This piece was first recorded on Hemphill’s debut album, Dogon A.D. (1972) with alto saxophone, trumpet, cello, and drums. Hemphill arranged it for various instrumental ensembles over the course of his career, and the archive contains many different scores and parts in Hemphill’s hand.
Music Manuscript Notebook 2 (MMN2) includes a score titled “Original Dogon A.D.” for alto saxophone, trumpet, vibraphone, and drums. Hemphill arranged the piece for twelve-piece big band in 1980, a performance documented on archival recordings, and he added strings for the piece’s performance in Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera.
The JAH band recorded a version titled “Dogon II” on the album Georgia Blue (1984), with alto saxophone, guitar, electric bass, drums, and percussion.
Found on: Dogon A.D., Dogon A.D. (2011 expanded reissue), Georgia Blue, Live from the New Music Cafe.
From Marty Ehrlich: This is arguably Hemphill’s most famous composition. He performed and recorded at least two different versions of “Dogon A.D.” with his JAH Band, whose original instrumentation was alto saxophone, guitar, electric bass, drums, and percussion. This group recorded the piece as “Dogon II” on the album Georgia Blue (1984), from a live performance at the Willisau Jazz Festival in Switzerland. For the band’s next tour, Hemphill got rid of percussion and added a second guitarist, Bill Frisell. In a phone conversation in 2018, guitarist Nels Cline recalled that Hemphill composed the new guitar part at a piano in Switzerland during a six-week tour of Europe in 1985, and that the part was written for Frisell to play as an answer to the melody, which Hemphill and Cline performed. Cline reported that he always played the melody of “Dogon A.D.” with Hemphill, with Frisell playing the answer part.
The big band version of “Dogon,” with an introduction and with backgrounds for the solo sections added, was premiered at the New Jazz at the Public series at the Public Theatre on November 1, 1980.