November 16, 2024
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Atlanta, GA – USA
“American Railroad”
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens.
TRADITIONAL, Pura FÉ: Swannanoa Tunnel / Great Grandpa’s Banjo
Haruka FUJII: Tamping Song
TRADITIONAL (arr. Rhiannon Giddens): Swannanoa Tunnel / Steel-Driving Man
Maeve GILCHRIST: Far Down Far
Sandeep DAS: Rela *
Balla KOUYATÉ & Mike BLOCK: Bani *
Layale CHAKER: Rust And Dreams *
Cécile McLorin SALVANT: Have You Seen My Man?
TRADITIONAL (arr. Silkroad Ensemble): Swannanoa Strings
Rhiannon GIDDENS, WU Man: Rainy Day
Pura FÉ: Mahk Jchi
Michael ABELS: A Win For You *
*Commissioned by Silkroad for American Railroad, 2024
Jon Ciliberto | 4 DEC 2024
The mission of The Silkroad Ensemble is to create “music that engages difference, sparking radical cultural collaboration and passion-driven learning for a more hopeful and inclusive world.” In its currently touring program, “American Railroad,” the ensemble goes beyond engaging and sparking and by “illuminat[ing] the impact that the African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish, and other immigrant communities had on the creation of the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad and connecting railways in North America […] seeks to right these past wrongs by highlighting untold stories and amplifying unheard voices from these communities, painting a more accurate picture of the global diasporic origin of the American Empire.”
Do ambitious goals weigh down art or elevate them? “American Railroad” showed a bit of both, but the elevation won (as one hopes it will).
A significant loft came from artistic director Rhiannon Giddens’ singing and the ensemble’s high technical level of musicianship. Another, from the easy exuberance of the performance.
The program’s first half consisted of pieces in more open formats, something expected in traditional works but more surprising in composed pieces commissioned for the group. That is, I was surprised by how much jamming there was, and at times couldn’t discern a “composition” — more an “arrangement” of instruments over basic musical forms. This allowed the musicians to stretch out in an improvisatory manner, although how successfully depends to a large degree on where much of the listener’s standards sit.
The Ensemble brought many theatrical (even theoretical) aspects. “Swannanoa Tunnel,” a tune which “originated from the black laborers who built the tunnel before crossing over into white culture,” opened the evening. Giddens and Pura Fé worked a spare call and response that evoked the most essential elements of communal music-making, a seedbed not only in that respect, but for the entire evening.
The call and response form appeared in several works, often in the form of a lead musician tossing a phrase to another, who repeated it. This is a sort of game, with the first musician saying, “See if you can catch this,” and the second, “I got it, and sending it back with something on it.” On a stage packed with world-class musicians, it is an easy game for the audience to watch.
Another theatrical choice the Ensemble brought was in their costumes — each was clothed to match the ethnicity of their instrument. So, not only the grouping of instruments (from Japan, Mali, India, and so on) from widely distinct cultures, but even the “appearance” of the musicians reflected the Ensemble’s basic idea of collaboration and the mixing of cultural ideas. At times musically — for instance a Chinese flute, a tabla, and an Irish harp — this mashup veered toward pastiche.
Audiences still murmur in wonder when, in a song about trains, the guitar makes a rhythmic chugging sound or the flute plays a long lilting note with gentle portamento.
Giddens’ voice is an unmistakable wonder. She trained in operating singing at Oberlin, and her vocal path has largely been to infuse and explore Southern American (by way of Ireland) and African-American singing traditions. She is a great talent, with a brilliant mind for music and a wide heart for feeling it out, “a product and a champion of America’s hybrid culture, a performing historian who explores the tangled paths of influence through which Highland fiddlers, West African griots, enslaved banjo players and white entertainers all shaped each other’s music.” [1] Her biography is a fascinating, and intensely American story. [2]
The deep scholarship that sits under the ensemble’s work is largely comfortable there, achieved by softening the academic edges through looser musical forms.
The group’s sublime rendering female backing vocal in “Bani”, a traditional piece from Mali, showcased a key aspect of collaboration: learning how they do it from others.
The second half of the program was largely works with less space given to open play.
An additional aspect of “American Railroad” was its more overt teaching aspects, in the form of images and text projected over the stage. The text explained something of the theoretical basis for the works (e.g., that Chinese immigrants worked on American railroads, leading to Chinatowns, leading to racial intolerance from locals and expulsion). The images were “a collection of real historical photos from the cultures and communities the show explores”.
The overt approach to instructing the audience was also in the program’s concluding work, “A Win for You,” by Michael Abels, a song that is “a study on [the] idea … a resolution that works for the powerful also has to work for those most affected by it.” Its lyrics are directly to the point.
Although at times strikingly didactic, Giddens deserves the praise she receives for trying to work as an artist to change mindsets. The audience certainly responded in a warm, positive way, demanding an encore. ■
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens perform their touring show “American Railroad” at Emerson Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. (credit: Bill Head)
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- [1] “Rhiannon Giddens’ 21st-Century Sound Has a Long History” – Justin Davidson | Smithsonian Magazine, March, 2019:
- [2] “Rhiannon Giddens & The Making of NC’s Most Beautiful Voice” – Tommy Tomlinson | Our State, March, 2019:
- Rhiannon Giddens: rhiannongiddens.com
- Silkroad Ensemble: silkroad.org
- Schwartz Center for Performing Arts: schwartz.emory.edu
Read more by Jon Ciliberto.
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