SOUNDSYSTEM
ramblings on a new venture, Jason Moran, Esperanza Spalding and more
It’s been a minute. I have a lot to share with you. I’ve been sifting through what to focus on from the many lives I’ve lived this year and how best to put it all into words. This is my best shot…
If you’re in my immediate ecosystem you’ve heard me speak about SOUNDSYSTEM extensively. It’s been all the rage in my mind and laptop for the past two years. I’ve been sculpting a container with the range to hold, evolve and share all of my sonic curiosities and I think I’m onto something. A container that presents itself as study, not expert.
SOUNDSYSTEM is a multidisciplinary platform that investigates the ever-evolving form of sound and its relationship to the world around us. Through innovative public programs, exhibitions, a publication, a multimedia practice, and a nomadic structure, Soundsystem looks to build an intergenerational audience across class and geography that seeks to be immersed in the study and production of sound art, musicianship, and the technology that advances it.
How does sound impact the design of our lives?
What is sound as social practice?
What is sound as spiritual practice?
How can sound guide humanity through building empathy for the human and the non-human?
What can we learn about sound from those of us who have never heard it?
How is our current climate crisis changing the frequency of our planet?
What information is shared between techno, classical, soul, and noise music?
Soundsystem’s mission is to create a world where our capacity to listen to ourselves, one another, and the phenomena of the everyday is challenged and deepened. It looks to offer a dynamic sonic experience that uses the familiar to venture into the unknown and centers our most unifying tool of communication: music.
I’m interested in the systems of sound and it’s travel. Out of a body, out of the stereo system of a Camaro, out of a city, out of the Earth. Through Soundsystem I look to investigate the systems that exist between sound and architecture, ecology, theology and all that. In a time where there’s a war on literature and information, this feels especially urgent to me. Sound is rouge, can’t stop that.
This week, I put it into play. Quietly. Soundsystem will be in-residence and incubating at The Underground Museum, an arts organization founded by artists Noah
and Karon Davis and the very place that changed my life as I served it in various roles until it’s closing in 2022. This week we were able to welcome folks back into the space with a special, intimate live presentation of works performed in celebration of the late Noah Davis by jazz giants Jason Moran, Esperanza Spalding and Kobie Dozier, a brilliant young saxophonist I’ve had the pleasure of watching grow up. We had a 9 foot Steinway, two crisp speakers from Mobius Acoustics (shoutout to Josiah) and a garden full of curious folks that were just relieved to be in the museum’s garden again.
It was life-changing and affirming of all that I knew to be true of music, people and that space. The most special part of it all was witnessing the passing of the baton of genius in real time. Jason and Esperanza not only played an original composition by Kobie that they learned just 10 minutes before taking the stage but they stood in admiration of him as he spoke about standing firmly in their lineage with means to evolve it. That’s wtf I’m talkin bout.
On another note - I couldn’t help but think of the garden as a sound sculpture within itself but more on that soon. At the moment, I just want to thank everyone for being present and for listening, deeply. Trust is a beautiful thing.
Over the next month you’ll be hearing a lot more about Soundsystem and I can’t wait to learn from you all and your relationships to sound. I’m listening.
Until then, go peep my work Lay Me Down In Praise at the Balitmore Museum of Art if you’re in the DMV! It’ll be up for the next year as part of Turn Again To The Earth, the museum’s initiative to encourage conversation and action around our climate crisis. I had a chance to speak with the New York Times in April about it all. Next stop: Vancouver.
Leaving yall with two tracks. Can’t stop playing this dexter in the newsagent track and this Bruce Springsteen beat goes hard. I love the “Streets of Philadelphia Sessions”. Real west coast meets UK circa 1992.
love yall.
love all of this so much. salute to you and all the work you are forging out here! the world needs this and you!!! 🤘🏽⚡️🌊🌊🌊
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You inspired me to stop waiting and write the piece today. Thank you—truly.