FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Alternative Jazz Album
Album Overview
Pianist/keyboardist Paul Horton (Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes) and bassist/broadcaster Greg Bryant come together to form the beat-driven, improvisational music duo known as Concurrence. Indivisible (available on La Reserve Records) represents the duo’s most ambitious album yet: music that sheds light on an overlooked chapter in American history, one which irrevocably altered Black and Brown communities across the country.
With the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower established the Interstate System that today crisscrosses the United States. The system’s construction came with devastating effects. From New York to Chicago, Miami to Los Angeles, authorities routed the interstates through centers of cultural and economic activity, displacing families and decimating businesses.
Concurrence first honed its musical voice in the early 2000’s on Jefferson Street in Nashville, Tennessee. The area was a northside hub for the city’s Black community in the 1950s and 1960s that boosted the early careers of Etta James, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles and Little Richard – a few short years before Interstate 40 carved up six hundred and twenty homes as well as sixteen entire blocks of businesses lining the area.
On Indivisible and in performance, Bryant and Horton (Concurrence) deliver this message of tragedy, remembrance, and resilience in a cohesive musical voice, built over two decades of collaboration. Mastered by Dave Cooley (JDilla, Madlib) and mixed by Warren Spicer, the album includes fiery performances from acclaimed drummers and percussionists Nasheet Waits (Jason Moran, John Scofield, Dave Holland) Tommy Crane ( Martha Wainwright, Aaron Parks, Melissa Aldana) Marcus Finnie (Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter’s SuperBlue), Aaron Smith (Tina Karol), and Giovanni Rodriguez (Victor Wooten).