Ear Expansion with JoVia Armstrong

In this episode of Ear Expansion, LaMont Hamilton converses with percussionist-composer and educator JoVia Armstrong. In this conversation, they speak about wide-ranging topics from her early sonic formation and major projects to her later immersion in global rhythms. She discusses the ensemble Musique Noire, her first solo album Fuzzy Blue Robe Chronicles, and her performance ethos of receptivity— which led to Eunoia Society and music aimed at deep audience connection. Armstrong recounts encountering the cajón through the work of Susana Baca, learning it on a South American tour, and developing her hybrid cajón kit. Also in this conversation, JoVia explains her use of drones, repetition, deep bass, time-based effects, and hybrid scoring as a way to elicit the therapeutic aspect of sound. Later, they discuss her PhD concept “Black Space,” and its central thesis: composing meditative music through a Black lens to combat unconscious bias (as reflected in her albums The Antidote Suite and Inception).