Leaning: Songs of Strength & Justice
Fountain of Life Covenant Church 633 W. Badger Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53713
Pianist and music educator Becca May Grant has composed an epic concert that merges jazz and gospel. More than 40 performers will take the stage, including female gospel ensemble the Rivers, powerhouse vocalists Tamera Stanley and Betsy Ezell, drummer Rick Flowers, trumpeter Paul Dietrich and guest poet Fabu.
press release: Becca May Grant, Madison-based pianist, composer, and educator, will present Leaning: Songs of Strength and Justice, a concert of original gospel songs, on March 7 at 7PM at Fountain of Life Covenant Church. Her compositions grow textually and musically from her 25 years’ experience of being welcomed as family into an African-American Pentecostal church community, as a white Lutheran.
The Rivers, a dynamic 12-voice ensemble, delivers rich, soulful harmonies and soaring solo improvisations. Vocalists represent the music ministries of Fountain of Life, Mt. Zion Baptist, and High Point churches. The band features a diverse group of instrumentalists, each a leader of their own projects and busy on the Madison and Milwaukee music scenes: Paul Dietrich, trumpet, Rick Flowers, drums, Richard Hildner, guitar, Laurie Lang, bass, and George Ramsey, organ. P.Berkbigler Design and Illustration will create visual imagery to enhance the music.
Special guests include Fabu, former Madison poet laureate; Betsy Ezell, jazz vocalist; Sisters in Song Community Choir; Deborah Garrett Thomas, mezzo soprano; and Lena Archer, worship leader.
“I took the title Leaning from a gospel song’,” says May Grant. “In these uncertain and divided times, we as a community find strength and hope for justice in faith.”
Becca performed some of the material at her 2014 InDIGenous JAZZ Series concert, which became a live album released in 2016. Becca also composed new material that will be performed publicly for the first time at the Leaning performance.
The Rivers vocal gospel ensemble includes Deborah Biddle, Lavena Coley, Anntonette Davis, Malika Evanco, Betsy Ezell, Candace Patterson, Rene Robinson, Julia Saffold, Tamera Stanley, and Wanda Tapp.
Saturday, March 7, 2020, 7 PM, Fountain of Life Covenant Church, 633 W. Badger Rd., Madison
$10 suggested donation
About Becca May Grant:
Composer, arranger, and educator Becca May Grant loves to find the place where music and spirituality meet. Her favorite spot is at the church keyboard, playing a mix of musical styles.
Becca trained from childhood as a classical pianist and accompanist, studied jazz piano at UW-Madison, and for ten years led the Arts Ministry of a multi-ethnic church with African American leadership and history.
Becca’s compositions for vocal ensemble draw on gospel, jazz, and classical choral repertoire, with emphasis on collaboration. In 2016, Becca released Beauty for Ashes Live, an album of original gospel jazz compositions.
In 2019 and 2020, Becca directed the music for the Wisconsin Statewide Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration and Tribute, by Africasong Productions, including a mass choir arrangement of her original song, “Justice”, in 2019.
Becca currently guest leads worship at area churches, serves as music director of Sisters In Song Community Choir, of Africasong, and plays with jazz ensembles including the Betsy Ezell Quintet. In her teaching studio, Becca specializes in training adults and children to play by ear and to improvise.
Becca lives on the south side of Madison with her spouse, three children, a dog, and her front-yard vegetable garden.