Changing Same Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.

JOSEPH C. PHILLIPS, JR.

CHANGING SAME

Changing Same is an hour-long, six-part composition from composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr., written for his 20-piece chamber ensemble Numinous (whose musicians are also members of Asphalt Orchestra, Signal, loadbang, Victoire, and Mivos Quartet).

Changing Same is a conscious acknowledgement of Joseph C. Phillips Jr.'s heritage in popular and contemporary music and culture. As LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) writes in his essay "The Changing Same:" "R&B is about emotion, issues purely out of emotion. New Black Music is also about emotion, but from a different place, and finally, towards a different end. What these musicians feel is a more complete existence. That is, the digging of everything." Chronogram called the composition “…compelling & conceptually thoughtful…very fine stuff.”

Inspired by the eponymous essay, Changing Same reflects a post-black aesthetic, described by The Studio Museum in Harlem's chief curator Thelma Golden as embracing "the dichotomies of high and low, inside and outside, tradition and innovation" within black culture. Through a lens of individual experience, Changing Same explores some of this richness, diversity, and complexity of blackness in America during Phillips's lifetime -- from Angela Davis to the mini series Roots to the inauguration of Barack Obama -- while also resonating with a more universal artistic expression (a "digging of everything") filtered through an intimately autobiographical musical perspective.

New Numinous album featuring "Changing Same" by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. will be released Summer 2015 on New Amsterdam Records Stay tuned for more info on "Changing Same" CD & tour photos by Donald Martinez music by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. performed by Numinous © Joseph C. Phillips Jr. All Rights Reserved www.numinousmusic.com www.newamsterdamrecords.com

Changing Same is the third album from Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and Numinous, whose mixed music has been called "brilliant" (Ted Gioia), "totally riveting" (NewMusicBox), "stylish and provocative" (All Music Guide), "luminous...shimmering" (One Final Note), and praised for inspiring a "sense of wonder" (Audiophile Audition). Changing Same is a palimpsest that builds a new personal statement from the deconstruction and fusion of various layers of artistic and cultural influences into a singular expansive and compelling vision.

Produced by Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Changing Same was engineered and edited by GRAMMY Award-winning engineer Michael Marciano at Systems Two Studios in Brooklyn, mixed by renowned engineer Brian Montgomery, and mastered at New York City's legendary Sterling Sound by Randy Merrill, with original album artwork created by DM Stith.