Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Siblings Samora (left) and Elena Pinderhughes collaborated on The Transformations Suite, which was released on Oct. 16.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artists)Earlier you mentioned that it was very important to not imitate something that’s already been done. How did you walk that fine line when making the Suite?
Samora: First of all, I’ve never been shy about my influences. Anybody who says that they don’t have influences is lying [laughs]. Those are the people I lean on. I’m not an especially super-duper confident, off-the-top person. I use my influences, my heroes, as pillars to lean on when I’m unsure about whether something works or not.
Elena: For some artists, a big thing is, ‘What is your voice?’ Samora has his own. Compositionally, I’ve really seen that a lot because he helps me write a lot as well and there’s a certain sound there.
As you start writing and a suite comes together—because there’s so many [different] components, so many parts, you find that your voice is there—individually in each part, but also as a complete whole.
For some reason, there was no danger of it sounding like something else. It just never did, not even from the first iteration. It it always sounded like Samora.
We’ve talked about the history of jazz and how it was once a political voice for the disenfranchised. And then suddenly, it was silenced. Was there a moment for you guys in which you both decided that silence on these issues was simply not an option?
Samora: I’ve kind of always been on that tip. On Halloween I used to dress as Che Guevara, and Elena used to have the little Tupac bandana … she was tryin’ to rock that for a minute [laughs].
I’ve always been thinking about those issues. And being biracial, that is also its own kind of complicated thing. It’s important for me and essential for me to speak out. Elena has been very influential for me in terms of her insistence on speaking to her generation. She’s like, ‘I want to speak to all people, but the most important audience, for me, is my age and younger.’ Those are the people who are influencing the world.
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater will be among the headliners at this year’s DC JazzFest.
Mar 2, 2026 9:48 PM
The first wave of artists scheduled to perform at the 2026 DC JazzFest have been announced. This year’s headliners…
Blindfold Test proctor Ted Panken, left, with the Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis.
Feb 24, 2026 12:00 PM
After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12…
“These days, with curated news, where people only get half the story, people can’t even speak to family members anymore,” Schneider laments.
Mar 10, 2026 1:43 PM
Maria Schneider is doing her part to try to fix what ails America. Which got her thinking about crows, specifically,…
