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Black heart, Black soul
By Frank De Blase on Feb. 13th, 2008 for City Magazine
Somehow somewhere down the line, African-American youth lost touch with rock 'n' roll. And let's not forget, it was black musicians who invented rock 'n' roll in the first place, synthesized out of field hollers, spirituals, r&b, jazz, and the blues. If you think the big beat started with Elvis Presley, you don't know Diddley. Contemporary American music has a black heart. It's a part of black American culture that often gets overlooked.
"They don't know that," says Black August guitar player Denise Reese. "They're not teaching them that in school. They're still teaching them old slave hymns. I mean, that's fine, but oh my God, they're depressing. I think they're getting stuck in teaching us that portion of our history when there's so much more to it. And I want our band to be the band for Rochester that helps our city youth know that there's so much more to our music and culture."
Reese's band, Black August, is a young Rochester quartet that plays r&b and soul with a powerful resolve and an even more powerful reserve. Its slow jams pack as much of a wallop as the more spirited grooves, and there's soul for days. Reese's guitar chops are tight and bright, and the keyboard and programming work by Ronnie Young and Reese's brother Bobby are keen, well-executed splashes of groove and light. And then there's singer Danielle Ponder's luscious voice. She's a commanding young lady with a regal air and pipes that can rock-a-bye the baby and break the bow at the same time. She'll blow your doors off.
The nod to rock comes from the band members' choice of instrumentation - i.e. they play instruments."I think there is something unique about a young black band in Rochester," says Ponder. "There're not a lot of African-American youth playing instruments. If young kids want to make music, they want to make beats or they want to be a rapper. So music has gotten away from a lot of the musicianship of playing instruments, and more into rapping over recorded beats. I think there's an art to both. I just think one is becoming more valued."The perception can be racially rooted, too.When Denise Reese hauls her guitar to her day job as a kindergarten teaching assistant, the kids are equally enthralled and confused.
"They're like, ‘That's a white thing, that's a white thing,'" Reese says. "And I'm like, ‘No, you gotta listen to Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry and artists like that.' It's like, ‘But you're a girl... you're a black girl playing guitar.' Now I just feel it's my duty. I work so closely with kids and they don't have an outlet. It's really pressing on my heart to be an example to them."
"I think it's financial issues, too," Ponder says. "My first guitar was a hot mess box guitar my dad found at church. And when I went to college, I saw a lot of white kids with guitars that I couldn't believe they had. I think it's because a lot of kids grow up in poverty, where their music programs at school aren't as equitable as some in the suburbs, and just having access to those instruments. I think if that changed, we might see more black bands coming up."
Black August came up as family. The band members are either siblings or cousins who first started performing at family gatherings as kids."That was our first audience," Ponder says. "Our aunts and uncles and cousins."Blood helps a band mesh well, and Black August dove right in initially with more attention to energy than detail."We were just playing stuff, putting songs together," says Young. "Everybody did a part; Danielle made up some lyrics that were hot... there's a song."As the band has matured, more thought goes into the overall production and tone. Young and Bobby Reese spend hours honing tunes, editing snippets, and perfecting the mix."Now we're producing this CD, and it's like, ‘This goes here, this goes there,'" Young says.
But the live show goes on, with legions of kids that go bananas when Black August plays, wherever it plays - coffee houses, theaters, nightclubs, even the joint.Two years ago Black August got the opportunity to entertain inmates at Attica State Prison. "It's probably one of the most important things we ever did," says Ponder. "It was a powerful experience for me, for everyone. I mean, people were crying in the audience.""I was crying," says Denise."We had an open mic," says Bobby. "People were coming up singing and laughing and crying.""Just imagine being in a place where you're so isolated," Ponder says. "You can't let it out."
Some tried not to let it out. But Black August's groove, soul, and subsequent joy are pretty hard to resist."This one guy was tapping his foot even though he didn't want to," Ponder says. "You know, they're trying to be so tough. But that foot started goin,' boy. He couldn't help but tap that foot."
