Orchestrating Beats from Beantown:
Interview with Angelamia Bachemin

Interview and photo of Angelamia Bachemin by Chhay Chhun
Photo of JHO by Ed Hatfield

In response to the war in Iraq and concerns for our civil rights following 9/11, the American Friends Service Committee brought together a group of artists who were interested in protesting these attacks and encouraging youth to protect their rights and the rights of others. The result was the "Beats for Peace" tour which took place from May 8 to May 13. The tour spanned six cities (New York, Northampton, Providence, RI, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Somerville, MA), and included performances from Pharoahe Monch, Slum Village, Medusa, Supernatural, Toni Blackman, and Cee-Lo, and musicians from the Jazz Hip Hop Orchestra (JHO). The Hiphop Archive (HHA) was interested in how JHO, a band composed of young musicians from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and the other well-known artists worked to establish their musical flow on this tour. To this end, we interviewed Angelamia Bachemin, the musical director of "Beats for Peace" and the founder and director of JHO. Angie is a professor at Berklee and is the first recipient of the Richard Soref Excellence in Teaching Award for innovative teaching methods in performance. If the music that she composes radiates with a persistent energy and spirit, then that music is an example of art imitating life. We recently talked to Angie in the Hiphop Archive Offices.



HHA: What is JHO?

Angie: Jazz Hip Hop Orchestra. It’s a hot group of students. They’re from all over the country and all over the world. You know, I have some international students in JHO also. JHO, they’ve got a lot of power, a lot of depth. It’s a 14-piece band, well, 15 pieces is what I took on the ["Beats for Peace"] tour. JHO, at different times, could be as big as 30 people, depending on what kind of show I put together. I move them in and out in different configurations. As far as JHO on the ["Beats for Peace"] tour, the students—I wanted to give my students an in-depth look at what touring life is like, because a lot of them are still very young. You know, they range from [ages] 19 to 24. Some of them have been out a little bit and had some experience on the road, but this gave them experience to be out on the road, to have the feeling of being a touring band, but also under my guidance, so that things didn’t fall apart. Because tours are hard. And that way, they could have the experience together, and that was beautiful for them.

HHA: Do you think they built more as a crew?

Angie: Oh, definitely. They definitely came together more as a crew. Each night, they got better and better, stronger and stronger. They related more with the main artists—they were the support band for Medusa, Supernatural, Jahi, Toni Blackman. And then they also did their own material every night. They also had the opportunity to play with Cee-Lo, to be the support band for Cee-Lo—He was one of the people who came on for only one night.

HHA: What exactly is Jazz Hip Hop?

Angie: It’s a combination of utilizing Hip Hop with superimposing different Jazz motifs, different heads on top of the music, and intersecting and intertwining them with the music. And also coming from the fact that we’re using 14 pieces. We also utilize a lot of things from funk, soul, r&b, a lot of those different flavors with flavors of jazz. Give us a chance to, you know, take solos. We say jazz—in taking longer solos than what’s allowed in say, an r&b band.

HHA: Do you think the band related more to any one artist?

Angie: No, I think they enjoyed playing with all of the artists that were on the tour, but I think they gravitated a lot to Supernatural. The way that Supernatural came in—that was a trip—is that we did not rehearse Supernatural’s music, because it was kind of up in the air as far as whether or not he would use the band. When we were in New York at SOB’s, and he came on, we rehearsed with the band with basically no instruments in the dressing room. Just with me laying down the groove, talking to him about what he wants, and students listening, and him flowing, and then them all putting in their [beatboxing]. They got on stage with him and it just came together like magic.

HHA: Do you feel like you were received differently in different cities?

Angie: As far as the band was concerned, I feel like in every city, that the people loved the band. I think that young people are really gravitating towards live music for Hip Hop. Visually on the stage it’s really exciting to look at it. And we also incorporated a DJ. They had all the different elements. They had different b-boys who came up and did their thing.

HHA: When I caught the show at the Somerville Theatre, I did feel that the crowd was more electric when the band was on, ‘cause when Pharoahe Monch came on with his DJ, people started to leave, but that might just be a consequence of Pharoahe Monch being a complex lyricist and people not understanding him. ‘Cause Hiphop is traditionally the MC and the DJ, but how do you see the live band fitting into that tradition?

Angie: I feel that it’s all evolving, Hip Hop is evolving. I think that … Let’s take Pharoahe for instance. Pharoahe’s an artist that chose not to have a band, but just like any other artist, people make decisions based on their affiliation with their record label and what other people want as far as promotion stuff is concerned. I didn’t have a lot of contact with Pharoahe. That last night, he gave me a big hug and I said, “Hey love, before you get on stage, good luck.” The thing is that, is that, it’s a little anti-climactic to come on after a band. We’re talkin’ a band that large, 14 pieces is huge. So anyone would have a difficult time coming on and holding that energy after a 14-piece band. I think that if we were to do something like this again, and Pharoahe had the opportunity, or other artists who chose not to utilize the band, had the opportunity to do it again, I think they would definitely say, oh this time we would like to be with the band.



HHA: How are you able to put such a large band together?

Angie: It’s just the years of putting it together, and the ability to be involved on the teaching level. The students are such young, gifted people that I can work with them. And they’re into it because they love shows. They all wanna be involved in shows because that’s the career they’re going into… I come from an era of the bigger bands. Chaka Khan. A lot of my peers are involved with big bands, like Earl Johnson who plays piano for Chaka Khan. I think that there are not a lot, there are a few, but there are not a lot of individuals who are able to put those types of things together arrangement-wise. Rehearse large bands, know how to rehearse them, put them all together and get them moving. So it’s like an art-form in itself, and that’s the fun of it.


Listen to these two samples of JHO's music:

"We Represent" (written by Johnny Glanton)
      56k broadband
"Wide Open" (written by Darius Gatling)
      56k broadband

To find out more about the "Beats for Peace" tour, check out www.beatsforpeace.org. To learn more about JHO, peep www.jazzhiphop.com. You can contact Angie at abachemin@berklee.edu.

Contact: Chhay Chhun chhun@hiphoparchive.org