Rhiannon Giddens Makes Herself at Home at Symphony Space

Rhiannon Giddens. Credit: David McClister.

Rhiannon Giddens. Credit: David McClister.

Symphony Space has been a welcoming creative home for a number of inimitable musicians in past years, giving artists like Béla Fleck, Meredith Monk, Richard Hell, John Luther Adams, and Nadia Sirota ample room to curate and fulfill distinct creative visions as artists-in-residence.

Next to take up residence is Rhiannon Giddens, the “master folklorist, banjo virtuoso and vocal powerhouse” (NPR), 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship awardee, and founding member of the GRAMMY Award-winning roots group Carolina Chocolate Drops, who hosts her first-ever curated series in New York City November 8-17, 2018.

For her time at Symphony Space, Giddens has pulled together an incredible range of talent for four exceptionally compelling shows. Two of the shows are a complementary pair presented in the larger Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, celebrating “both historical and contemporary women of color” in music, dance, spoken word, and more. For the first of these, ‘Sisters Past’ (November 14), Giddens, alongside Lalenja Harrington and tap dancer Robyn Watson, pay homage to Nina Simone, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Waters, and more women of color who have made significant and unique contributions to the cannon. Five mighty women share the stage for ‘Sisters Present’ (November 17)— Giddens, Toshi Reagon, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah, and Lalenja Harrington—building a show that highlights current contemporary songwriting from women of color. Each of the five women will share a few of their songs and collaborate with one another, and the program will include songs written together by Giddens, Russell, and Kiah for an upcoming collaborative album. Both ‘Sisters Past’ and ‘Sisters Present’ are backed by the incredible musicians Alphonso Horne on trumpet, Attis Cloption on drums, Jason Sypher on bass, and Francesco Turrisi on piano and more.

The other two evenings are solo acts taking place in the intimate setting of the Leonard Nimoy Thalia. For November 8, Giddens calls in the Tennessee-based Southern Gothic songster, Amythyst Kiah, to command the stage with her raw and powerful vocals, playing music ranging from blues to old-time. This performance is tied into Symphony Space’s Thursday evening REVELRY series with drink specials and an intimate vibe. On November 15, Giddens brings in the versatile Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi, with whom she’s currently collaborating on two projects—an album, and music for Nashville Ballet’s Lucy Negro Redux, a ballet about how Shakespeare’s sonnets could have been written for a woman of color, starring a black prima ballerina. For Turrisi’s Symphony Space show, he performs a solo concert, touching on themes of improvisation along musical migration routes, embracing jazz, classical, and baroque styles.

SHOW LISTINGS

NOVEMBER 8, 2018
REVELRY: AMYTHYST KIAH CURATED BY RHIANNON GIDDENS
LEONARD NIMOY THALIA THEATRE
7:30PM

Members $26 | Non-Members $30 | Thirty and Under (with ID) $20
Run Time: 75 minutes

Provocative and cooly fierce, Amythyst Kiah’s raw and powerful vocals create a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. This performance, curated by Rhiannon Giddens as part of her residency, is tied into Symphony Space’s Thursday evening REVELRY series with drink specials and an intimate vibe.

A professed Southern Gothic, alt-country blues singer/songwriter Amythyst Kiah is based in Johnson City, TN, Accoutered interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band (Her Chest of Glass), Amythyst’s toolbox is augmented by her scholarship of African-American roots music. Her eclectic influences span decades, drawing heavily on old time music (Mississippi Sheiks, Son House, Jimmie Rodgers, Olla Belle Reed, Carter Family), inspired by strong R&B and country music vocalists from the ’50s-’70s (Big Mama Thornton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn) and influenced by contemporary artists with powerful vocal integrity (Adele, Florence and the Machine, Megan Jean and the KFB, Janelle Monae).

Recent tours in Scotland and the U.K. have seen Amythyst performing for audiences at the Americana Music Association UK Showcase, the Southern Fried Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, and SummerTyne Americana Festival. She is a crowd favorite at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in the U.S., has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. Provocative and coolly fierce, Amythyst Kiah’s ability to cross the boundaries of blues and old-time through reinterpretation is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable.

NOVEMBER 14, 2018
SISTERS PAST
PETER JAY SHARP THEATRE
8:00PM

Members $38-$55 | Non-Members $45-$65 | Thirty and Under (with ID) $30-$65
Run Time: 120 minutes

Rhiannon Giddens – vocals, banjo, fiddle
Lalenja Harrington – vocals and spoken word
Robyn Watson – tap
Alphonso Horne – trumpet
Francesco Turrisi – piano, accordion, tamborello
Attis Clopton – drums
Jason Sypher – bass

Rhiannon Giddens, Lalenja Harrington and Robyn Watson perform the music, poetry and dance of sisters past, paying homage to Nina Simone, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Waters, and more women of color who have made significant and unique contributions to the musical cannon. Watson will tap and Harrington will perform spoken word and sing while Giddens sings and plays banjo and fiddle. They will be joined by Francesco Turrisi on piano, accordion and tamborello, Alphonso Horne on trumpet, Attis Clopton on drums, and Jason Sypher on upright bass.

Rhiannon Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy Award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she also plays banjo and fiddle. She began gaining recognition as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett-produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013. The elegant bearing, prodigious voice and fierce spirit that brought the audience to its feet that night is also abundantly evident on Giddens’ critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy-nominated album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, which masterfully blends American musical genres like gospel, jazz, blues and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess. Giddens' follow-up album, Freedom Highway, was released in February 2017. It includes nine original songs Giddens wrote or co-wrote along with a traditional song and two civil rights-era songs, “Birmingham Sunday” and Staple Singers’ well-known “Freedom Highway,” from which the album takes its name. Giddens has performed for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, appeared on The Late Show, Austin City Limits, Later…with Jools Holland, and both CBS Saturday and Sunday Morning, and dueted with country superstar Eric Church on his powerful anti-racism song “Kill a Word” (including performing the song on The Tonight Show and the CMA Awards, among other programs). In 2017, Giddens was awarded a Macarthur Genius Award and she has also received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Singer of the Year and the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Bluegrass and Banjo. She has performed a recurring role on the television drama Nashville, playing the role of Hanna Lee “Hallie” Jordan, a young social worker with "the voice of an angel.”

Lalenja Harrington is Rhiannon Giddens’ sister and has been singing with her family for as far back as she can remember. There were very few car rides with her dad and sister, or family get togethers, that did not involve the joyful rising up of voices in tight familial harmonies. Her mother’s family introduced her to those powerhouse black women performers like Bessie Smith, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Koko Taylor, Sweet Honey and the Rock, as well as the work of black women writers/poets like Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, who would all be an integral part of what shaped her as an artist. Lalenja anchored the Boston National Slam Poetry team in 1994, co-penned the poetic elements of Keep a Song in your Soul: The Black Roots of Vaudeville (Old Town School of Music - Chicago) and has been performing, and facilitating collaborative poetry locally since that time. She has also been incorporating poetry into her academic research/scholarship, as she believes that poetry has the power to create spaces that value all voices and perspectives. Lalenja has also enjoyed a number of lead roles in local productions like Rent, Children of Eden, Born Bad, Dembe and her most challenging musical role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.

Robyn Watson is a native of Philadelphia and began dancing at the age of 5. She began her training at La-Cher-Tari Dance Studio and later at Wissahickon Dance Academy. By the age of 10 she was asked to join Tap Team Two and Co and served as a member and choreographer until 2002. She has had the opportunity to perform with noted artists in the discipline including Dianne Walker, Germaine Ingram, Savion Glover and the legendary Mabel Lee. Robyn was featured in the May/June 2005 issue of Dance Spirit Magazine as one of the “20 Hot Tappers, 20 and Under”. Watson received her B.A in Theater from Temple University. She has also served as a costume designer for several high schools and production companies in the Philadelphia region. In 2016 served as the tap instructor for the Broadway sensation “Shuffle Along.” Recently, she has been to collaborate and perform with the wonderful singer/musician Rhiannon Giddens. For the past eight years she has had the opportunity to work and study under the direction of the amazing Savion Glover. Robyn is currently a resident artist at the Painted Bride Art Center where she is creating “The Blackbirds’ Suites” a trilogy of tap dance narratives that address black women’s identity throughout American History. Besides being a professional dancer, Robyn is also a theatre and dance educator.

NOVEMBER 15, 2018
FRANCESCO TURRISI
LEONARD NIMOY THALIA THEATRE
7:30PM

Members $26 | Non-Members $30 | Thirty and Under (with ID) $20
Run Time: 75 minutes

Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi performs a solo piano concert, touching on themes of improvisation and musical migration routes, and embracing jazz, classical, and baroque styles.

If a musician is defined by the company he keeps then it is little wonder that Francesco Turrisi skirts easy categorization. The Turin-born, Dublin-based pianist and multi- instrumentalist has played with former Miles Davis reedsman Dave Liebman, flamenco icon Pepe El Habichuela, kaval player Theodosii Spassov and singer-extraordinaire Maria Pia de Vito. He is equally at home playing with jazz veteran Gianluigi Trovesi as he is with Irish sean-nós singer Roisin El Safty and with tarantella specialist Lucilla Galeazzi. Turrisi has toured with Bobby McFerrin, interpreted the music of Steve Reich with Bang on a Can All Stars and, since 2004, has been a core member of celebrated early music ensemble L’ Arpeggiata. And at heart, he is a jazz improviser. Turrisi, it’s safe to say, is a musical polyglot par excellence and it’s natural that he feels at home in multiple musical settings for his vocabulary is a colorful weave of early music, pan-Mediterranean modal melodies and European flavored jazz. In spite of his numerous collaborations, it’s as a leader that Turrisi has earned his spurs. His five beautifully crafted solo albums and two co-led releases have garnered widespread critical acclaim.

"His ability to rework ancient melodies and rhythms through a contemporary jazz prism marks him out as one of the most striking voices to have emerged on the European jazz scene in the past decade.”—Ian Patterson, All About Jazz

NOVEMBER 14, 2018
SISTERS PRESENT
PETER JAY SHARP THEATRE
8:00PM

Members $38-$55 | Non-Members $45-$65 | Thirty and Under (with ID) $30-$65
Run Time: 120 minutes

Rhiannon Giddens – vocals, banjo, fiddle
Toshi Reagon – vocals, etc
Allison Russell – vocals, guitar, banjo
Amythyst Kiah – vocals, guitar, banjo
Lalenja Harrington – vocals and spoken word
Francesco Turrisi – piano, accordion, tamborello
Attis Clopton – drums
Jason Sypher – bass

Giddens has invited her friends Toshi Reagon, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Lalenja Harrington to build a show highlighting current contemporary women of color who are new and exciting music. Each of the five women will share a few of their songs and collaborate with one another, backed by the incredible rhythm section of Francesco Turrisi, Attis Clopton and Jason Sypher. Giddens, Russell and Kiah will also share songs they wrote together (all on banjo) for an upcoming album they recorded for the Smithsonian Folkways label, entitled Songs of Our Native Daughters. That album comes out on February 22 worldwide.

Toshi Reagon has been described by Vibe magazine as “one helluva rock’n’roller-coaster ride” and by Pop Matters as “a treasure waiting to be found.” She is a one-woman celebration of all that’s dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music. Since first taking to the stage at age 17, this versatile singer-songwriter-guitarist has moved audiences of all kinds with her big-hearted, hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, country, folk, spirituals and funk. The New York Times described her blend as “…a love of mixing things up…[her] vocal style ranges from a dirty blues moan to a gospel shout to an ethereal croon.” Her live performances, in particular, aren’t just accessible; they’re irresistible. And Toshi Reagon loves her audiences. Leading her renowned band–BIGLovely, launched in 1996–she instantly connects, inspires and empowers. Over nearly 30 years, Reagon has collaborated with top innovators across a wide spectrum of the entertainment field. Since Lenny Kravitz chose her, straight out of college, to open for him on his first world tour, she has gone on to share stages with notable colleagues such as Nona Hendryx, Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Dar Williams, Lizz Wright, Me’shell NdegéOcello and Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius). Her performances with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon–civil rights activist and founder of the a cappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock–are legendary.

Allison Russell is one half of the husband-and-wife duo Birds of Chicago. Birds of Chicago have been riding a swell of good mojo in the American world since their inception in late 2012. With their new album, Love in Wartime, they are set to both confirm that roots world buzz, and break on through to a wider audience across the world. Recorded in Chicago against a backdrop of bewilderment, deep-divide and dread, Love in Wartime is a rock and roll suite with a cinematic sweep. Co-produced by Nero and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), it evokes epic efforts of the 60’s and 70’s, with love as the undeniable throughline. As Russell puts it, “Any act of love is an act of bravery. These songs are snapshots of covenants, big and small, of trust and understanding. We want to give people some good news, and we want them to be able to dance when they hear it.” When BOC released its last album, the Joe Henry produced Real Midnight, in 2016, critics scrambled to find the right terminology to describe the deep lyricism, gut-punch singing and fevered musicality. . . “. “Secular gospel” Was one phrase that caught some traction. That fervor is evident in Love in Wartime as well: “Roll Away the heavy stone/roll away the heavy hours/roll on in the summer mon/who’s alive who’s alive who’s alive?” The invitation is joyous, but urgant. . . call it “secular gospel,” or call it what they used to call poetry intoned over roots music mash-ups: rock n roll. The Birds consider themselves a rock and roll band first and foremost, and Love in Wartime doesn’t leave any doubt about that. 

For biographical information on Giddens, Kiah, and Harrington, see “Sisters Past” listing above.

RESOURCES:

###


Sarah Knight