Samora Pinderhughes at Joe's Pub

Samora Pinderhughes at Joe's Pub, Thursday, Nov. 1
Tickets: $15. Show at 9:30 pm. 

The pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes likes to think big. His music is often based on sociopolitical concerns, and his "The Transformations Suite" is a prime example of that. Pinderhughes spent five years writing this multimedia work, which includes poetry and theatrical elements as well as music, and which tackles issues of social inequality and injustice. You could think of it as a modern extension of a tradition of black protest music that goes back to Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, and Charles Mingus.

Tonight at Joe’s Pub, Samora Pinderhughes and his band perform songs from “The Transformations Suite” and from his work-in-progress, “The Healing Project,” which takes on the injustice of mass incarceration.