Taking its title for the 1964 Sam Cooke classic, A Change Is Gonna Come sees Carleen Anderson and friends explore how other musicians and writers have used the power of song to highlight issues of inequality.
Subtitled ‘Music For Human Rights’, the project - which visits Birmingham Town Hall on 29 May 2018 - features key tracks from Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Brandi Carlile, Gil Scott Heron, and others, that discuss not just civil rights, but gender, identity, and more.
In discussing her approach to compiling the show's set-list, Carleen cites a famous quote by the assassinated US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the fact that, thanks to the internet, social media and 24hr news, we increasingly have a global perspective that combines major international stories with intense personal struggles.
"We live in a world now where there is so much access, it’s not just about what’s happening in your own backyard,” she says. “But ultimately what is happening to you is happening everywhere. There’s that Martin Luther King quote: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’"
Fully aware that times change, and what was relevant 50 years ago may no longer be so today in the same way, Carleen – whose own family has strong connections to the mid-20th century US Civil Rights Movement - has "revived" a number of the tracks to give them a more contemporary feel.
"Most of the songs have been … some of them the lyrics as well as musically. With the Sam Cooke song [A Change Is Gonna Come] I wanted it to be more uplifting, something it’s not been before. It’s a beautiful song, beautifully sad, but my instincts of writing about the human condition is that you always write with a sense of hope...
"That was the first one on the song list I addressed, and it took a lot from being sad and reissuing it in a way where you’ve got to make that change happen NOW!
"It’s now; not when it comes …," says Carleen whose godfather was James Brown, and who’s worked with such artists as Brand New Heavies, Paul Weller, Incognito and Courtney Pine since relocating to the UK in the 1990s.
A Change Is Gonna Come is far from a solo endeavour as the project sees her join forces with pianist Nikki Yeoh, Mercury Prize-winning rapper Speech Debelle, and JazzFM Award-winning saxophonist Nubya Garcia - each of whom bring their own unique perspectives to play, as do their supporting musicians.
"My outlook is different to Nubya’s – she’s in her 20s, her stance is very different [to mine],” says Carleen, who recently turned 61.
"Then there’s Speech and Nikki, and [bassist] Renell Shaw, he’s just turned 30 and he’s had experience in a variety of different bands. He’s best known for the pop thing, with Rudimental, but he plays with me and has done jazz, theatre and has a broad outlook on things. It’s unique for someone his age, he purposefully studies history.
"Then there’s the drummer, Rod Youngs, who has worked with Gil Scott Heron.
“That wide variety makes it possible to make it viable to a wider variety of people than if it’s just one of us, on our own.
"Nikki’s ancestry is Chinese – that’s got to be a whole different outlook again.
"But ultimately we’re all human, whatever age, colour, religion we have, our basic tendencies – to promote peace, to promote war – they all exist in whatever tribe we’re from."
A Change Is Gonna Come (Music For Human Rights) takes place at Birmingham Town Hall on Tuesday 29 May.
Taking its title for the 1964 Sam Cooke classic, A Change Is Gonna Come sees Carleen Anderson and friends explore how other musicians and writers have used the power of song to highlight issues of inequality.
Subtitled ‘Music For Human Rights’, the project - which visits Birmingham Town Hall on 29 May 2018 - features key tracks from Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Brandi Carlile, Gil Scott Heron, and others, that discuss not just civil rights, but gender, identity, and more.
In discussing her approach to compiling the show's set-list, Carleen cites a famous quote by the assassinated US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the fact that, thanks to the internet, social media and 24hr news, we increasingly have a global perspective that combines major international stories with intense personal struggles.
"We live in a world now where there is so much access, it’s not just about what’s happening in your own backyard,” she says. “But ultimately what is happening to you is happening everywhere. There’s that Martin Luther King quote: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’"
Fully aware that times change, and what was relevant 50 years ago may no longer be so today in the same way, Carleen – whose own family has strong connections to the mid-20th century US Civil Rights Movement - has "revived" a number of the tracks to give them a more contemporary feel.
"Most of the songs have been … some of them the lyrics as well as musically. With the Sam Cooke song [A Change Is Gonna Come] I wanted it to be more uplifting, something it’s not been before. It’s a beautiful song, beautifully sad, but my instincts of writing about the human condition is that you always write with a sense of hope...
"That was the first one on the song list I addressed, and it took a lot from being sad and reissuing it in a way where you’ve got to make that change happen NOW!
"It’s now; not when it comes …," says Carleen whose godfather was James Brown, and who’s worked with such artists as Brand New Heavies, Paul Weller, Incognito and Courtney Pine since relocating to the UK in the 1990s.
A Change Is Gonna Come is far from a solo endeavour as the project sees her join forces with pianist Nikki Yeoh, Mercury Prize-winning rapper Speech Debelle, and JazzFM Award-winning saxophonist Nubya Garcia - each of whom bring their own unique perspectives to play, as do their supporting musicians.
"My outlook is different to Nubya’s – she’s in her 20s, her stance is very different [to mine],” says Carleen, who recently turned 61.
"Then there’s Speech and Nikki, and [bassist] Renell Shaw, he’s just turned 30 and he’s had experience in a variety of different bands. He’s best known for the pop thing, with Rudimental, but he plays with me and has done jazz, theatre and has a broad outlook on things. It’s unique for someone his age, he purposefully studies history.
"Then there’s the drummer, Rod Youngs, who has worked with Gil Scott Heron.
“That wide variety makes it possible to make it viable to a wider variety of people than if it’s just one of us, on our own.
"Nikki’s ancestry is Chinese – that’s got to be a whole different outlook again.
"But ultimately we’re all human, whatever age, colour, religion we have, our basic tendencies – to promote peace, to promote war – they all exist in whatever tribe we’re from."
A Change Is Gonna Come (Music For Human Rights) takes place at Birmingham Town Hall on Tuesday 29 May.
Tickets are available HERE
By Dave Freak