Creative Conceptualization Greg Tate
Creative Direction/MD Ronny Drayton
Executive Producer Jared Michael Nickerson
The Burnt Sugar Repertory Arkestra (“Fleetwood Black” edition)
Singers: Kandia Crazy Horse ~ Craig Street ~ Maritri Garrett ~ Luqman Brown ~ Shelley Nicole ~ Mikel Banks
Ronny Drayton, Guitar
V. Jeffrey Smith, Soprano/Alto/Tenor Saxes
Leon Gruenbaum, Keyboards
Ben Tyree, Guitar
Jared Michael Nickerson, Electric Bass
Akinlawon Bernstine, Drums
Fleetwood Black conceptualist Greg Tate says: “the Rumoured shadow legion known as Fleetwood Black has been stalking the heads of their more infamous binary star system since they were known as The Fleetwood Mac Blues Band. The super collision of these stellar musical entities on March 12th promises a caramelized alchemy of big-foot stank and faeirie dusted luminosity.”
Founded in 1999 by writer, conductor, producer, musician, and Village Voice icon Greg “Ionman” Tate and led with monster groove bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, Burnt Sugar is a sprawling band of musicians whose adherence to Butch Morris’s “Conduction” system allows them to freely juggle a wide swath of the soul-jazz-hip hop and rock spectrum.
“A multiracial jam army that freestyles with cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis’s On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix’s moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland.”
—David Fricke, Rolling Stone
A Lincoln Center commission