OneBeat, the world’s foremost music diplomacy program, is on its fifth nationwide tour, beginning in Florida on Sept. 10 and ending in Chicago on Oct. 11. OneBeat convenes 25 earbending musical change-makers from around the world to perform original works and lead participatory workshops with diverse American communities along the route of the Great Migration.
The Chattanooga events will be Tuesday, Oct 4, at the Chattanooga Public Library, as part of Start Up Week Chattanooga; Tuesday, Oct 4, at Granfalloon, with an international potluck with storytelling and music and Wednesday, Oct 5, at Miller Plaza, at Start Up Week, in partnership with Undaground.
Review for OneBeat:
Hailing from 17 different countries, OneBeat’s wonderfully eclectic musicians include: an underground producer and rapper from Santiago de Cuba, a visionary Kaohsiung-based sound artist, a Muscovite gusli player (the oldest Russian multi-string plucked instrument), a virtuosa darbuka player from Istanbul, a soul singer from Seattle, and 20 other incredible artists. Initiated by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, OneBeat inverts the standard approach to music diplomacy – touring an American band overseas – and focuses instead on providing the meeting place where musicians from around the world can collectively imagine new sonic universes and social realities.
This year’s OneBeat theme of Musical Migrations encourages fellows to explore how people’s movement across the globe has shaped music, and conversely, how music can encourage dialogue and resilience amidst displacement and upheaval.
OneBeat begins at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. for a two-week intensive residency from Sept. 10-25. The residency will be followed by a two-week, four-state tour that will trace the Great Migration and honor the global impact of African-American music by connecting with musical communities in the birthplace of jazz (New Orleans), the home of Bessie Smith (Chattanooga), and the sweet home for blues, electronic music, and hip hop (Chicago). In each of these sites, OneBeat fellows will present audiences with a dynamic series of public performances, “street studios” (mobile recording studios) and educational events in collaboration with local musicians, educators, and community organizations. These connections and collaborations during the program will be the launching pad for fellows’ own music-driven initiatives, as they develop project ideas for their communities that leverage the power of music for social good.
All along the tour, people of all ages and backgrounds will have the rare opportunity to experience live what it sounds like when adventurous musicians from different parts of the world combine forces, and learn first-hand about the process of cross-cultural dialogue and creative collaboration. All OneBeat events will draw inspiration from stories of Musical Migrations, including the voices of migrant and refugee groups in each community, both currently and historically.
In New Orleans, in partnership with Ace Hotel, OneBeat fellows will collaborate to create original music with youth from Silence is Violence, Make Music NOLA, Harmony Neighborhood Development, and Harmony Oaks Community Center, and will perform at the opening of the brand-new Music Box village, a venue of invented instruments built into musical architecture by multi-disciplinary art collective New Orleans Airlift and dozens of artistic collaborators.
Fellows
will
perform
original
works
led
by
New
Orleans swamp-pop
legend Quintron,
and
other
musicians, including
OneBeat
alumna Aurora
Nealand.
In Chattanooga, as part of Startup Week Chattanooga, OneBeat musicians and the Miami-based Fellows of the New World Symphony will use low-latency software and ultra-high-speed connectivity in the Chattanooga Public Library to perform together while over 700 miles apart.
OneBeat will also work with the The Bridge Refugee Service, Coming to America, and Mad Priest Coffee Roasters to explore ways that music and culture can play a role in addressing refugee
crises around the globe and easing the process of resettlement.
The tour culminates with performances in partnership with cultural organizations and artists across a diversity of communities in Chicago, including the Rebuild Foundation, Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Steve Coleman and the Five Elements, members of Eighth Blackbird, Constellation, and the Old Town School of Folk Music.