This free jazz oriented concept album (Lynching Trauma) is an audio journey through my experience nearly experiencing a lynching at the hands of white supremacists under the banner of “1776 Restoration Movement”. The album follows an introduction seated in straight ahead jazz poetry, utilizing a jazz blues form and a spoken word break (Blues for My Family). Followed by a track meant to convey the 14-16 hour drive I did to arrive in time to protest the right wing rally in Berkeley Springs, WV (Preparation). Under the eye of the local sheriff, the rally goers eventually planned to enact revenge upon the counter protest by trying to flip my van over. Their streaming cameras were turned away while the local PD watched on with smiles on their faces. Thankfully a state trooper, knowing almost nothing about the situation, temporarily cleared a path for my escape. Only to have the local PD call me directly and ask me to return. In my real life there followed a few other anxiety provoking events that led me and those close to me to fear violent reprisal. I encapsulated the central event itself by playing two banjo tracks panned left and right in opposite key signatures, each tuned a quarter tone up and down (Shattered Glass), using audio from the event itself and some overdubbed speaking to bring you into some of my thoughts at the time. The album then proceeds into a track meant to encapsulate the back and forth you experience following a traumatic event (Tension in a Scared Body), moments of both consonance and dissonance while we try to move on and distract from the trauma. Finally breaking into recovery (Desert) wherein I became free of the hyper-vigilance and fear that had been plaguing me for months.

I hope this album is able to serve as an experiential journey for the listener, seeking to transcend the reflective nature of lyricism to engage with the more direct emotional experiences surrounding traumatic events, the before and the recovery. At times calm and consonant and at times painful and screaming, it’s best heard in a single listening session to understand the emotional journey it tries to take you through. Each track utilizes an “ambient base” from at night in the forest, to driving, clan rallies and threesomes. I tried to give each track a sense of physical place in the same way many older jazz albums recorded in jazz clubs included the ambiance of the club itself. Difficult at parts, I hope you can hear the experience I tried to capture with this album.