Biography
Bassist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Gregg August commands a wide stylistic palette that spans contemporary jazz, post-bop, Latin jazz, classical literature, and avant-garde forms. Longstanding membership in the JD Allen Trio and Arturo O'Farrill's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra has brought him five Grammy Awards, two of them Latin Grammys. Additional collaborations have included Renée Fleming, Ray Barretto, Vince Mendoza, and Joel Harrison. Beyond ensemble work, August has directed multiple sessions under his own name, among them the widely praised Four by Six from 2012. His classical credentials are equally substantial: he holds associate membership in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and full membership in the American Composers Orchestra, the Westchester Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, while also serving on the faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. In 2020 he released the first recording of Dialogues on Race, an extended big-band suite scored for vocalists, strings, and narrator.
Originally trained as a drummer, August took up the double bass during his time as a percussion major at SUNY-Albany. After transferring two years later to the Eastman School of Music, he studied jazz composition with Ray Wright and performance with Bill Dobbins. Upon completing his bachelor's degree he moved to New York City, earned a master's at The Juilliard School under Homer Mensch, and shortly afterward secured the principal bass position with the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona. Following a two-year stay in Spain he worked as a jazz freelancer in Paris.
Once back in New York, August drew on his immersion in Spanish language and culture to pursue Cuban and Brazilian idioms, becoming a pupil of master bassist Andy González. The resulting perspective opened the door to Ray Barretto's New World Spirit, with whom he toured and recorded; Trancedance, issued in 2000, also featured saxophonist James Moody and the percussion ensemble Los Papines. Further credits from this period include double bass on Eos Orchestra's Celluloid Copland in 2001 and on Michael Byron's avant-chamber piece Awakening at the Inn of the Birds as well as Renée Fleming's Bel Canto, both from 2003.
That same year August assembled his own sextet. His first leader date, Late August, appeared on Iacuessa Records in 2005 and was followed by One Peace in 2007, a release chosen among Hot House magazine's Top Ten recordings. In July of that year the Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered his Cuban-son-inspired work "Oriente."
August entered the JD Allen Trio in 2008 alongside drummer Rudy Royston; their initial recording, Allen's Sunnyside debut I Am I Am, received widespread acclaim. Extensive touring with the trio occupied most of his schedule. After the group's 2009 album Shine, the Jerome Foundation and Jazz Gallery commissioned August to compose a large-ensemble, multi-movement piece. The result was the earliest version of Dialogues on Race, written in the wake of Barack Obama's election as the nation's first Black president amid widespread claims that the United States had become a "post-racial" country. Drawing on poems by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Cornelius Eady, Francisco X. Alarcón, and others, August examined that claim against his own observations. Following the premiere, the blog Lucid Culture declared that "August's richly melodic, aptly relevant compositions created a program that screams out to be recorded."
Despite the enthusiastic response, August set the work aside. He contributed to Michel Legrand's Noel! Noel!! Noel!!!, Vienna Teng's Inland Territory, and Vince Mendoza's cross-cultural Nights on Earth. In 2012 his quintet issued Four by Six, featuring his trio colleagues plus trumpeter John Bailey, alto saxophonist Yosvany Terry, and pianist Luis Perdomo.
Joining Arturo O'Farrill and the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra in 2013, August appeared on the 2014 Latin Grammy-winning Final Night at Birdland and the following year's Offense of the Drum, which earned the Latin Grammy for Best Jazz Album. Concurrent film work included several scores for composer Jeff Grace, among them House of the Devil in 2014 and House of the Dead in 2015.
Activity with the Allen trio remained intense: Graffiti arrived in 2015 and was quickly followed by the widely praised Americana (Musings on Jazz and Blues) in 2016. Between recording and touring, August also taught, composed, and made his first appearance on jazz pianist and songwriter Lisa Hilton's celebrated Horizons. Over subsequent seasons he performed with O'Farrill and Chucho Valdés' new big band on the expansive, award-winning Familia (Tribute to Bebo + Chico), whose track "Three Revolutions" received a Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance. With O'Farrill's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra he recorded Fandango at the Wall: Creating Harmony Between the United States and Mexico, while further Hilton sessions yielded Escapism; the JD Allen Trio meanwhile issued the charting albums Radio Flyer and Love Stone.
Years after the premiere of Dialogues on Race, musicians who had either heard it live or learned of it through reviews urged August to document the piece. Although intrigued, he hesitated: the intervening period had stripped away any illusion of a post-racial America, and an unapologetic xenophobe now occupied the White House. August also recognized the sensitivity surrounding his musical treatment of Emmett Till's torture and murder. Prompted by Keith Beauchamp's documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, he expanded the work to address four centuries of American race relations. Composed with both respect and sorrow, the suite nonetheless raised questions of cultural appropriation in his mind. Musician and journalist Frank Oteri countered by recalling that Mamie Till had deliberately left her son's casket open so the world could witness the brutality inflicted upon him.
Having previously appeared on Joel Harrison's conceptual album America at War, August found further encouragement in that project's example and in the poems he had chosen back in 2009. He proceeded. In early 2019 he convened an all-star ensemble that included John Ellis, JD Allen, Frank Lacy, Marcus Rojas, Luis Perdomo, and Donald Edwards, together with a narrator, strings, and vocalists. Self-producing the sessions, he released the results as Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 on Iacuessa Records in late summer.
Originally trained as a drummer, August took up the double bass during his time as a percussion major at SUNY-Albany. After transferring two years later to the Eastman School of Music, he studied jazz composition with Ray Wright and performance with Bill Dobbins. Upon completing his bachelor's degree he moved to New York City, earned a master's at The Juilliard School under Homer Mensch, and shortly afterward secured the principal bass position with the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona. Following a two-year stay in Spain he worked as a jazz freelancer in Paris.
Once back in New York, August drew on his immersion in Spanish language and culture to pursue Cuban and Brazilian idioms, becoming a pupil of master bassist Andy González. The resulting perspective opened the door to Ray Barretto's New World Spirit, with whom he toured and recorded; Trancedance, issued in 2000, also featured saxophonist James Moody and the percussion ensemble Los Papines. Further credits from this period include double bass on Eos Orchestra's Celluloid Copland in 2001 and on Michael Byron's avant-chamber piece Awakening at the Inn of the Birds as well as Renée Fleming's Bel Canto, both from 2003.
That same year August assembled his own sextet. His first leader date, Late August, appeared on Iacuessa Records in 2005 and was followed by One Peace in 2007, a release chosen among Hot House magazine's Top Ten recordings. In July of that year the Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered his Cuban-son-inspired work "Oriente."
August entered the JD Allen Trio in 2008 alongside drummer Rudy Royston; their initial recording, Allen's Sunnyside debut I Am I Am, received widespread acclaim. Extensive touring with the trio occupied most of his schedule. After the group's 2009 album Shine, the Jerome Foundation and Jazz Gallery commissioned August to compose a large-ensemble, multi-movement piece. The result was the earliest version of Dialogues on Race, written in the wake of Barack Obama's election as the nation's first Black president amid widespread claims that the United States had become a "post-racial" country. Drawing on poems by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Cornelius Eady, Francisco X. Alarcón, and others, August examined that claim against his own observations. Following the premiere, the blog Lucid Culture declared that "August's richly melodic, aptly relevant compositions created a program that screams out to be recorded."
Despite the enthusiastic response, August set the work aside. He contributed to Michel Legrand's Noel! Noel!! Noel!!!, Vienna Teng's Inland Territory, and Vince Mendoza's cross-cultural Nights on Earth. In 2012 his quintet issued Four by Six, featuring his trio colleagues plus trumpeter John Bailey, alto saxophonist Yosvany Terry, and pianist Luis Perdomo.
Joining Arturo O'Farrill and the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra in 2013, August appeared on the 2014 Latin Grammy-winning Final Night at Birdland and the following year's Offense of the Drum, which earned the Latin Grammy for Best Jazz Album. Concurrent film work included several scores for composer Jeff Grace, among them House of the Devil in 2014 and House of the Dead in 2015.
Activity with the Allen trio remained intense: Graffiti arrived in 2015 and was quickly followed by the widely praised Americana (Musings on Jazz and Blues) in 2016. Between recording and touring, August also taught, composed, and made his first appearance on jazz pianist and songwriter Lisa Hilton's celebrated Horizons. Over subsequent seasons he performed with O'Farrill and Chucho Valdés' new big band on the expansive, award-winning Familia (Tribute to Bebo + Chico), whose track "Three Revolutions" received a Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance. With O'Farrill's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra he recorded Fandango at the Wall: Creating Harmony Between the United States and Mexico, while further Hilton sessions yielded Escapism; the JD Allen Trio meanwhile issued the charting albums Radio Flyer and Love Stone.
Years after the premiere of Dialogues on Race, musicians who had either heard it live or learned of it through reviews urged August to document the piece. Although intrigued, he hesitated: the intervening period had stripped away any illusion of a post-racial America, and an unapologetic xenophobe now occupied the White House. August also recognized the sensitivity surrounding his musical treatment of Emmett Till's torture and murder. Prompted by Keith Beauchamp's documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, he expanded the work to address four centuries of American race relations. Composed with both respect and sorrow, the suite nonetheless raised questions of cultural appropriation in his mind. Musician and journalist Frank Oteri countered by recalling that Mamie Till had deliberately left her son's casket open so the world could witness the brutality inflicted upon him.
Having previously appeared on Joel Harrison's conceptual album America at War, August found further encouragement in that project's example and in the poems he had chosen back in 2009. He proceeded. In early 2019 he convened an all-star ensemble that included John Ellis, JD Allen, Frank Lacy, Marcus Rojas, Luis Perdomo, and Donald Edwards, together with a narrator, strings, and vocalists. Self-producing the sessions, he released the results as Dialogues on Race, Vol. 1 on Iacuessa Records in late summer.
Albums
