There come moments in life that you know, one day, people are going to write about. Sometimes, you don’t appreciate the gravity of an occasion until well afterward, when you’re reflecting and looking back. Other times, you can just feel the energy in a room, and you know that something special is happening. The studio session that took place last Sunday, March 4th, was one of those times.
There was rare air during this historic studio session, led by Yohannan Terrell.
An all-star ensemble (featuring poets Tripp Fontane and Barbara Fant, vocalists Tomi Jones, Renee Dion, T WONG, and Malachi Medley, and a band made up of Mark Lomax, Eddie Barrett and Robert Mason) was assembled to create a song that would score the entire “I Too, Sing America. The Harlem Renaissance at 100” movement. Accompanying the musicians, were creatives Marshall Shorts, Eric Jefferson, Bobby Ferguson and Yohannan Terrell. With so much talent in one room, something magic was bound to be created. Words can’t quite capture the experience but there is a reason why Tripp uttered the words that title this blog.
Poet Barbara Fant
The goal was to interpolate Langston Hughes’ famous poem, “I Too, Sing America” and put a modern spin on it. What ensued was a jam session with Mark Lomax on the drums, Eddie Barrett on the sax and Robert Mason on the keyboard. The singers present, harmonized their voices to create this soothing, jazzy melody that takes you right back to the Harlem Renaissance time period. Barbara and Trip traded powerful bars that underscored just how relevant the century-old poem still is today and the creatives did their best P. Diddy impersonation, quarterbacking the whole production.
Robert Mason On The Keyboard
Having this caliber of talent collaborating is legendary in and of itself, but what they made was historic. Just wait until you see the final version of the video.
