Four gifted soul, jazz and hip hop artists explore the power of protest songs in a new collaboration entitled A Change Is Gonna Come (Music For Human Rights).
The project is let by Carleen Anderson the former member of Acid Jazz act Young Disciples whose many collaborations include Paul Weller and Dr John.
She’s joined by jazz pianist Nikki Yeoh, JazzFM Award-winning sax player Nubya Garcia and Mercury Prize-Winning rapper Speech Debelle. On stage together for the first time, they will perform unique interpretations of iconic songs from the time of the civil rights through to today.
Alongside such classics as A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke) and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Gill-Scott Heron) this special concert also features powerful new compositions by Anderson and Yeoh, highlighting the ongoing fight for equal human rights.
“Life translated in art throughout the ages, in Greek Mythology, Shakespeare and various expressionistic forms have always addressed the issues of the inequities in social and political power,” says Carleen Anderson. “Whilst contemporary creatives who speak out against injustice are sometimes influenced by a commercially beneficial objective, in grateful contrast are those artists who, as ever, are compelled by a universal incentive to be a reminder of the equal opportunities yet to be addressed and achieved.”
Says Nikki Yeoh: “Art must not be anodyne, culture cannot be decorative, artists should challenge the most powerful in our society; if we do not, we are not doing our job properly. We often associate the protest song with the civil rights movement and the 60’s counter-culture, however its roots stem from injustice and inequality which manifests its self indiscriminately across all borders and cultures, it never seems to fade from the human condition.”
A Change Is Gonna Come is at Birmingham’s Town Hall on Tuesday 29 May 2018.
For more information and tickets see: www.thsh.co.uk
