KWENDA VUTUKA (Come Go Return)
Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group
and Andréya Ouamba/Compagnie 1er TEMPS
Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group
and Andréya Ouamba/Compagnie 1er TEMPS
Fri. & Sat.
May 9 & 10 | 8pm
FIAF, Florence Gould Hall
$25
$20 Students w/ID, FIAF Members
A co-presentation with French Institute Alliance Française as part of World Nomads: Africa
“[Reggie Wilson is] one of this country’s most talented choreographers”
The New York Times
In this special presentation, choreographers Reggie Wilson and Andréya Ouamba show works from their diverse repertoires, including the seminal Fist & Heel works, Untitled; and INTRODUCTION; and Andréya Ouamba’s award-winning, Impro-Visé 2. In addition, they will show a work-in-progress excerpt of The Good Dance – a piece that is, in part, an investigation of the metaphoric, historic and real world parallels of the Mississippi and Congo rivers and the cultures that surround them. The New York Times
DELTA RISING
Ping Chong & Talvin Wilks
Ping Chong & Talvin Wilks
651 ARTS presents a commissioned theater work by acclaimed directors Ping Chong and Talvin Wilks using the life stories of people who come from the Mississippi Delta -- or whose families come from the Delta. Delta Rising follows the format of Chong’s Undesirable Elements projects and provides an artistically beautiful and historical testament to the diversity, vibrancy and complex history of the region.
Otha Turner’s legacy lives on! Considered the godfather of the hill country blues, Turner was the first to bring fife and drum music – which evolved when Civil War marching band music coincided with the syncopated rhythms of West Africa - to listeners outside of Mississippi. Otha Turner played this music for over 60 years. After his death in 2003, Turner’s granddaughter, fourteen year-old Sharde Thomas became the appointed heir and leader of her grandfather’s group - The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band. Like her grandfather, Sharde sings with surprising bravado. In this rare performance at the Masonic Temple in Ft. Greene, the now 18 year-old Sharde returns to New York City.
Toshi Reagon is an artist who credits her musical chops to her parents’ activist and musician roles in the Civil Rights movement. While defying categorization, Reagon’s musical style has roots in the American south and Delta Blues traditions. Her music is powerfully soulful and clearly rooted in folk, gospel and the blues. The energy of Reagon’s live shows, with her band BIGLovely, is infectious and has captured the interest of musicians from Lenny Kravitz to Elvis Costello to Ani DiFranco. Reagon has followed in her mother’s footsteps (internationally revered founder of Sweet Honey In the Rock, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon) as a woman who uses her artistry to raise political consciousness as well as to blend diverse American musical forms into a distinct contemporary genre all her own.
T-Model Ford
Part of 651 ARTS’ Late Night Juke Joint Series
T-Model Ford is the reigning dictator of bad-man Mississippi electric blues. Born in Forrest, Mississippi, he didn’t learn the guitar until he was in his 70s, but T-Model has been a bluesman all his life. From the cotton field to the lumber yard to the local jail, he has done his share of hard-living. Rick Bragg of The New York Times once joked, "He did not sell his soul, as legend says Robert Johnson did, to master the blues. The Devil, people say, would run from Mr. Ford." T-Model’s unforgiving guitar technique has kinship with Muddy Waters, but his persona is unlike anyone in the world - when T-Model’s in the room, you’re guaranteed a show. Records by T-Model include, Pee Wee Get My Gun; You Better Keep Still; She Ain't None of Your'n; and Bad Man.
PEACHES, PLUMS AND PONTIFICATIONS
Olu Dara & Dianne McIntyre
Olu Dara & Dianne McIntyre
When celebrated artists Olu Dara and Dianne McIntyre get together, magic happens. As longtime collaborators, Dara and McIntyre have created a number of profoundly poignant performances whose narrative elements take shape through music and dance. In this new work-in-progress, acclaimed dancer/choreographer McIntyre explores stories from the Mississippi Delta, the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, as well as tales gathered from individual storytellers, friends and family. Joining McIntyre is celebrated music master, storyteller, trumpeter, bluesman, folk singer, jazz artist, avant garde innovator, comedian and storehouse of African American music history, Mississippi native – Olu Dara. A multidimensional company of artists including Camille A. Brown, Tess Reese, Kyle Primous, and Shireen Dickson make up the cast.
Terry “Harmonica” Bean
Part of 651 ARTS’ Late Night Juke Joint Series
Terry Bean’s blues harmonica is a time-machine that teaches you how to listen: “What’s stimulating me, is people hearing the blues played like they used to hear it.” Terry takes the world of Mississippi – his years of picking cotton and growing up around his father’s house parties – and shapes it into something fresh. Like Little Walter before him, Terry blows the blues and gets people dancing. He hangs tough in duets with Mississippi bad-man, T-Model Ford, but Terry “Harmonica” Bean is also an incredible solo act. When he’s not playing original material, Terry’s resonator guitar brings new vigor to blues classics such as Back Door Man and Big Boss Man.
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
opening for Marie Knight
Thursday
June 5 | 8pm
Kumble Theater at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
$20 | $15 students and seniors
Recorded initially by Alan Lomax in the 1970s, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is a practitioner and advocate of a distinctive blues style called Bentonia blues - from his hometown, Bentonia, Mississippi - whose most famous proponent was blues pioneer Skip James. Like James before him, Holmes’ style is characterized by distinctive open tunings, the use of falsetto, dark lyrical themes, and an overall eerie quality – it is music that opens the door to an older Mississippi. Holmes is also proprietor of one of the longest-standing juke joints in Mississippi - The Blue Front in Bentonia.
Marie Knight
plus Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
Thursday
June 5 | 8pm
Kumble Theater at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
$20 | $15 students and seniors
A fine gospel singer, with a ringing, signifying voice, Marie Knight attracted attention while singing in the choir at the Oakwood Avenue Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She made some 78s for Brunswick Records in 1953 and later some EPs and an album for Mercury Records that established her firmly in the gospel fold. Her fame spread further owing to some excellent duets she performed with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, notably ecstatic versions of Up Above My Head and Didn't It Rain, the latter recorded for Brunswick. In 2003, Marie Knight was recruited to sing a track for the highly successful CD, Shout Sister Shout, a tribute to Sister Rosetta on M.C. Records. Since its release in August 2003, Marie Knight has performed on syndicated radio programs Mountain Stage and Wood Songs Radio Hour. She has also been interviewed for NPR's Weekend Edition and was part of two successful Tribute shows in New York City with The Holmes Brothers and Odetta.
Robert Belfour
Part of 651 ARTS’ Late Night Juke Joint Series
The everyday problems of Mississippi are fodder for Robert “Wolfman” Belfour’s hard-willed examinations of love and loneliness. Belfour’s acoustic blues builds upon the great strides made by his fellow Mississippians, including Junior Kimborough and Otha Turner. His solo recordings include, What’s Wrong With You; and Pushin’ My Luck. At sixty, Belfour's sound is pure country blues.
Lobi Traoré
opening for Corey Harris
Friday
June 6 | 8pm
Kumble Theater at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
$25 | $20 students and seniors
From Bamako to Brooklyn, Malian guitarist and vocalist Lobi Traoré embodies the full power of the African diaspora. Traoré is called the inventor of Bambara blues — a sound which is associated with the Bambara people of Mali. His music resembles the progression of twelve-bar blues and his guitar style has been compared to something between John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Page. Traoré’s breakthrough album, Bamako, produced by Ali Farka Touré, was released in 1994. It was voted one of the best rock albums of the year by Libération and one of the best world music albums by Le Monde. For one night only, 651 ARTS will present Traoré on electric guitar with his bass player, Brehima Kouyate, both of whom will travel from Mali for this singular Brooklyn event. They will be joined at the Kumble by an all-star cast of NYC musicians, and are co-billed with bluesman extraordinaire, Corey Harris.
Corey Harris
and the 5x5 Band
plus Lobi Traoré
and the 5x5 Band
Friday
June 6 | 8pm
Kumble Theater at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
$25 | $20 students and seniors
In a career that spans more than a decade, critically-acclaimed Corey Harris is more than just a bluesman; he is a pilgrim in search of his music’s earliest origins, from beyond the Mississippi to the continent of Africa. Not just a master of the blues, Harris is an explorer of many styles, with sounds ranging from blues to reggae, hip hop, Latin, funk, and R&B. His critically-acclaimed albums include Mississippi to Mali; Daily Bread; and Zion Crossroads. Over the years he has worked with some of the most respected musicians playing today – both within and outside of the blues tradition, including Wilco and Ali Farka Touré. In addition to his prolific work in the recording studio, Harris also starred in the Martin Scorsese documentary, Feel Like Going Home, an installment that took him to Mali for the blues series that aired on PBS in 2003. In 2007, Harris was awarded a MacArthur Award for excellence.
Michael Hill Blues Mob
Saturday
June 7 | afternoon
The New York Mississippi Picnic
Central Park (5th Avenue, at 97th Street)
FREERaised in the South Bronx, Michael Hill began playing guitar at age 18 and started the band Wild Honey (briefly Brown Sugar) with his siblings Wynette, Kathy and Kevin, some childhood friends and two cousins. In 1985 he was invited to join the band of poet/performer Sekou Sundiata and keyboardist Doug Booth; Sekou was to become a major influence and inspiration. The band also included Vernon Reid, who introduced Michael to the Black Rock Coalition. Over the years Michael has been privileged to perform or record with Little Richard, Carla Thomas, Harry Belafonte, Archie Bell and B.B. King, and has jammed with numerous blues heroes, friends and colleagues, including Buddy Guy and Luther Allison. Recognized as one of modern blues' "most talented songwriters and guitarists" (Living Blues) and known for "uncompromising musical and lyrical integrity" (Goldmine), Michael has clearly learned much from his heroes, especially the importance of originality.
Cassandra Wilson
SPECIAL OFFER: Your ticket purchase to 651 ARTS' presentation of Cassandra Wilson’s BAM Harvey concert entitles you to exclusive pre-sale tickets to Cassandra’s CD release show at the Blue Note Jazz Club on Monday, June 9th. Get the special code from the BAM box office with your ticket purchase.
“Wilson’s smoky voice is a treasure” USA Today
Grammy-winning vocalist, songwriter, producer, Cassandra Wilson never fails to surprise and inspire. Sexy, honey-velvet vocals wrapped around her own jazzy blue compositions or inventive interpretations of others’ material led TIME magazine to name her “America’s Best Singer”. As a proud Mississippian, Wilson has also committed much of her career to preserving Mississippi’s cultural heritage and supporting the advancement of contemporary Mississippi musicians. On June 7, Wilson will perform for a one night only concert at the beautiful BAM Harvey Theater — She will be joined onstage by Jonathan Batiste on piano, Marvin Sewell on guitar, Lekan Babalola on percussion, EJ Strickland on drums, and Reginald Veal on bass. 
