OFM Music: Trippers and Askers – Acorn

We have heard the phrase “Life inspires art,” but every artist knows that it is often the creative sensibilities of others, synthesized with the paradigm of life, that real inspiration is born. Such is the case for the new album Acorn, a concept album by singer-songwriter Trippers and Askers sparked by Octavia Butler’s rousing Parable of the Sower.

The novel is set in 2020 and imagines a dystopian society that is falling apart due to climate change, corporate greed, and economic inequality. Butler’s message was that of a blaring siren warning us that the fertile grounds of corruption would sprout and spread like disease if the ideals and systems that be are not dismantled. In 2021, many devastatingly consider this imagined world a reality of the life we live in now. The prophetic piece written in 1993 is unfolding before us, and in that, it is only by the will of hearts and minds that we may reverse course from Sower’s destiny. 

Trippers and Askers, led by vocalist and jazz improvisationalist Jay Hammond, has absorbed the sci-fi novel and taken its intended, cautious message to new heights with the release of Acorn. The radical approach of songwriting showcases the arc of childhood humanity, and the creation of the religion Earthseed, then takes us through the delighting, heartbreaking, and disturbing life of a tumultuous adulthood. 

“Those books really paint a very convincing picture of what our world looks like already for many people, and what it could look like for most of us in the next 20 years if things don’t change pretty drastically,” Hammond says. “I think our society tells us that art doesn’t really mean much, or that it’s about being famous, or it’s about vapid things. But I think something about that book really convinced me to pay attention to the part of me that really wanted to keep making music, to create and to put music out in a serious way, and to take it seriously as a force for societal change.”

The manner in which Sower’s protagonist Lauren Olamina is disciplined in her quest for freedom through creation, Hammond weaves in the complexities of these massive and heavy themes while remaining precious about the music. In the truest form of folk and jazz songwriting, the collaborative process is unparalleled and exemplified in the work. As a music collective, Trippers and Askers orient the dawning of every piece toward an experience of connection, experimentation, and improvisation. From songs one through eight, Acorn is a journey, a story from top to bottom with special guest appearances from some of the most talented jazz and instrumental musicians in the world. 

Hammond is drawn to the style of improvisational jazz not only because of the collective energy and freedom of ever-changing and collaborative music, but because of the folks he has had a chance to work with and get to know on a deeply personal level. Having met Ken Moshes, a percussionist and one of the creative collaborators on Acorn, through playing music together, the conversations that then ensued were deeply impactful on both an art and human level.

“It wasn’t just about playing music with him, but it was then learning more about his life, about the experiences he’s had. He was a Black Panther in the late 60s, early 70s, who was targeted by the CIA and FBI and whose family was torn apart by programs like COINTELPRO. He was unhoused for a while and became an advocate for the homeless in Northern California through that experience,” Hammond says. “I didn’t know any of this when I met Ken, but the more we played together, the more there was this bond that happened musically that enabled us to be able to talk about a lot of things.

“It’s very intimate, improvising with people, so it opens up the door to getting to know people on different kinds of levels,” he explains.

In addition to collaborating with a collective of musicians, Hammond tapped the shoulder of graphic novel illustrator, winner of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, and professor John Jennings to design the cover of the album. As a researcher and educator of Afrofuturism, politics, visual rhetoric, and hip-hop culture, Jennings was not only an immaculate and clear choice due to his talent in illustration, but because of his connection to Octavia Butler’s work.

In 2012, Jennings and his creative partner Damian Duffy were approached by Abrams Books to create a graphic novel adaptation of Butler’s Kindred, which they completed and published in 2018. Quickly to follow was the release of a graphic novel adaption of Butler’s Parable by the pair, and it became Hammond’s dream to commission a piece from Jennings that would encompass the intention, impact, and artistry of Acorn.  

“After listening to the music and thinking about some of the ideas I wanted to get across, when they’re traveling to get to Acorn, or what will become Acorn, it is kind of like this pilgrimage. I was trying to create something that was oddly comforting but also uncertain at the same time; unsettling,” John Jennings says.

As an educator of the arts in his own right, Hammond studied music at Columbia University and has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University. His book manuscript, “Trad Jazz: Pre-War Aurality in the Postmodern City,” argues that contemporary expressions of traditional jazz open debate on salient issues of race, generation, and genre. Having a desire to impact cultural change through analyzing the intersections of creativity and social constructs, Hammond continues to overlap his creative expression with his intellectual ideology.

“I write about music; I have an article coming out that’s about the gentrification of New York and New Orleans and how it has affected the lives of jazz musicians in those two cities,” Hammond says. “Certain mediums are good for certain problems at certain times, and as many angles you can take on a problem, it doesn’t really matter what medium I use. Acorn is about using song, and thinking about song, as a mechanism for changing societal structures.”

While Hammond leans into the intellectual articulation of music, and is often creatively informed by literature, art, and collaboration, songwriting still holds a therapeutic space for him as well. The first Trippers and Askers record called Nightcap was released in 2018 and was sparked by the fact that he had a very close family member pass away from an overdose. Songs that are based on the opioid crisis in America and how it affects small, rural places, was a way for Hammond to process the pain. 

“Putting a piece of work out there that was so blatantly about me processing that was hugely therapeutic,” he says. “There’s all the rituals around loss and grief that occur, but then I also had the ritual of having put that music out into the world. Now, I still have those songs as little mantras for myself when I’m re-processing that grief, which is something that doesn’t ever end.” 

Whether it’s processing life that creates the artistic expression, or it’s an influence by a piece of art that perpetuates more art, Hammond uses the cyclical nature of information, craft, and evolution throughout his work. In community, Trippers and Askers challenge what it means to conceptualize, craft, and create, all while searching for ways to spark conversation, impact change, and improve the conditions of a life as we know it.