Gregg August Releases “Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1”

Gregg August: Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1Bassist Gregg August has released an important new work that’s been a decade in the making. Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 is an album of music originally commissioned by The Jazz Gallery in 2009 that combines a wide instrumental palette a la Mingus and spoken word in the vein of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou.

August’s ensemble includes artists like JD Allen, John Ellis, Luis Perdomo, ‘Kuumba’ Frank Lacy, and more as well as strings and vocalists. Together they explore the issues of race relations with general topics as well as singular events as the murder of Emmitt Till. One track, “Mother Mamie’s Reflections,” features audio of Till’s mother reflecting on the horrendous event.

“We just never seem to get past our tragic issues with race,” August says of the album’s inspiration. “I spent years living and working in Europe, and the problem of race relations in America especially hit me from a distance. Playing in an orchestra in Barcelona around the time of the L.A. riots, I had to explain to my colleagues there what was going on, how race enflamed things. Seeing The Untold Story of Emmett Till documentary in the early 2000s also really affected me. These things built up, and then observing Bang on a Can closely, I realized how composers like Julia Wolfe think big and tackle important themes in their music – it’s inspiring. We haven’t done this in jazz enough, really, although Jason Moran is someone admirable in this regard.

“I realize that it’s a serious, sensitive thing for a white musician, such as myself, to compose a work about a figure like Emmett Till – I felt the weight of the subject,” August adds. “I discussed it with many of my African-American friends and colleagues, and I took my time with the recording so that I could meet the challenge. Now I can’t imagine writing music today without a greater narrative purpose. If you have any kind of a platform, it’s imperative to address the world as it is, particularly with the urgency of our political moment. All the tribalism in our country makes plain that a lot of things that we might’ve thought we had gotten past, well, we haven’t. And it’s about time.”

Hear the expansive work’s scope with this video for “Sherbet”:

Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 is available now on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download, all via Bandcamp.

Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 Track List:

  1. Sherbet (Just to be Certain That the Doubt Stays on Our Side of the Fence)
  2. Letter to America
  3. Your Only Child (First Statement, Male Singer)
  4. I Rise
  5. Sky
  6. Your Only Child (Second Statement, Solo Bass)
  7. I Sang in the Sun
  8. Mother Mamie’s Reflections
  9. Your Only Child (Third Statement, Female Singer)
  10. Sweet Words on Race
  11. The Bird Leaps
  12. Blues Finale

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