- Glenn Siegel
- 3 days ago
These days, it’s a challenge to put a nine-piece band on the road and get paid. When the band’s guiding light is gone, the odds grow longer still. But Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber has persevered, and they traveled from New York to perform on June 7 at The Iron Horse as part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 13th season. With a grant to presenters from the New England Foundation For the Arts, Burnt Sugar embarked on their first tour of New England, with stops in Hartford (Real Art Ways), Northampton (Iron Horse), Putney (Next Stage Arts) and Cambridge (The Lilypad), along with a concluding gig in Harlem (The Shrine). The band has performed many times at Real Art Ways over the years; director Will Wilkins, who was in the house, is a staunch supporter. We were all happy to be there on Saturday as they made their western Massachusetts debut.
Burnt Sugar was founded by Greg Tate (1957-2021) in 1999 and co-led by one of its original members, Jared Michael Nickerson. At the end of the concert, Bruce Mack (another original member) offered praise to Tate, and had us say his name again and again. Artist/professor Daniel Shrade, who was at the concert, told me he hosted Tate at Hampshire College many years ago to give a talk.
A longtime contributor to The Village Voice, and one of the most trenchant writers about Black music and culture, Tate led Burnt Sugar by incorporating Butch Morris’ conduction system of hand and baton signals. He has described his role as conductor as: “akin to Mickey Mouse in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" section of Fantasia. Diddling with forces he doesn't quite understand, snapping his fingers, opening the floodgates, occasioning a deluge. Drowning the room in the music of African ascent.”
Although use of those conduction techniques have diminished over the years, Burnt Sugar provided plenty of dense surprises for the 125 of us gathered at the storied Pioneer Valley venue. Over the years, dozens of musicians, including Vijay Iyer, Matana Roberts, Pete Cosey, Vernon Reid and Carl Hancock Rux, have been part of the Burnt Sugar tribe. The current, nine-piece iteration included Shelley Nicole (vocals), Miss Olithea (vocals, electronics), Bruce Mack (vocals), Lewis “Flip” Barnes (trumpet), “Moist” Paula Henderson (baritone sax), Leon Gruenbaum (keyboards, electronics), Ben Tyree (electric guitar), Marque Gilmore tha Inna Most (drums, electronics) and Jared Michael Nickerson (electric bubble bass).
The band pleased the crowd with a set of original compositions, along with a range of standards that included Steely Dan’s “Black Cow”, Gershwin’s “Summertime” and David Bowie’s “Fame”. They balanced a feel-good party vibe with a sense of improvisational mischievous: creating sounds of curious origin and inserting infectious, unexpected licks into serpentine funk lines. Late in the evening, the band summoned Nickerson, who was stationed behind the vocalists, to come forward to take a bow. “I’m just trying to play more bass,” he told us humbly. He not only invigorated the band with his steadily inventive bass playing, he handled leadership duties with grace and efficiency.
Nickerson and drummer Marque Gilmore were key to the band’s success. They held it down with deep, constantly shifting grooves that both grounded us and kept our attention. Even though some of Gilmore’s electronic gear broke during soundcheck, he had enough materiel to make his drums pop. It also helped that this foundering member of the Black Rock Coalition and veteran of the bands Brian Jackson and Cheick Tidiane Seck, is one of the premier funk drummers of his generation.
The rest of the rhythm section: guitarist Ben Tyree and keyboardist Leon Gruenbaum, drenched the stage with the blues and sounds from other worlds. In addition to a conventional keyboard, Gruenbaum played the Samchillian, a keyboard MIDI controller of his own invention that added a driving, Afro-futurist swirl.
Miss Olithea treated her sultry vocals with a saturated wash of electronics, which billowed through the venue. It added an element of mystery, bringing a spiritual dimension to what was essentially dance music. The other vocalists, Shelly Nicole and Bruce Mack, were dynamic entertainers who took turns leading us with soul and infectious energy.
The band has given us 26 years of impressive service, centering Black music in all its manifestations, continuing to thrive after the passing of Greg Tate four years ago. It’s cause for celebration. Long live Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber.