Ranky Tanky

(USA)

Ranky Tanky by Peter Frank Edwards
Ranky Tanky by Peter Frank Edwards

Links

The Gullah communities of the South Carolina and Georgia coastlands trace their language and culture back to their West and Central African ancestors. Among their unique contributions to African-American culture is a deep repertoire of spirituals and work songs, carrying the poetry of defiance and hope in extreme hardship.

Ranky Tanky mine this rich musical seam, setting the traditional spirituals, children’s rhymes and dance music into jazzinfluenced arrangements, fronted by the voice of one of the low-country’s most celebrated vocalists, Quiana Parler, Instrumentalists, Quentin Baxter, Kevin Hamilton, Clay Ross, and Charlton Singleton, previously played together as a jazz quartet in the late 1990s, reuniting after 20 years for this project. Their eponymous debut album was released in October 2017. Just five months later it was listed number one in the Billboard jazz charts.

Clay Ross - guitar, vocals
Quiana Parler - vocals
Charlton Singleton - trumpet, vocals
Quentin Baxter - drums, percussion
Kevin Hamilton - bass