The revival tour
At this time in our world, I need to share that communal rebirth is possible.
growing up in the Black Baptist church, I learned music was never just entertainment but a vehicle for joy, mourning, shouting, AND release. My favorite place for this was summer night revival services. they were serne so that the congregation could enter deep REFLECTION on what in us needed to be revived.
“REVIVAL” THE ALBUM expands the ideas of my “Recital No. 1: MASS,” replacing the Catholic mass with the shape and spirit of a traditional Black revival service filled with reinvented hymns, classical works, and new music by me and THE TRUTH.
The sound world is what I hear in my soul's ear: piano, synth, electric bass, and flute answering questions like: How do you make a hymn sound like a volcano? How do you take Fauré to the club? What if the choir could sing in 38 parts? IT’s not how I've heard church, IT’S how I've felt it.
“REVIVAL” is how I return to church on my own terms, and take you with me.
THE ALBUM
THE DEMOS
The REVIVAL album brings people into the psychological space of a Summer church revival. The REVIVAL TOUR brings people into the physical space. The aim is to reinterpret and continue the centuries-old tradition of Black protestants having Summer “camp meetings” or “tent revivals” comprised of multi-day, outdoor religious services for preaching and communal gathering.
The tour is a traveling camp meeting distilled to its most essential and poetic. The only set piece is a Dutch artisan-made circular wooden bench inspired by church pews and Shaker meeting houses. The circle is large enough to encompass the entire band. The seating, organized in concentric circles, echoes and expands the community and expression radiating from the center.
Everything is intentionally designed to be as minimal as possible. There are very few lighting instruments. The sound equipment is powerful, yet compact. Nothing is decoration. The goal being multi-fold: I deeply love the tools of theater and incredible production value, but the only place I don’t need it is in the church. The simplicity born of honesty with resources is what makes beauty for me in spaces meant for spiritual life.
The tour, just like the album, is meant to be a place for gathering that is at once contemplative, communal, and ecstatic.