 21, 2020, and available at Gregg August Dialogues on Race<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bassist-composer Gregg August (right) leads his large ensemble in recording of “Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1.” Courtesy Albany Times Union.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1 Bassist-composer-arranger Gregg August is accomplished in modern jazz, Latin and classical music realms. The longtime member of the J.D. Allen Trio and performs regularly with Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is a faculty member of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute.<\/p>\n

2. CORRECTION: Till’s body wasn’t “charred,” as in immolation. My neighbor, historian Marty Horning, corrected me on this. Here’s a full description of his murder from\u00a0 Brittanica<\/em>: “In the early morning hours of August 28, 1955, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam invaded Emmett Till\u2019s great-uncle\u2019s home and abducted the boy at gunpoint. They then severely beat him and gouged out one of his eyes before taking him to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, where they killed him with a single gunshot to the head. Afterward they tied Till\u2019s body to a large metal fan and dumped him into the river. His corpse, barely recognizable, was discovered in the river on August 31.”\u00a0 https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Emmett-Till<\/a><\/p>\n

A slightly shorter version of this review was published in The Shepherd Express<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Album cover of “Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1” Album review: Gregg August Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1\u00a0 lacuessa Records 1 Bassist Gregg August\u2019s large jazz ensemble Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 exemplifies a dialogue necessary for reform and collective healing. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-33W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11776"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12185,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11776\/revisions\/12185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}