SERVING UP A SOULFUL CRY
Jazz supergroup Dinner Party inspired by Lamar, Gaye, ‘Black genius’
AUGUST 2, 2020
Of all the cries of Black fury released during the protests around the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, none arrived as quietly as Dinner Party’s single “Freeze Tag.” The song, released in late June, is from a new supergroup of bicoastal jazz and hip-hop luminaries: LA’s Kamasi Washington and Terrace Martin, New York’s Robert Glasper and North Carolina producer 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit). It barely rises above a whispered falsetto and the daydreaming-on-a-fire-escape vibes of ’70s soul. If you wanted, you could definitely put it on as you open a second bottle of wine while chopping vegetables.
But the scene it sets in the lyrics is just seconds away from a murder by cop.
“They told me put my hands up behind my head/ I think they got the wrong one,” sings guest vocalist Phoelix. “I’m sick and tired of runnin’ Then they told me if I move, they gon’ shoot me dead.”
The quartet wrote the tune well before protests heaved in city streets for weeks. But sadly, there’s never a month when it wouldn’t have been salient in America.
In a year rent with despair over the COVID-19 pandemic and a long-overdue reckoning with America failing its Black citizens, Dinner Party’s selftitled debut arrived July 10 with all the skill and care that four master musicians could marshal to make an album as a balm.
But in the spirit of their mutual hero Marvin Gaye — whose “What’s Going On” lamented brutality over immaculate arrangements — it’s also a quieter way of telling that cop in “Freeze Tag” to put his gun down.
“An artist’s job is to reflect the times, but I feel for Black artists, there’s a deeper responsibility,” Martin said.
The four members of Dinner Party — all in their late 30s to mid-40s — go back decades as friends and collaborators. Martin and Washington met as high schoolers playing saxophone; Glasper came into their orbit at a youth band camp. Each have titanic solo albums and productions to their catalogs.
But their collective work with Kendrick Lamar helped cohere a new model for jazz and hip-hop in the 2010s. Martin, Glasper and Washington are all over Lamar’s 2015 opus “To Pimp a Butterfly,” and 9th Wonder produced the three beats that form “Duckworth,” the zenith of Lamar’s 2017 Pulitzer-winning LP “Damn.”
Their shifting roles within those projects — globally renowned writers and performers but also eager to help build another artist’s vision — set the template for Dinner Party.
“That’s the beauty of this group, every member was humble enough to play their part,” Douthit said.
“We wanted it to feel free and slow, not like ‘put big ol’ solo here,’ ” Washington added. “Not to make it soft, but to let vibe be the star of the show.”
Martin was the de facto bandleader for the project, steering the free-flowing jams from LA in late 2019. Douthit would begin most tracks with a beat idea and send it to Martin, who worked with Washington and Glasper in studio to write fleshed-out songs and arrangements.
After a career at the top of Lamar’s fold of producers and writers, his re-imagining of jazz and hip-hop’s blend in the American canon is indisputable. But the success also left him wary about who, exactly, is listening anyway.
“The world always loves what we give, but a lot of listeners don’t embrace us wholeheartedly,” Martin said. “I’ve grown to know that, and I’m very careful with who I talk to in music. I’m talking to people who understand self-doubt, suicide, prison, single mothers and fathers. People dealing with real life.”
In forming Dinner Party, he was almost subversive in that respect. The band made a smooth-sipping jazz-soul LP. The band name is definitely a little tongue-in-cheek but also completely accurate.
Fans used to the dozens-strong bands on Washington’s LPs, or the fast-spinning pivots of Lamar’s albums, might be shocked at how peaceful this seven-song album sounds. There are few moments anyone would call a solo, and it’s just as sample-driven as it is a showcase for the group’s arranging prowess.
But just beneath that reassuring glow, there are hard looks at what Black brilliance is worth in a society that won’t let Black people live.
“It’s a protest album but also not, you can listen to it and not feel like you’re watching the news,” Glasper said. “When people write songs about police brutality, often it’s more of a hard-core rap where you can feel the anger. We came from a Marvin Gaye standpoint where the music and vibe is calm, but the message is ‘What are you doing? Come on.’ You can do it in a way to let people know ‘I’m just trying to live life and make it to next summer.’ ”
In different ways, all four of them needed this clandestine jam with old friends, walking out of the studio with a short, modest album that wears its collective talent lightly. The constant news scroll of Black grief, combined with a pandemic that shut down the music industry, left them needing a respite.
At a moment when the movement for Black lives tries to translate popular momentum into real policy changes, however, much of the small scene that forged these musicians’ careers is on life support. Nonprofit clubs allowed these artists to find a sound that would eventually win them Grammys and Coachella gigs.
“We should be able to get through quarantine without losing parts of society that we love,” Washington said. “We shouldn’t be in a position to choose between our lives or our lives.”
That’s a dilemma Black artists have been asking their whole lives — what to do with a society that loves your music but doesn’t seem to love you in return. Dinner Party’s members may differ on some means to fight back. But the album they made together was an intentional choice to wear their brilliance gently. All the sadness and anger and confusion will still be there, just beneath it.
“Black genius is very important in this time,” Douthit said. “Now more than ever, millions and millions of Americans are listening to what we’re saying and applying it. It’s the best time for people to pay attention to Black struggle, Black culture, Black everything.”