Samora Pinderhughes GRIEF
It is often easy to picture what color an emotion looks like. Pain and hatred are often associated with the color red, while sickness is partnered with green. In music, a special artist will come along once or twice in a generation that is able to paint a world of amazing colors that make the listener feel a wide array of emotions. The latest artist to take an audience on such a journey is composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes.
In 2014, Pinderhughes began working on a project, “The Healing Project,” where he traveled throughout the United States interviewing over 100 current and former inmates across over a dozen states. The culmination of those interviews became the inspiration for his latest album GRIEF. The record is part of the three-part multimedia “The Healing Project,” which consists of the album, a digital archive, and a physical exhibition of art. The physical aspect of the project can be viewed at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts(YBCA) through June 19.
The ambitious GRIEF uses music to display the emotions Pinderhughes captured through his interviews. The songs on the record cover an assemblage of topics from racism, oppression, and social injustice. GRIEF follows in the family of works from Civil Rights era artists like Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, and the Last Poets by capturing the injustices that occurred right in front of them. The rich orchestrations and arrangements on the album along with Samora’s enchanting vocals bring the message of GRIEF and “The Healing Project” to the surface for the listener to easily digest.
The born and raised Bay Area musician, filmmaker and activist is surrounded by an impressive 11-piece ensemble that includes his flutist sister Elena Pinderhughes as well as expert alto and tenor saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Lucas Pino, respectively. The evocative and tempting playing of the ensemble partnered with Pinderhughes’ soothing vocals make GRIEF one of the most important albums in recent memory.
The record’s self-titled song is a brutal punch to the gut as Samora takes a walk down the avenue of grieving. He proclaims “Death is much worse for the ones left behind” on the song while begging the fallen to not leave him with his dreams. On the song “Hope,” Pinderhughes recounts the months after the election when finding that the promises made during the cycle leading up to Election Day have not come to fruition. Samora sings “You told me the war is over, while everything is for sale” on the song indicating that the social injustices that many campaigned to end turned out to be falsehoods, while those in office continue to line their pockets with blood money.
The Healing Project exhibition in YBCA’s Gallery 1 will hold a constellation of films, sound works, physical pieces, and contributed artworks all exploring the realities of trauma & healing from incarceration, detention, and structural violence. Everything starts from the interviews, which took six years for Samora to record in 15 different states. These interviews scored to music are the centerpiece of the Sound Room, at the heart of the exhibition. The rest of the space is filled up with pieces that answer questions too big for just the sound to hold, all built with different collaborators from around the country. There are five different film pieces; original wood works; physical works including altars & murals, and contributions from established artists including Titus Kaphar and currently incarcerated artists including Pitt Panther.
Pinderhughes is a graduate of Juilliard and is currently finishing his PhD at Harvard in Creative Practice & Critical Inquiry, under the direction of Vijay Iyer. He is studying the intersections of black music, sound studies, racial capitalism, prison abolition, and art as a weapon for revolution. He has performed his compositions in venues including Carnegie Hall, MoMA, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Kennedy Center, and toured internationally with artists including Branford Marsalis, Christian Scott, Jose James, and Emily King. He has also collaborated with artists including the legendary Herbie Hancock, Sara Bareilles, Daveed Diggs, and Common. @samoraabayomi
Steven McCash is the Lead Music Writer and Utility Man for SoBros Network. Steven is the host of the ‘Drinking With…’ podcast, and the pioneer of New Music Friday, highlighting each week’s new releases in the world of music in addition to the occasional live show review. He also pitches in as a Nashville lifestyle writer and football analyst (hence the ‘Utility Man’ title). Follow on Twitter: @MC_Cash75
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