Friday, September 25, 2009
A cappella group hits all the right notes
Sweet Honey In The Rock brought a mixture of songs and tight harmonies to Jefferson Center.
Sweet Honey In The Rock is a group of righteous women. But these women, kicking off Jefferson Center’s Star City Performance Series, are far from humorless.
Singer Nitanju Casel, talking about injustice and greed in the world, was all of a sudden interrupted by a tapping sound. What the audience might have thought was random fiddling with a percussion instrument, Casel realized was her right earring banging against her headset microphone. She pulled off the big hoop and held it up.
“One earring, $5,” she said, drawing a big laugh from the crowd of 807 on Friday night at Jefferson’s 935-capacity Shaftman Hall.
The mostly a cappella group, accompanying itself at times with hand percussion, had fun in song, too. Its mixture of tribal prayers, spirituals, gospels, blues, soul and Afro-Cuban was loose and lush with thick, rhythmic four-part harmonies and lyrics advising justice, generosity, empathy and fun.
It was all too much for one audience member, who stood and raised his arms in the air before turning around and walking out.
The offending number: “Greed,” written by now-retired band founder Bernice Johnson Reagon. Sample lyric, as sung by a returning Sweet Honey founder, Louise Robinson: “We can see it in the big corporations … see it in the military … see it in the banks … see it in the church/I can see it in my neighbor.”
If the man had stayed to listen, he could have heard it as a song with a melody inspired by Aretha Franklin’s banner years, with a harmonic vocal pulse underpinning it. Its lyrics would have fit 100 years ago, and will fit 100 years from now.
The Washington, D.C.-based group performed several songs from its recent album, “Experience … 101.” Robinson told the crowd that the record was geared toward younger listeners, but because there were so few in the house, it was up to the adults to carry the singalong on the bluesy “I Like It That Way,” a song about self-esteem.
The call-and-response was a little anemic the first time around, but Robinson made fun of the crowd and got it to laugh at itself and pipe up.
One of the strongest moments in the two-set show came from another recently returned band founder, Carol Maillard. On “I Don’t Want No Trouble at the River,” her gospel shouting made the listener feel the humidity where the flames of hell intermingle with the River Jordan.
