DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH
OPEN PROCESS - ROBESON
UNPACKING A CLASSICAL AMERICANA ELECTRO-GOSPEL ACID TRIP
Friday, September 27, 2024 | 8 PM
Zipper Hall at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Zipper Hall at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
DAVÓNE TINES IS CHANGING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CLASSICAL SINGER” - Alex Ross (The New Yorker)
Davóne Tines & THE TRUTH. Photograph by Noah Elliott Morrison
TICKETS:
Seating in Zipper Hall will be General Admission.
Patron Seating will be marked as “Reserved” and will be located at the center of Zipper Hall's seating area.
Seniors, as well as any folks with limited income are welcome to purchase tickets at the $10 amount.
If you or a guest has any special seating needs, please contact us. We will be happy to help!
PROGRAM:
DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH
OPEN PROCESS – ROBESOИ
UNPACKING A CLASSICAL AMERICANA ELECTRO-GOSPEL ACID TRIP
PERFORMERS:
Davóne TINES, bass-baritone
Khari LUCAS, sound artist
John BITOY, piano
GUEST INTERVIEWER:
Hamza WALKER
DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH
OPEN PROCESS – ROBESOИ
UNPACKING A CLASSICAL AMERICANA ELECTRO-GOSPEL ACID TRIP
PERFORMERS:
Davóne TINES, bass-baritone
Khari LUCAS, sound artist
John BITOY, piano
GUEST INTERVIEWER:
Hamza WALKER
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
“Like his predecessor [Paul Robeson], Mr. Tines has always been more than just a performer,” says the Wall Street Journal,
“using his richly expressive, wide-ranging instrument and theatrical skill to excavate his own stories, dark side and all.”
“using his richly expressive, wide-ranging instrument and theatrical skill to excavate his own stories, dark side and all.”
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A LETTER FROM DAVÓNE TINES:
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Dear MEC Audience,
I’ve been blessed with a rich performing life full of collaborations with organizations daring enough to be in dialogue with me about the intent and expression of my larger artist project; Namely making deeply personal, socially engaged work that provides clear context for audiences while hopefully inviting other artists to do the same. My fluid, ongoing residency with Monday Evening Concerts has been a cornerstone of that endeavor.
I am THRILLED to be in LA soon to share music from my debut recording project ROBESOИ that I made with my band DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH (including John Bitoy, pianist, and Khari Lucas, electric bass and sound artist). MEC was foundational to this project, providing space and support at our earliest stages of becoming artistically aquatinted. Given MEC’s long involvement with the work, and its uniquely astute, warm, and curious audience, I’ve decided to expand the scope of September 27th’s presentation. I see this as the next installment of a years-long personal project I call OpenProcess. The goal of OpenProcess has been to use different medium, scales, and formats to “hyper-contextualize” performance experiences; Put another way: I want audiences to feel continually invited to what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how it may connect to your individual lived experiences. I experimented with this concept in various ways with Lincoln Center, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at BAM (the Brooklyn Academy of Music).
All of those iterations were fruitful, but the opportunity to improve on this exploration with MEC is all the more rewarding, because the subject matter is my most personal project to date. I hunger to share deeper insight about the process of creating ROBESON and I appreciate that I can be vulnerable in this way with an audience I have grown to love. I’ll be joined in conversation with the legendary curator and thinker, Hamza Walker, who has been an artistic mentor of mine for years, and is no stranger to the MEC family. Our ongoing conversation in front of the audience will be the firmament from which multiple full-scale musical performances will emerge. Imagine a live album performance where the liner notes are unfolding in front of you in real time.
I am incredibly excited to share this expanded conception of my time with MEC in an experience I call “OpenProcess: ROBESON — Unpacking a Classical Americana Electro-Gospel Acid Trip.”
See you very soon. With love and gratitude,
Davóne
I’ve been blessed with a rich performing life full of collaborations with organizations daring enough to be in dialogue with me about the intent and expression of my larger artist project; Namely making deeply personal, socially engaged work that provides clear context for audiences while hopefully inviting other artists to do the same. My fluid, ongoing residency with Monday Evening Concerts has been a cornerstone of that endeavor.
I am THRILLED to be in LA soon to share music from my debut recording project ROBESOИ that I made with my band DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH (including John Bitoy, pianist, and Khari Lucas, electric bass and sound artist). MEC was foundational to this project, providing space and support at our earliest stages of becoming artistically aquatinted. Given MEC’s long involvement with the work, and its uniquely astute, warm, and curious audience, I’ve decided to expand the scope of September 27th’s presentation. I see this as the next installment of a years-long personal project I call OpenProcess. The goal of OpenProcess has been to use different medium, scales, and formats to “hyper-contextualize” performance experiences; Put another way: I want audiences to feel continually invited to what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how it may connect to your individual lived experiences. I experimented with this concept in various ways with Lincoln Center, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at BAM (the Brooklyn Academy of Music).
All of those iterations were fruitful, but the opportunity to improve on this exploration with MEC is all the more rewarding, because the subject matter is my most personal project to date. I hunger to share deeper insight about the process of creating ROBESON and I appreciate that I can be vulnerable in this way with an audience I have grown to love. I’ll be joined in conversation with the legendary curator and thinker, Hamza Walker, who has been an artistic mentor of mine for years, and is no stranger to the MEC family. Our ongoing conversation in front of the audience will be the firmament from which multiple full-scale musical performances will emerge. Imagine a live album performance where the liner notes are unfolding in front of you in real time.
I am incredibly excited to share this expanded conception of my time with MEC in an experience I call “OpenProcess: ROBESON — Unpacking a Classical Americana Electro-Gospel Acid Trip.”
See you very soon. With love and gratitude,
Davóne
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ABOUT THE ALBUM:
In Tines’ solo recording debut, the musician grapples with the legacy of a hero. Exploding the musical repertoire of Paul Robeson, Tines and his band THE TRUTH — pianist John Bitoy and sound artist Khari Lucas — take listeners on a trip from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the floor of a Moscow hotel room in an attempt to understand an icon not through aspiring to his monumentality, but through connecting to his vulnerability.
The album’s sprawling and kaleidoscopic musical landscape brings together elements of classical, funk, Fauré, gospel, John Adams, r&b Shakespeare, and Bach. Tines says of ROBESOИ, which he co-created with director Zack Winokur, “This album is my most personal artistic statement to date. I’ve endeavored to compare and contrast my journey as an artist with that of my artistic ancestor and hero, Paul Robeson, the unparalleled singer, actor, and activist. Standing on his beliefs of egality for the disenfranchised led to governmental and public attacks that almost ended his life. This album is the fever dream of the universal journey to battle internal and external persecution in order to find one’s self and decide what you need to say the most now that you’ve survived.”
The album’s sprawling and kaleidoscopic musical landscape brings together elements of classical, funk, Fauré, gospel, John Adams, r&b Shakespeare, and Bach. Tines says of ROBESOИ, which he co-created with director Zack Winokur, “This album is my most personal artistic statement to date. I’ve endeavored to compare and contrast my journey as an artist with that of my artistic ancestor and hero, Paul Robeson, the unparalleled singer, actor, and activist. Standing on his beliefs of egality for the disenfranchised led to governmental and public attacks that almost ended his life. This album is the fever dream of the universal journey to battle internal and external persecution in order to find one’s self and decide what you need to say the most now that you’ve survived.”
ROBESOИ, THE ALBUM (NONESUCH RECORDS):
ARTIST BIOS:
Photograph by Noah Elliott Morrison
DAVÓNE TINES:
Heralded as a "singer of immense power and fervor" and “[one] of the most powerful voices of our time” (Los Angeles Times) "the immensely gifted American bass-baritone Davóne Tines has won acclaim, and advanced the field of classical music." (New York Times) This “next generation leader (Time Magazine) is a path-breaking artist at the intersection of many histories, cultures, and aesthetics, his work blends opera, spirituals, gospel, and anthems, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance and human connection.
KHARI LUCAS:
Khari Lucas is a songwriter/composer/producer with an artistic voice that reaches into several disciplines, some of these being radio, film, and journalism. His current musical output exists somewhere between jazz, soul, and psych rock, but he considers himself a student of all areas of music, and intends to cover as much sonic and thematic ground as possible over his artistic life. His work explores such themes as self-exploration, self determination, love and its iterations, isolation, and black cultural context. His recent collaborations include work with TELFAR, Dweller, and Locally Grown TV amongst others.
JOHN BITOY:
John Bitoy is an Afro-Dominican pianist and composer originally from Chicago, where he enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist and collaborative pianist. His recent solo engagements include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the South Loop Symphony and Symphony of Oak Park. He has performed in esteemed halls such as the Eastman Theatre, Chicago Symphony Center, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millenium Park, Perelman Theater, Edward Pickman Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, The American Repertory Theater, Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall at Northwestern, Epiphany center, The Apollo Theater, Salle Bourgie, and the Copernicus Center.
John is a passionate advocate for new music in performance spaces. Past projects include the recording and world premiere of several pieces from Steve Wallace’s Solo piano and chamber compositions in 2020, followed by his opera in 2021. As an avid chamber musician, John has been invited to play at the Gateways Music Festival, The Boston Celebrity Series, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Bienen School of Music, the Philarmonic Society of Orange County, the American Repertory Theater, Caramoor, The Bold Tendencies festival, and has performed works by Marcus Norris, Tyshawn Sorey, Davóne Tines, Ahmed Alabaca, and Brian Raphael Nabors.
Mr. Bitoy enjoys playing standard repertoire, yet he is simultaneously devoted to shedding light on the new music of composers of the African Diaspora. In addition to taking pleasure in his classical engagements, John is well versed in other genres. He was invited to perform with Sigur Ros during their 2019 United States Tour of Riceboy Sleeps, performed his own original Jazz compositions with at Epiphany Center, and has performed at the Jazz Showcase and Andy’s Jazz Club. He also has his own avant-garde Jazz fusion band: Aśe, where he performs exclusively his own original compositions within the Jazz idiom.
John is a passionate advocate for new music in performance spaces. Past projects include the recording and world premiere of several pieces from Steve Wallace’s Solo piano and chamber compositions in 2020, followed by his opera in 2021. As an avid chamber musician, John has been invited to play at the Gateways Music Festival, The Boston Celebrity Series, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Bienen School of Music, the Philarmonic Society of Orange County, the American Repertory Theater, Caramoor, The Bold Tendencies festival, and has performed works by Marcus Norris, Tyshawn Sorey, Davóne Tines, Ahmed Alabaca, and Brian Raphael Nabors.
Mr. Bitoy enjoys playing standard repertoire, yet he is simultaneously devoted to shedding light on the new music of composers of the African Diaspora. In addition to taking pleasure in his classical engagements, John is well versed in other genres. He was invited to perform with Sigur Ros during their 2019 United States Tour of Riceboy Sleeps, performed his own original Jazz compositions with at Epiphany Center, and has performed at the Jazz Showcase and Andy’s Jazz Club. He also has his own avant-garde Jazz fusion band: Aśe, where he performs exclusively his own original compositions within the Jazz idiom.
Photo: Todd Gray
HAMZA WALKER
Since 2016, Hamza Walker has served as director of The Brick, formerly known as LAXART, a non-profit alternative art space in Los Angeles. For over three decades, Walker has been chasing the same high. Ever since seeing avant-garde concerts and performances in late 80s Chicago, he has felt compelled to share a boundless curiosity about art. In the ensuing years, Walker has curated dozens of exhibitions ranging from solo to thematic exhibitions; from the production of new work to career surveys. Prior to LAXART, Walker served as Associate Curator/Director of Education at The Renaissance Society, a non-collecting museum of contemporary art on the University of Chicago campus. Exhibitions at LAXART include Nikita Gale, Takers, (2022); Ari Marcopoulos/Joe McPhee Alone Together (2021); Kandis Williams/Cassandra Press’ The Absolute Right to Exclude (2021); and Postcommodity’s Some Reach While Others Clap (2020).