James Orraca-Tetteh, who focuses on piano and guitar and has plans to get into some video work, is looking forward to a career in music and a future fortified by experiences he's had with internships in the music industry in New York City. It's clear that New York is where he sees his career starting. "Every time I go back to New York my head goes into a different place altogether. I'm more committed there," James said.
John Orraca-Tetteh, who plays drums and guitar and is likewise involved in the visual arts, is also looking to pursue an artistic future. "I'm an artist. The way that you take a breath in is the way that a writer writes or a painter strokes his brush," John said. "It's just communicating with different methods."
The Orraca-Tettehs, who will be living in New York City together as they kick off their careers, are ready to go. "Amherst gives you the nutrients to go on," John said. James added, "We've made our home here but I'm so ready to move on to the next stage. It's cool to be here with kids all the same age, but it's not like that in the world."
Hitting the right notes
James wasn't always convinced that he wanted a career in music. "I thought I was going to be the first black President," he said. According to James, it was a single, pivotal afternoon during his sophomore year that changed his life.
"It started as I was coming from rugby practice one day," he said. "It was autumn, and the leaves were turning orange, yellow and red, and the wind was blowing. I heard a progression of notes in my head. I guess I had always heard music in my head; I thought it was just a normal thing the way that everyone hears music in their head. It was just so strong and I thought, 'Why don't I just go to the piano and play it?' It was so perfect. That's when I realized that I probably had this thing for so long and I just had to act on it."
The piece that James heard that afternoon, which he called "The Fall of Life and Time," grew into a six-minute score for piano and violin. "I performed it … at Harlem Renaissance that year," he said. "My friend Nicole Joseph-Goteiner ['02] and I played it. I took the knowledge from creating that song and I knew the music industry was where I wanted to be."
John, who spent some time away from Amherst to study abroad in Chile during the spring semester of his junior year, recalled an experience he had there that influenced his growth as a musician. "I met a 'cat' on the street going to school and we started talking music," he said. "He told me I should come play some music at his place in a month or so, and in May I went to the place he described and it turned out to be the university radio station. That day I got my music out to all the Chileans."
John took the opportunity to do more than just play his music. "I got to tell them my ideas about the youth of the United States and how we understand generations across the world," he said. "These are things we think about all the time, but I had the opportunity, just by chance, to reveal how I feel to all of those people."
Perhaps John won't have to wait very long before he finds himself playing on the airwaves again.
A common influence
When asked about any influences that helped them reach their decision to practice their craft in New York together, their smiles and affirming glances revealed that there was definitely a certain person who had made quite an impression on them. Yusef Lateef, a five-college distinguished professor of music, has been a remarkable source of influence for the brothers.
"We can talk about this idealistic, very motivational spirit," John said. "James and I know what we can offer but you get some kind of reassurance when certain people walk into your life and give you some kind of confidence, some kind of wisdom. I can go to Yusef and tell him 'You know, when I sit down and play the drums I'll sit back and I'll hear melodies like John Coltrane's.' When I say that to any one of my friends, either they cower back and think I'm crazy or they get intimidated by me."
John has spent much time with Lateef and these discussions, according to John, have helped him affirm his musical intuitions. "When I tell Yusef these are the kind of things I feel while I'm playing, he'll take that in, translate it and he'll feel it," he said. "When I tell him that next year I might be studying drums with this guy named Charlie Persip who played with Dizzy Gillespie ... that kind of thing I can talk to Yusef about and he'll say, 'Oh, that's really great, when you go see him tell him I said hi.' Those kinds of things are the kind of reinforcement that make me feel like I'm on my path."
James has had similar, positive experiences with Lateef. "When you talk to him and he gives you that kind of real response, it's real because these things have happened to him," he said. "Yusef knows about the industry and can give us that kind of real perspective that we need."
The Big Apple
Before packing their bags for New York City, the Orraca-Tettehs plan to live in West Africa until September. "As of right now, James and I will be going to Ghana, where our parents are from," John said. "We'll go to the Ivory Coast for about two weeks to live with our cousins and then go to Accra [the seaside capital of Ghana] until about the beginning of September."
James has high expectations for the brothers' African voyage. "Just in terms of how far everything's come along from the beginning when I started at Amherst to the end, where I know I've personally come in terms of creation and making music, I feel like our trip to Ghana is going to be the final thing that really solidifies whatever it is I have," he said. "I'll be really ready to just go when we're done with our trip."
James also hopes to take advantage of the landscape, as a relaxing break after graduation. "I just want to breathe the air, look at the water, walk on the sand," he said. "It's going to be a very peaceful era, I think. It's such a different environment, a different vision altogether. It's so far away from everything we know here and we were lucky enough when we were 14 to get a glimpse of it. I just can't wait."
The two do not have specific plans after they return from Ghana, but, as James emphasized, there's no need for concern. "When my dad calls, his whole thing is 'All right, Sept. 1, what are you doing?' and I say 'You don't have to worry!'" James said. "There's something in me ... and if he could feel it too ... The fire is there and it's burning. I can just feel it. It's so good, I can feel that something's coming. And I don't think my dad or anyone around us can understand us."
For James, and for his brother, music has become a powerful influence in their lives and a factor that they cannot ignore for their future. "We have all of these resources and tools at our disposal," said James. "Over the past three or four years working in the industry, watching and learning about different people has really put stuff in perspective for me. We have to do this music. It's all about that."
During the summer after his sophomore year, James had an internship with Sony Music in New York City and was given his first taste of the ugly side of the music industry when he was fired citing internal politics. During the summer after his junior year, James worked at a different studio owned by J Records, whose philosophy is more attractive to him than the political situation he met at Sony.
"In the street you have so many people who are trying to make money quickly, so they're producing shabby work that has no substance, no quality," said James. "Of course, you see it on MTV all the time. [The people at J Records are] really about artistic integrity: If you've got the talent, if you actually have the goods to write your own music and create your own songs, [they] allow you the freedom to work with that. [J Records] provides the environment to nourish your art."
James has made some strong business connections in the music industry, but he does not want to make any definite plans that may become restraining. "I want to have that flexibility and see what happens in New York," he said. "I thought about getting a real, 40-hours-a-week type job to make some money but it's really not important. I think I'm going to try to do some studio work so I can get to know the studio and use it for free and meet people, but still have that flexibility. How we start out is going to affect the way things start happening."
Although many young musicians often abandon their art to win a profit, or they will forsake music entirely, James expressed that he was prepared for any challenges that may block his path. "Over the past three or four years I've been building this armor," he said. "I've figured out who to go to directly. It's about who you go to directly and what kind of person they are. That makes the industry a lot smaller, if you know the right people. I'm always going to have my eye out so people can't swindle or jade us but, at the same time, I feel like I would like to skip a lot of the extra bullshit that a lot of people don't know about because they don't have the knowledge about how the industry is. I'm so prepared to go knock some doors down."
The fates of James and John Orraca-Tetteh are difficult to define, but James summed up his opinion of their situation with a convincing smile as he proclaimed, "Outlook is good."