The Beast

The Beast
Silence Fiction

Hip-hop/jazz

4.5 of 5 stars

A jazz trio. A frenetic MC. A complex social message. A litany of references that range from Stormtroopers to Dragon Ball Z.

It’s not a list of random words. It’s the formula for a hip-hop monster.

Durham’s The Beast makes jazz-infused, genre-bending music that uses booty-shaking rhythms to accomplish a long list of goals.

A year after graduating from UNC in 2006, music students Eric Hirsh, Pete Kimosh and Stephen Coffman hooked up with MC Pierce Freelon for an experimental jam session. The resulting band has honed its skills for two years and will release Silence Fiction, its debut full-length, Friday at Duke Coffeehouse.

“That first jam session was such a crazy experience for all of us that we knew that we had to take that creative energy and momentum and move forward with the band,” said Freelon.

With five songs resulting from that first meeting, the band moved forward, making its own twist on its genre, attempting to prove that hip-hop can achieve a larger appeal when its executed with great craft.

“Hopefully this band has crossover appeal because the emphasis is more on songrwiting than on verse-hook-verse-hook-beats-beats-beats,” said Hirsh, the group’s keyboardist. “Hopefully there’s something universal about that.”

The band doesn’t just use this accessible attack to have fun. In fact, the band chose its name to be emblematic of its social message.

“There’s a lot of different reasons we’re called The Beast,” Hirsh said. “One of them is that phrase, ‘in the belly of the beast.’ Here we are in the middle of this crazy society and universe that ultimately we are responsible for.”

This sense of higher responsibility goes further than musical intent. In addition to playing shows, the band also administers workshops on the makeup and history of hip-hop.

“It’s just consciousness-raising,” Freelon said, adding that the band wants to show that “all hip-hop is not violent, misogynist, hedonist materialism, that it can actually be progressive intelligent, uplifting, community-building music.”

But while the band wants to use its sound and talent as a conduit to facilitate change, its members realize that they aren’t perfect.

“It would be sophomoric of us to claim to be the people with the answer,” Hirsh said. “We’re just a band. We’re just like everybody else. We’re just some people experiencing some stuff, and we can express it through music.” - Daily Tar Heel

We are as proud as we can be to unveil the latest issue of Durham Magazine.

Resident jazz legend Nnenna Freelon and her musician son, Pierce, grace our cover. (Photo by Briana Brough and layout by art director Kevin Brown.) Inside you'll find the story of their professional collaboration that helped Pierce's band, The Beast, become one of the hottest acts on the independent music scene. We also loved capturing the unique and truly inspiring Freelon family ties that make them one of the most gifted and, truth be told, enviable clans in our city. - Durham Magazine

The Beast's intensity is as taut yet agile as Pierce Freelon's physique, which was partially bared Friday night as he pounced around stage like Rilke's panther unleashed, and even sent a loaned hula hoop careening around his waist at one point.

But The Beast isn't driven by Pierce's undeniable physical charisma alone. Creativity is instrumental, pun intended: this band takes it to another level, complementing Pierce's unbounded thought universe with mood swings and tempo changes that open up these tunes like nested boxes, or turtles on top of turtles on top of more turtles. (Hint: It's turtles all the way down.)

Silence Fiction drops 10/16

This will make me sound crazy, but while listening to The Beast's new Silence Fiction CD on my way to the Farmer's Market today, I wept. I was walking around the produce stands, picking out apples and eggplants, with tear-streaked sunglasses. Had anyone asked me what was wrong, I would have said: "I just listened to a really great album."

Let's get to the bottom of this. The musicians of Orquesta GarDel are close to my heart, and hearing the amazing way they are integrated into this production was both moving and really satisfying.

Bringing the Triangle's premier salsa band in to the studio to record "Translation" was a natural extension for GarDel co-leader and Beast arranger Eric Hirsh. I love that song's point of view character, who isn't a cultural insider, but just stumbles into a club with his date on "salsa night." The authentic sound texture emerges like a memory and takes over the song, just as it shapes the couple's insouciant romance. The "translation" that matters isn't getting across a few phrases of Spanish, it's the message that love and culture are both border-jumpers. Once they surround you, they will transform you.

That brings us to another point. The Beast's music stirs emotions as well as thoughts, especially when I contemplate how Pierce's rhymes and Eric's arrangements complement each other. Pierce raps about freedom, and Eric freely alludes to all the different musical styles under his belt, from classical to Afro-Cuban. Beethoven or bembe, nobody cares the places we go.

This whole crazy tapestry of languages makes me wild. The Beast is speaking.

The core musicians in this combo know each other so well that the interaction is smooth and palpable, even through tricky gear shifts. Stephen Coffman's drumming is both powerful and shimmery. I also love the funky bass wisdom of Pete Kimosh, who has made so many of my nights danceable with his stylish tumbao (that's a Latin bassline, y'all) in GarDel.

At Shakori, two more Gardelites Andy Kleindienst and Tim Smith formed a horn section for the latter half of the Friday set, and Tim contributed vocals on an uplifting Al Green cover.

And speaking of Tim, when was the last time the Tim Smith Band played Shakori? (2 and half years ago, since you asked.) Seems he's always out there gigging with someone else; hope they invite him back with his own band one of these days.

I've heard Silence Fiction at least a half dozen times now, and The Beast is still speaking to me. How on earth are people supposed to wait until Friday's CD release party at Duke Coffeehouse?! If you must hear it before then, try WXDU 88.7 FM; my promo copy went into rotation tonight. - Onda Carolina

DURHAM — “There’s so much more to me,” Pierce Freelon sings in the refrain to “More to Me,” one of nine songs on “Silence Fiction,” the debut CD from local hip-hop quartet The Beast. The lyric to this song invites listeners to look beyond certain stereotypes and assumptions (particularly related to the Bull City), but Freelon just as easily could be singing about the music itself on this inaugural CD.

There is so much more to this recording than one might expect. Besides Freelon, The Beast is made up of Eric Hirsh on piano, Stephen Coffman on drums and Pete Kimosh on bass, all graduates of UNC’s jazz program. On “Silence Fiction,” they achieve a synthesis of different styles, with chromatic jazz harmonies in the keyboards and funk rhythms in the horn sections. The composition “Translation” has strong Latin influences, and features a guest appearance from the salsa band Orquesta GarDel. Local jazz listeners might also recognize other guests who contributed to this disc — Al Strong on trumpet, Andy Kleindienst on trombone and Tim Smith on saxophones.

Freelon’s poetry and word play are central to this mix. (“This is underground hip-hop,” he sings. “These are modern day spirituals/coated in the lyrical. ...”)

Local music fans can get a taste of The Beast’s new music today when they unveil their debut CD at Duke Coffeehouse.

“Silence Fiction” dispels the notion of rap as rhyme over a rhythm track. Pianist Hirsh attributes the unity of the album to the band’s emphasis on songs. “We really do craft songs,” Hirsh said. All of the band members grew up listening to different genres, all of which emphasize song format and expression.

“The music that we create is a reflection of us as musicians,” Freelon said. “We don’t just listen to rap. We listen to [pianist] Robert Glasper and jazz musicians” and other styles of music. “Naturally, when we step into a creative space as a quartet all those genres and collective sounds fuse,” he said.

Freelon, who teaches a course in Blacks and Popular Culture at UNC’s Department of African-American Studies, gives workshops that try to show the common roots of hip-hop, jazz and other styles. The Beast gave a workshop at this year’s Bimbé Festival in Durham. Hirsh said that Glasper, who records for the Blue Note jazz label, has “done a good job of straddling” the worlds of jazz and hip-hop, and is his strongest musical model for the kind of bridge-building The Beast tries to do.

“Silence Fiction” is a play on words, which Freelon says is his desire “to quiet falsehood” or “stop lying.” The recording has been in the works two years, and the writing reflects The Beast’s collaborative process of composing songs, Freelon said. “When we go into a song writing session, any member of the group may come with a specific idea or a thought that we may improvise around,” he said. From that process come “concepts that develop into songs.”

The recording is being released as a collaboration of the Beast’s label Chakra Con Music (a definite double play on words) and Robust Records of Chapel Hill.

Durham-based eco-fashion boutique Vert & Vogue is cosponsoring today’s show. Members of The Beast will wear clothes styled and made by the boutique. Vert & Vogue also will provide gift cards to crowd participants.

Other performers at this release party will be Durham-based Carlitta Durand, Raleigh-based Kooley High and Chapel Hill-based band Freebass 808. “I really think the bill we have put together is a showcase for North Carolina’s up and coming hip-hop and soul groups,” Hirsh said. “It’s a chance for people to see there is something else going on.” - The Herald Sun

"There's so much more to me than what you see," raps Pierce Freelon in "More2Me."
Still in his mid-20s, the Durham native has made music from Ghana to New Delhi and from Los Angeles to New York. But he describes Durham as the center of an irresistible cultural movement that has drawn him home.

Growing up as the son of vocalist Nnenna Freelon and architect Phillip Freelon, "My mom would be gone eight weeks at a time," he explains, "and my dad only knew three recipes, counting baked beans.

"But in the end the performance lifestyle is not a strain on the family; it uplifts a family."

So he returned not only for the sake of his art but because he and his wife, Kathryn, knew this was where they wanted to raise their son.

A generation of fellow performers drew him back, including saxophonist Branford Marsalis and guitarist Scott Sawyer.

"I was raised by people like Baba Chuck Davis, Brother Yusef, John Brown -- people who filled a vacuum that schools couldn't," he says.

Freelon is ready to give back. And "Durham," he says bluntly, "is the cultural nucleus of the Triangle." Citing the new Durham Performing Arts Center, the American Tobacco district, and the Mok'e Jazz Cultural Center on Fayetteville Street, Freelon sees his hometown as being on the frontier of what's most exciting in the arts he loves best.

The mission of his band, The Beast, is "to empower our communities with the knowledge and experience we've been blessed with." So when you hear Freelon described as a hip-hop emcee, think poet, oracle, griot.

"I never know what a song's going to be about until I see what's in my heart, what's on my mind," he says. Freelon frequently assails a socio-industrial complex that he sees sapping people's creativity and grinding down their soul. "A lot of my music revolves around social commentary," he admits.

Freelon's easygoing offstage style conceals a rock-solid conviction in the urgency of his art.

"Our show is intense," he says. "Not screaming or preaching, but energetic. You want to keep people talking and engaged and moved."

Nor does he see education and performance as mutually exclusive activities.

"Quite the opposite," he says. "Lyrically, conversationally, compositionally, I see them as one and the same." Hence The Beast not only performs: it offers workshops on creativity, music history and improvisation.

Improvisation, as Freelon notes, is a consistent element in American music. It makes you "lean into the uncomfortable places you didn't want to be in, dig into the people and energy around you. It's about opening up a dialogue."

The group's name comes from Marvel Comics -- The Beast is a university professor who happens to be a frightening mutant, or a frightening mutant who happens to be a university professor.

"You could say he's been racially profiled," Freelon explains wryly. The Beast's compositions are collaborative, but the lyrics are pure Freelon.

"I'm a vocal percussionist," he says. "You have to know how to ride the beat. Hip-hop is in 4/4 time, but these are jazz dudes. We might play in seven, out of time, in polyrhythms. It adds complexity and depth. There's nothing like working, performing and building with these guys -- learning from these guys."

While The Beast is focused on recording their first full-length album, they still perform a dozen or more times per month. They will appear at Durham Parks & Recreation's Bimbe Third Friday Concert at 6 p.m. Friday in the CCB Plaza, presenting an hourlong show followed by an "informance" titled "Bebop to Hip-Hop."

The term "beast," by the way, is also slang for someone who's really good at what he does. - News and Observer

Maybe your musical preferences lean toward Ornette Coleman and Sarah Vaughan. Or maybe you prefer Kanye West and Ne-Yo.

Either way, musician and poet Pierce Freelon wants you to show up and open your ears when The Beast gives a performance and music workshop today to begin the weekend events for the Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival.

Hip-hop listeners as a rule think of jazz as an older people's music. On the other hand, jazz fans when they think of hip-hop only hear profanity or offensive content, Freelon said. But jazz and hip-hop, rather than being polar opposites, grow out of the same musical tradition. "We don't see the two as mutually exclusive," Freelon said in a phone interview. "They're two parts of the same American musical story that's been told."

That broad American spectrum starts with the blues, which can be heard in both jazz and hip-hop, as well as other forms of American music. "The ways in which blues artists told stories," Freelon added, is "also very congruent with hip-hop."

The music of The Beast reflects his ideas. Listen to The Beast and you will hear hip-hop rhythms in Freelon's vocals. You also hear rhythms and sounds in the bass that might remind you of early 1970s soul and funk. You also will hear complex, colorful jazz-like harmonies in the keyboards. Besides Freelon, The Beast also is Stephen Coffman on drums, Eric Hirsch on piano and Pete Kimosh on bass -- all graduates of UNC's jazz program.

Freelon (who has a degree in African and African-American Studies from UNC Chapel Hill, and a master's in Pan-African Studies from Syracuse University) developed a hip-hop curriculum called blackademics, which he has taught in libraries, churches, high schools and other public places. When he teaches from that curriculum, he tries to give students a cultural context for the different styles of music. As part of the lesson, he has students do something hands-on, like write a blues or do an improvisation.

The audience at today's event will get a taste of that curriculum. After the initial performance, The Beast will take a break, then give a musical workshop in everything from spirituals to hip-hop. Freelon said he likes to give the workshop to the kind of multi-generational group that often attends Bimbâ??©. "We help facilitate an intergenerational discussion that is missing musically between the older and younger people. So we're looking forward to this particular workshop," he said.

He has on several occasions seen jazz diehards warm up to the kind of music this ensemble performs. Recently, at the Billy Taylor Jazz Festival at East Carolina University, Freelon (whose mother, vocalist Nnenna Freelon, was the guest artist at the festival) rapped over a bass line played by bassist and ECU Jazz Studies Director Carroll Dashiell. Dashiell had already asked the audience to keep an open mind, Freelon said. The audience gave him an ovation for his performance.

While he heard jazz growing up, he did not learn to appreciate it until he was older. What he takes from his mother, he said, is an appreciation of her stage presence and ability to hold an audience's attention.

To jazz listeners who might be reluctant to attend today's concert, Freelon says simply to "listen. The music will speak for itself." - The Herald Sun

Silk Hope, NC - Last fall, the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance had a hit with the presence of world renown jazz perfomer, Nnenna Freelon. Hailing from nearby Durham, NC, Freelon was different than many of the artists that play at the festival – usually geared more toward world, bluegrass, Americana, rock, and blues music. The giant crowd at the meadow stage on Saturday night, however, was quickly enthralled by her enormous talent and grace, welcoming her right into the rest of the lineup, and into their hearts. It was heard many times since that Freelon took the festival to another level.

Shakori Hills recognizes the importance of having many cultures and tastes represented at the four-day festival. Community building is very high on their list of priorities, and what is a community but a mix of people and their interests and activities? With this in mind, one artist that also really shines at the festival is Nnenna Freelon’s son, Pierce. He will be returning to the festival for the third time this spring.

Pierce shares many of the same values as his mom. She is not only known for her musical talent, but as a big proponent of music in education. Pierce, who heads up “The Beast,” a popular hip-hop, soul, jazz group based in Durham, has just as much charisma and star power. As the band performs, it becomes evident that Pierce is wiser than his youth would have him seem. His lyrics are cutting edge poetry and social commentary. This guy has a lot to say!

In 2004, while working on his honors thesis in African and African American studies at UNC Chapel Hill, Pierce created what he calls Blackademics. He developed this curriculum and an accompanying web site, Blackademics.org. The site brags of being “the premier online roundtable for young black thinkers,” and the award-winning hip-hop curriculum has taken Freelon from New York to New Dehli, and back to North Carolina.

The site has a substantial following and is described as “a place where emerging artists, students, future professors, politicians, journalists, filmmakers, cultural critics, entrepreneurs, and any other black folk …can talk, network, debate, discuss…and challenge each other about issues that we, as young Black people, currently face.”

It is a welcoming space, and most importantly, positive.

Pierce has obviously been inspired by his mom (“Come Closer” is one of his hits written about her influence) and it is also evident that he will be inspiring many on his own journey. He has already mastered many talents: creating positive, empowering lyrics backed by historically-based yet presently-relevant music, offering black youth a place to be heard and respected; and giving all people a voice and a call to action for social justice and peaceful movements.
"I love playing Shakori!” Pierce said recently. “When I look out into the crowd I see friends, family, fellow musicians, elders, and youth of all cultural backgrounds - I get to indulge in health conscious food from around the world, listen to my favorite Jazz, Bluegrass, Salsa and Folk bands and purchase indigenous crafts for my son. What more could you ask for in a festival?” This year, The Beast will be pitching a tent to camp throughout the weekend for the first time. So, there will be plenty of chances to see them around.
Another level indeed. Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival is honored to have Pierce and The Beast at the festival again this spring. - Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival

One of the Triangle's new bright lights, Durham's The Beast subverts a half-dozen stereotypes, and that's just staring at the surface: The Beast, for instance, isn't a metal band, and the name's not a reference to malt liquor. Instead, the multi-racial quartet makes live band hip-hop that opens its doors to history—Bob Marley covers, Gil Scott-Heron references, soul vocals, jazz style and taste—as emcee Pierce Freelon (yes, he has a mom) implodes preconceptions about being black in Durham. Listen to his "More2Me," and relish in the possibilities for them and, well, for us. - The Independent Weekly

For seven years, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance has been a touchstone for Triangle music, which its artists say is alive and well.

"There's absolutely a scene," said Pierce Freelon, MC for local Durham band The Beast. "There's a multi-generational scene. An international scene."

The spring edition of the biannual festival-located in Silk Hope, N.C., about an hour outside of Durham-is taking place from April 16 to 19. The Beast is just one of Shakori Hills' 61 scheduled performers; others include the orchestral folk of Lost in the Trees, the traditional Malian music of Mamadou Diabate and a variety of other local and out-of-town acts.

The Beast channels a fusion of jazz and rock into their intelligent hip-hop. The closest comparison might be The Roots, though they draw from a diverse pool of influences that makes the group difficult to pidgeonhole. Freelon is the son of Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, and drummer Stephen Coffman grew up listening to both grunge and funk.

The only logical classification is "quality music," and in this genre they will find themselves in good company at Shakori Hills. Apart from the musical acts, the Festival attracts a hodgepodge of craftsmen, vendors and protestors.

"This is our third year playing Shakori," Coffman said. "At first we just thought of it as a bluegrass concert and didn't expect to see the big stages and great sound systems. We started out playing on Thursday, but moved to Friday last year, which was really cool. We played to a crowd of several thousand."

Quality music and stylistic diversity seem to be the unifying themes for Shakori, which will also feature art, crafts and a series of educational music workshops. Members of The Beast will teach "an interactive history lesson on bluegrass, jazz and hip-hop" for children on Saturday, with an adult version following on Sunday.

"We'll discuss the continuity between genres," Freelon said.

Shakori Hills presents a prime opportunity to take advantage of good weather and explore a more natural, family-friendly atmosphere.

"You can camp out, watch great music all night and pitch a tent," Freelon said.

Before the chaos of Wednesday's LDOC festivities, embrace your inner hippie at Shakori. - The Duke Chronicle