[Pinderhughes’] January began, he told me, alongside two of his “older brothers” from his childhood in the Bay, “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs and the poet and playwright Rafael Casal. Diggs and Casal are longtime close friends and collaborators. In their early 20s they recorded music together as The Get Back. Pinderhughes is nearly 10 years their junior, but his ability on the piano was far beyond his years, and Diggs and Casal brought him on as a member of their group. “He brought this amazing energy to the stage and to the vibe of our group,” Casal told me. “We played venues that were 21 and up, so we’d have to sneak him in early with the gear. And then he’d have to stay there from the 4 p.m. sound check until we played at 11 at night. He’s such a brilliantly collaborative artist and person that he never really complained about it.”
The three old friends had been in Chicago, along with the singer Matthew Santos and the production group The The Olympicks, to record a full-length hip-hop album in the span of a week. New Year’s came midway through the project, and when they went out to celebrate they ran into another Bay Area musician, the rapper Too Short. (A good New Year’s, it was.)
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In [Pinderhughes’] young career, the project he has become best known for is called “The Transformation Suite.” It is an ambitious six-part jazz and spoken-word piece, part meditation on being black in America and part command for society to give black Americans justice. The “Suite” was released as an album this past October to friendly press and heavy praise from fellow artists. The Grammy-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott called it an “urgent and powerful record.” The actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, a mentor of Pinderhughes’, called it “a nuanced, delicate, and powerful perspective on heavy and important topics.”
Say you want a transformation? Composer Samora Pinderhughes searches for uncompromising unity through music (Salon)
