​Jazz and Social Justice
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​
We Dream of Better Places,
​Give Us Justice Now.
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Samora Pinderhughes'
​The Transformations Suite
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​THE TRANSFORMATIONS SUITE 

"Continuing in the tradition of artists like Bob Marley, Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, and Tupac Shakur, THE TRANSFORMATIONS SUITE paints a musical picture of the current state of social inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

Samora Pinderhughes has spent the past five years writing, recording, and producing the T Suite, which combines music, theatre, and poetry to examine the radical history of resistance within communities of the African diaspora. The themes of the suite move through five distinct phases: Transformation, History, Cycles, Momentum (parts 1 and 2), and Ascension. 

Within this framework, the project connects contemporary issues, such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement, with the history of revolutionary movements of color. 

The Transformations Suite has been performed throughout South America and the U.S., at venues including the American Museum of Natural History, the Harlem Arts Festival, Juilliard, UC Irvine, NYU, Joe’s Pub, the Jazz Gallery, MoMA, and Columbia University. Most recently, the project was featured as part of Blackout for Human Rights’ #MLKNow event which was viewed by over 500,000 people and trended #1 on Twitter. 

Centered in the belief that there is a soundtrack to every revolution, the vision for The Transformations Suite is that it will foster dialogue on social justice issues throughout the world, show how art can create social change, contribute to the powerful growing movement on behalf of black lives around the country, and empower all people – especially youth – to make their voices heard. "

Radio Interview with Samora Pinderhughes

Hear the Full Concert

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"Raised in San Francisco's Bay Area, long an incubator of black liberation artists and activists, Pinderhughes is a Juilliard-trained pianist and composer dedicated to using music to push for structural change. The Transformations Suite is a five-part tone poem, arranged over meticulously arranged big band jazz instrumentals, with aims to provide a motivational and emotional engine to push forward the mission of Black Lives Matter. The first piece of the project — "Momentum, Pt. 2" — premieres below.
"The impetus for the piece is — let's look at what are the things that are being left out of our history books," Pinderhughes said. "What are the pieces of these heroes' legacies that are being left out? And why are they being left out? Most of the reason is because they're a little too radical. They're not what people want to hear."

​--  Tom Barnes, MIC

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Commentary by Nate Chinen (​Director of Editorial Content, WBGO)

Radical Imagination: Jazz as Protest Music

​excerpts:

​​"Our best musicians in the jazz tradition were radical imaginers," Samora Pinderhughes says. A pianist and composer in his mid-20s, he has asserted his connection to that lineage with The Transformations Suite, an earnest and ambitious new work combining music, words and visuals. The piece, which took five years to chisel into shape, was inspired by African-American resistance and protest movements, as well as the oppression that many still endure.

-- Nate Chinen

The call to change is central to the suite, as is the awareness of historical progress, however halting or tenuous it may seem. In the end, Pinderhughes voices a literal call to action: "Fight back!" goes the stirring refrain in a video montage that concludes the concert, amidst a ritual recitation of all-too-familiar names like Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray.

-- Nate Chinen