Racer Session #075 | Ross Hammond | July 10, 2011

Hi everyone.  I’ll be fairly brief in discussing our Racer Session.  Playing music for me has always been about the message conveyed instead of merely the notes played.  My favorite music, whether it’s James Brown, Ali Farka Toure`, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield etc. has a common element of trying to influence the listener with a message or call to action.  For this session, I’ll be collaborating with poet Lawrence Dinkins (www.mywordout.com).  Lawrence will be reading the works of Langston Hughes as well as some of his own.  I’ll be attempting to provide a soundtrack and/or a relevant musical response to the pieces he reads.

The themes of Lawrence’s work are equal parts political, romantic and social justice.  He is my favorite poet to work with, and I’m really looking forward to this collaboration.  I’ll be leading a small group of Seattle musicians during our set, and I’d like to see if we could attempt this with a larger ensemble at some point during the jam session.

Thanks very much for having me.  I’m looking forward to making some music with and for you.
RH
www.rosshammond.com