August Greene: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Feb. 21, 2018, Abby O Neill August Greene, the collaborative effort of Common, Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins, was born at the White House in 2016 during a special Tiny Desk concert. It was during that unprecedented performance that the thenuntitled ensemble premiered the powerful Letter to the Free, an original song for Ava DuVernay s Netflix documentary 13th that eventually won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. For the trio s first visit to NPR headquarters, they brought some special guests: vocalists Brandy, Maimouna Youssef and Andra Day. The band performed four tracks from its upcoming selftitled album (out March 9 on Amazon Music), an impromptu freestyle, and Day s Oscarnominated collaboration with Common, Stand Up For Something, from the film Marshall. Common described the theme of the Tiny Desk as Foregrounding Women, alluding to the attendance of Brandy, Day and Youssef, as well as the spiritual presence of Glasper s younger cousin, Loren, who passed just a few days