8 minute read
Berklee showcases Black artists
Living Arts Living Arts
My Green Bananas to play The Tourist Trap
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Hannah Nguyen
Beacon Staff
What started as a group of five friends “jamming in their dorms” has turned into a local band set to play its first outside gig at the Tourist Trap Saturday, Feb. 26.
My Green Bananas is an Emerson band of first-years who performed at Index Magazine’s and Five Cent Sound’s launch parties last semester. Their performances gained traction on YouTube, which led to an offer to perform a live show on Feb. 26 at The Tourist Trap in Allston.
“Veronica from Rosewater Records reached out to us and asked us to play and sent us some demos, so she could fit us into a lineup that would work for us,” co-singer and co-writer Kayla Hardy said.
Attendees can expect a new song, as well as songs previously performed by the band, totaling up to five original songs. Other performers include Paper Lady, Babehoven, and Divine Sweater.
My Green Bananas is made up of co-singers and songwriters Belle Fortebuono and Kayla Hardy, guitarist David Staats, bassist Taryn Noonan, and drummer Kaveh Hodjat.
Staats, Fortebuono, and Hardy bonded over music when they met at the start of the fall semester this year. One night, they booked a rehearsal room, wrote songs that “would never see the light of day,” and eventually came up with the idea to start their own band. They began looking for people to play bass and drums and reached out to Noonan and Hodjat.
The name My Green Bananas was Photo of first-year band My Green Bananas band. / Courtesy My Green Bananas
inspired by a funny interaction between Staats and Noonan.
“I had just come back [to my dorm] from the dining hall carrying three bananas. David was like, ‘Why do you have green bananas?’ And then I was just like, ‘they’re mine.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, my green bananas,’” Noonan said.
Fortebuono, Hardy, and Hodjat have already released their own music as solo artists prior to starting My Green Bananas. They each have their own individual sounds and aesthetics, but as a band, they work towards a collective vision.
“Adding in Taryn and David and Kaveh and having other people working on a project really livens the music,” Hardy said. “With everyone together, it makes it completely different.”
Staats echoed Hardy’s feelings.
“You’re bringing little different pieces of the same puzzle together,” Staats said. “It’s great because it’s like a bunch of different sounds mashed together.”
The band has not officially released music yet because instruments and recording equipment are not easily accessible at Emerson, but Fortebuono and Hardy have been consistently writing music together.
“Our goal right now is just to play as many live shows as we can and try and just gain traction that way and then when we find the resources to record something that we are really proud of then we will have music out as soon as we can,” Hardy said.
Having performed for Index Magazine’s FW 21 Issue Launch Party last November and Five Cent Sound’s Fall 2021 Launch Party, My Green Bananas said the shows allowed the band to gain more recognition and positive feedback. The group also said their friends’ positive energy and presence during performances have also given them more
-David Staats
attention.
“I think part of the reason that people have been very responsive to the band so far is that our friends are super supportive and almost like an extension of the band in and of itself,” Hardy said. “They just bring the best energy to the crowd, and I think they really get people excited because they’re excited to see us.”
hannah_nguyen@emerson.edu
Berklee honors important Black artists Thursday at their Legacy Award Concert
Karissa Schaefer
Beacon Staff
Berklee College of Music continues to commemorate African American artistic legacies this month by hosting the Berklee Legacy Award Concert Thursday Feb. 25 at 8 p.m., with special performances, featuring Grammy-nominated jazz artists Jazzmeia Horn and Tia Fuller.
Hosted at the Berklee Performance Center, the tribute concert will present the Legacy Award to commemorate the inaugural awardees: jazz musicians Duke Ellington and Sarah Vaughan, concert violinist Joseph Douglass, and dancer-choreographer Carmen de Lavallade. The award aims to acknowledge and celebrate Black performing artists and figures who have completed a Berklee doctorate or devoted their time to the Berklee community.
In 2021, the college renamed four spaces on campus by honoring trailblazers in music and dance—the dining hall named after Ellington, a practice classroom after Vaughan, the entryway of Boston Conservatory named for Douglass, and the Conservatory’s dance rehearsal room crediting de Lavallade.
Vocalist Horn will collaborate with saxophonist and composer Fuller—who is also part of Berklee’s faculty—on a live performance in honor of Vaughan and Ellington. With Fuller directing a big band to complement Horn’s lyrics, Horn is eager to finally see the finished group product. Tia Fuller on saxophone. Photo by Dave Green.
“The collective artistry between Tia Fuller and I, her putting together the arrangements for the big band, and then some of the arrangements I put together myself; I’m really looking forward to seeing how that plays out,” Horn said. “It’s gonna be great.”
Tia Fuller is the Artistic Director of Berklee’s Ensemble Department, where she directs three ensembles and leads an outreach city music high school program, preparing middle and high schoolers for life as a Berklee student.
She described her role as one of intersectionality, bringing students together with her ability to put together an A-list tour show that conjoins musicians, dancers, and stage crews alike.
“One of [my classes] is a Beyonce Homecoming ensemble where we do a show based on an artist and it’s all encompassing,” Fuller said. “That’s one of the areas where I’m able to teach and bring my expertise of being on the road to Berklee. Another thing I do is a program that offers classes, after school classes, and ensembles so they can actually get an introduction to Berklee, and also get the tools they need to play and be a musician.”
As a musician, composer, and new CEO of her own record label Empress Legacy Records, Horn won the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition and the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition. The seasoned performer has been singing since they were three years old, releasing her first album A Social Call in 2017, second album Love and Liberation in 2019, and third Dear Love in 2021.
Since her home life was full of gos- Fuller thanked overlooker for the Perpel and R&B music, she wanted to go formance Division Provost Dean Savon her own path in her career. age and Ensemble Department Chair
“When I heard jazz, the first vocalist Sean Skeete for asking to collaborate I heard was Sarah Vaughan,” Horn said. with her to create the concert. She’s “Her range, her timbre, her technique, awaiting the final show and is being her quality, the way that she utilized her optimistic in how it will amplify Black voice as an instrument, it really inspired history and voices. me to be the singer I am today.” “For me, [the concert’s] been about
With a name fitting for her profes- intersection points and bringing tosion, Horn loves getting to express her- gether different ideas and different self through improvisation, something departments for cross collaboration to personal to every musician’s individu- celebrate Black History Month,” Fuller ality. She said she is actively working said. towards releasing music that affects All things lead back to the past, people in a positive way and motivates and the Legacy Award connects multithem to utilize their voice in the world. ple generations to have conversations
“I’ve been working so hard to be a about significant historical issues that part of the jazz world, so I haven’t re- prevail today. With this, Horn yearns ally had the opportunity to think about for people to address these matters in where I fit in,” Horn said. “But what I a communal space that is looking to aspire to do is to inspire people, specifi- change for their future. cally women, to really strive from with- “I hope this award brings awareness in themselves. There’s a lot of adversity to the culture of Black American music that we’re facing in our society today.” and what it has helped establish in this
Fuller’s favorite element of jazz is country that we call America,” Horn the freedom musicians get to explore said. “I hope many people can gain a ideas and structures on a song. She also history lesson from some of these pioappreciates the spiritual connection of neers who have really dedicated their communicating with her performers as lives towards music, to building the leader of the Legacy Big Band, which is jazz legacy we have today.” made of 15 undergraduate students who The award is especially significant to have devoted their semester to learning Fuller who is honoring those who have the music of Ellington and Vaughan been innovators for many aspects of sospecifically for the concert. ciety that are still present today. Though
The young artists have been fleshing Ellington and Vaughan are her people out their pieces in constant rehearsals, of focus for this dedicated performance, Fuller describing Monday’s as “trans- she hopes people will be touched by formational,” with excitedness oozing various Black historical figures. from the students and herself. “To me, the Berklee Legacy Award
“There are going to be arrangements is celebrating those African American that a couple of students did in the band, masters who have not only been prowhich is really special,” Fuller said. “On ficient in what they do, but have really top of that, there’s so much talent. I have made a mark on culture based on what an extraordinary vocalist who is also they do,” Fuller said. “They are masters singing. One of the trombone players, of this music, but they’ve also been he’s a great rapper, so we’re putting an extremely impactful on a cultural and arrangement of Terry Lyne Carrington’s political level in America.” and he’s going to be rapping for that, as well as another part of the show.”
In an interview with The Beacon, karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu
