Numinous The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr. |
Changing Same (2013)
Changing Same (2013)
commissioned by 2013 Ecstatic Music Festival
Flute/Piccolo, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone, Vibraphone, 2 Acoustic & Electric guitars, Electric Piano, Harp, 4 Female voices, 1 Vocal soloist, String sextet (2 violins (one doubling on Viper/Electric violin), 2 violas, 2 cellos) and Electric Bass
60 minutes
1. 19
2. Behold the Only Thing Greater Than Yourself
3. Miserere
4. The Most Beautiful Magic
5. Alpha Man
6. Unlimited
Changing Same recording (2015) on New Amsterdam Records
commissioned by 2013 Ecstatic Music Festival
Flute/Piccolo, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone, Vibraphone, 2 Acoustic & Electric guitars, Electric Piano, Harp, 4 Female voices, 1 Vocal soloist, String sextet (2 violins (one doubling on Viper/Electric violin), 2 violas, 2 cellos) and Electric Bass
60 minutes
1. 19
2. Behold the Only Thing Greater Than Yourself
3. Miserere
4. The Most Beautiful Magic
5. Alpha Man
6. Unlimited
Changing Same recording (2015) on New Amsterdam Records

“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.”
-LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “The Changing Same” (1966)
Changing Same is a conscious acknowledgement of my heritage in popular and contemporary music and culture, but 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 my 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.
-LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “The Changing Same” (1966)
Changing Same is a conscious acknowledgement of my heritage in popular and contemporary music and culture, but 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 my 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.
Thanks and credit to all the original photos on this website to: David Andrako, Concrete Temple Theatre, Marcy Begian, Mark Elzey, Ed Lefkowicz, Donald Martinez, Kimberly McCollum, Geoff Ogle, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Daniel Wolf-courtesy of Roulette, Andrew Robertson, Viscena Photography, Jennifer Kang, Carolyn Wolf, Mark Elzey, Karen Wise, Numinosito. The Numinous Changing Same album design artwork by DM Stith. The Numinous The Grey Land album design and artwork by Brock Lefferts. Contact for photo credit and information on specific images.