Announcer: This program
was made possible
by contributions to
your PBS station
from viewers like you.
Thank you.
Somebody gave me
a cassette tape
of Stevie Wonder
when I was a kid,
probably about 12.
A light switch clicked on,
and I knew that I wanted
to say things the way he
was saying them.
♪♪
Amna Nawaz: Hi, everyone.
This is "Beyond the Canvas."
From the "PBS Newshour,"
I'm Amna Nawaz.
You've just heard
from Grammy-winning musician
P.J. Morton,
who plays the keyboard
for the hit band
Maroon 5.
Please remember his phrase,
"a message with the music"
because it's a theme
that flows through the work
of all the African-American
musicians in this episode.
As voices of Black Lives Matter
rise up around the country,
we couldn't think of a better
time to spotlight these artists.
Tonight, you'll hear from
the multitalented Common,
musical ensemble
Ranky Tanky, along with
singers Rhiannon Giddens
and Gary Clark Jr.
The people you're about to meet
were first featured
on the "PBS Newshour"
before the pandemic,
but tonight you'll meet them
on a new canvas
and maybe see them and their
work through a different lens,
right here
on "Beyond the Canvas."
Now, back to this brief,
but spectacular look
at musician P.J. Morton.
I was born
in New Orleans, Louisiana.
My father's a preacher,
so I grew up a preacher's kid.
There was a battle
between me
not necessarily
wanting to be
a gospel singer
or be a preacher.
Black Christian churches is,
I still think, you know, one
of the most amazing experiences.
It was my first introduction
into performing,
in a way, because you have
an audience that's there,
the congregation, and I was
watching my dad stand up there
and command the audience;
I'm not a preacher,
but I like to think that I
carry a message with the music.
Stevie Wonder, to me,
even before I met him
or anything,
indirectly taught me
how to write songs.
Getting to work with him,
hearing that song,
and then that song being
nominated for a Grammy,
it still is today,
to me, the--the top thing.
The song I wanted Stevie to be
on was a song called "Only One."
♪ Oh, you're the only one ♪
that I need ♪
♪ The one that I need, ♪
one that I need ♪
♪ Stevie Wonder, play on ♪
[Harmonica solo playing]
That year I was nominated
for "Only One,"
my dad was nominated
for Gospel Song of the Year.
I think it was the first
father-and-son nomination since,
like, Bob Dylan and Jakob,
like, 15 years before that.
It was cool for us
'cause we got to spend
father-and-son time
at the Grammys.
My mom was taking
5 million pictures.
I try to write selfishly.
I try to have as little mental
processing as possible if I can
'cause you start thinking about
the fans, and the fans change,
or you start thinking about
some person you're writing for
and your relationship changes.
I think the only thing
you can truly do is
come from an honest place
and just expect
that people are gonna be able
to connect to the honesty.
"Gumbo" is my favorite album
that I've done,
and it's the first album
that I was able
to make at home
in New Orleans.
And New Orleans is, you know,
"laissez le bon temps rouler,"
which is "let the good times
roll," it's "The Big Easy,"
so nobody was on my back
as if I was in L.A., like,
"Hey, man, you got
to meet this, you got to"--
no, it's just like, "Oh, man,
that sounds good, P.," you know.
It's just whatever feels good
in New Orleans.
I owe a lot to
the city, too, for
giving me
that spirit of freedom.
My name is P.J. Morton,
and this is my brief
but spectacular take
on making music for me.
Our next guest is one
of the biggest names in hip hop,
known for the rhythm
and the rhymes he's created
over nearly 3 decades
in music.
I sat down with Common in
our studio to discuss his music,
where he finds inspiration,
and why he finally decided
to tell his own story.
Common: ♪ This is street ra-dio
for unsung hero ♪
♪ Ridin' in the Regal, ♪
tryin' to stay legal ♪
Nawaz: Lonnie Rashid Lynn,
better known as Common,
first emerged on the rap scene
in the nineties.
In 2000, his first
major-label album,
"Like Water for Chocolate,"
brought big success,
and his 2005 album "Be"
was a commercial hit,
leading to one
of several Grammy Awards.
As his fame has grown,
Common has used
his growing platform to become
more politically vocal.
Through it all,
Common continues to make music.
His 2019 album "Let Love"
accompanied a memoir.
Thank you for having me.
I want to ask you
about your memoir now.
It's called "Let Love
Have the Last Word."
What was it about this
stage of your career,
this stage of your life
that made you want
to sit down
and write this book?
Well, I think there's
a lot of what we see
going on in the world
like the, um,
divisiveness, the anxiety,
a lot of the--including
the attacks and things.
I really wanted to put--
instill something
that was hopeful,
instill something that
could be solution-oriented,
and something that has been
an antidote for me,
a resource for me
to overcome,
you know, tough times
in my life.
I wanted to share that
with other people.
It's also a very intensely
personal book.
One of the things that you
share for the first time,
speaking publicly about it,
was that as a child,
you suffered
a very serious trauma.
Yeah.
You were molested when
you were 9 years old.
Yes.
What did it take for you
to get to a place
where you felt like you
could talk about that?
You know, I felt that
if--if I decide
to talk about it,
it would be healing
for me, but also
healing for others
because other people
experience
sexual abuse,
molestation, um,
just physical abuse,
and I knew, as a black man,
me talking about it
would give a gateway
and an opening
for other men,
black people, brown people,
what--you know,
just to be able to talk about it
because--and I bring us,
you know, black people
into the equation
because for us, it's--
in our culture,
it's not really discussed.
Like, when those things
happen, it's not talked
about as much
on "How do we solve this?
How do we, like,
stop the cycle?"
So I really knew
that if I told my story
and told it in a way
that's really just raw
and truthful, and still
acknowledge that I'm in
the process and--it would
allow other human beings
to come out
and talk about it.
You have never
been afraid
of tackling
the tough stuff...
Heh!
in your career, whether
it's about your own personal
journeys--you mentioned
your criminal justice
reform work,
you tweet a lot...
Yeah.
about immigration detention,
you were tweeting
about the ICE raids
recently and injustices
that you see
going on around you.
Where does that
come from?
Do you have a--like, a
sense of responsibility
to pay attention
and be engaged?
You know, I grew up on
the south side of Chicago,
a community
which I really love,
and that community is like
many other communities,
communities that suffer
from, um,
being marginalized,
being treated
less than,
having lack of opportunities
and resources,
so when I see somebody
being pushed down,
I just relate to it.
I have to speak up.
It's my duty
as a human being,
as an artist, um,
and not only speaking out;
to me, my speaking
has to become action,
and that's what I'm in--
more involved in.
You did say something
in your book I wanted
to read to you, though,
about sort of the roots
of where your music comes
from, which is freestyling.
Yeah.
You were talking about
rapping, you say,
"I've been rapping
"for more than
25 years now.
"I would rap if I
lived on the streets,
"I would rap
if I were a preacher
or a prisoner or
a politician."
You say it's your release,
that sometimes,
even if you can't do it
in the studio,
you just hop in the car.
Yeah.
And you go and you do.
You really just do that?
Yeah.
You just get out in
the car and freestyle?
Yeah, I mean, I love--that's
actually how I write my songs,
is, like, I get in the car
and I just, like,
put on a beat and I say
my raps out loud,
just start freestyling
whatever lines I like.
I do believe it's
a divine expression,
meaning I'm only creating
when I'm at my--
when I'm in a, like,
a pure place and I'm feeling
like this--I'm not
thinking too hard.
So is this
a pure place right here?
OK, if you give me
a word, it's...
Oh, OK. How 'bout--
how 'bout "facts"?
Can you riff off "facts"?
OK.
Sometimes
she might even ask
if I can come here
and rap off facts
I'mma tell you this,
even sitting in a booth,
any time I talk about facts,
I spit truth.
That's what it is. I spring--
I spring truth to power.
I came to do this
at the "PBS NewsHour."
Ha!
That's ours.
You know how it is.
I'm telling the facts.
I've been telling
the facts for years,
and when it comes to this,
yo, I say no lie.
That's why some politicians,
I, like, see in they eye,
they don't be telling
the facts, yo, facts,
that's false,
and what'll happen
when it come to trying to be
the boss? Some get lost.
The lost tapes try to escape,
but I'm telling you now, yo,
it's more than
one take, it's truth,
and I'm giving you that
when it comes down.
This is how the facts
just sound.
I think we have
our new theme song...
Heh!
here at the "NewsHour."
Just like Common,
the musical group
Ranky Tanky has
a mission.
The South Carolina band
is known for the revival
and celebration
of Gullah music and culture,
which originated
among descendants
of enslaved people
from West Africa.
"PBS NewsHour's"
chief arts, culture,
and society correspondent
Jeffrey Brown went to see how
the group has given new life
to this old art form.
[Slow jazz playing]
Woman: Y'all clap.
Brown: Ranky Tanky.
It loosely means
"get funky,"
and you can see and feel why
it's the right name
for a band celebrating and
reinventing a music of joy...
Woman:
♪ Down in the darkness, yeah ♪
Band: ♪ Stand by me ♪
Brown: and pain...
Woman:
♪ In these hard times ♪
♪ Filled with shadows ♪
♪ When a dark cloud ♪
calls my name... ♪
Brown: rhythms brought by
the enslaved from West Africa,
spirituals of
the Christian church,
themes that resonate today.
♪ Come by here, ♪
my Lord ♪
Both: ♪ Come by here... ♪
Brown: It includes songs
many know, though
you've likely never heard
"Kumbaya"
quite like this.
♪ Somebody's praying, Lord ♪
Ha ha!
Both: ♪ Come by here... ♪
Brown: An impromptu
performance for us
by vocalist Quiana Parler
and trumpet player
Charlton Singleton...
...and the Grammy goes
to "Good Time," Ranky Tanky.
Brown: fresh off
winning a Grammy
for the album "Good Time,"
a first for Gullah music.
Singleton: It meant a lot
to me with this community
just because of the magnitude
of the whole Gullah thing.
You felt you were
representing something?
Yes. It's an honor
to be here to stand
on the shoulders
of our Gullah ancestry...
Singleton, voice-over:
That's representative
of how I was raised
to be a musician
from listening and watching
and imitating all
of my aunts
and uncles
and grandparents.
Thank you so much.
Singleton: And, uh, you know,
have it all kind of
culminate with a Grammy.
Wow! Yes! Heh!
Growing up in church, we
emulated the elders as well.
It was like
a homecoming for me.
Brown: The ensemble is based
in Charleston and specializes
in jazz-influenced arrangements
of traditional Gullah...
Ranky Tanky: ♪ Oh, my,
you look so... ♪
Brown: sometimes called
Gulla Geechee...
[Man chants, claps]
Brown: which originated
among descendants
of enslaved Africans in Georgia,
Florida, and South Carolina.
[Trumpet playing jazz]
The 4 male members
of Ranky Tanky
have played music together
since meeting
at the College of Charleston
in the 1990s,
but they'd all gone off
to do their own things until,
two decades on, guitarist
and vocalist Clay Ross proposed
reuniting around Gullah.
Parler: ♪ Show your purpose ♪
Brown: They brought in
Quiana Parler in 2017.
Man, voice-over:
I am a disciple of this music.
This music moves me, you know,
this music has called to me,
it's inspired me,
and it's been a part of my life
for over two decades.
Parler: ♪ All for you... ♪
Ross: There's no one out there
doing a contemporary expression
of our South Carolina
roots music and specifically
Gullah music.
Man: It's an English-based
Creole language, Gullah is.
Brown: There is a strong sense
of mission with this band,
as we saw when percussionist
Quentin Baxter,
bassist Kevin Hamilton,
and Clay Ross
offered a lesson
in history and music...
Ross: ♪ Ooh, way down yonder ♪
Brown: to students at
the Charleston Seventh-Day
Adventist School.
It wasn't a hard sell, as these
fifth- to eighth-graders
quickly took to the clapping,
singing, and dancing.
[All clamor]
Baxter: The thing
about it is the music
and the message
of the culture itself
deserves as big
of a stage as it can get.
♪ Oh, my, ♪
you look so... ♪
Hamilton, voice-over: I like
to think of it as hopefully
being part of the evolution
of the culture, so there is
a preservation there, but also,
I think, there's also the,
you know, sharing it with the
world and also in adding to it.
Parler: ♪ Let me be
like a Simmon tree... ♪
Brown: Ranky Tanky band members
want to play it forward
for current and future
generations.
♪ Let me be... ♪
Brown: The pandemic lockdown
put a halt
to the band's
post-Grammy high.
Charlton Singleton
gave me an update.
Singleton: You definitely
miss, you know, just being
around your brothers and
your sister, you know,
in Ranky Tanky
and what was, you know,
going to be this grand
celebration for us.
Brown: The band did play at
an empty Charleston music hall,
a virtual performance.
♪ When a dark light ♪
creeps up on me ♪
Brown: Its members have
kept healthy and busy
with individual projects
and, Singleton says,
the pain of pandemic
and continuing racial
and social divisions bring
a new urgency to their music.
Does the music you're doing
address our time even more now?
Singleton: I believe that
it does. It always has.
[Playing mellow jazz]
Singleton, voice-over:
It always goes back to love
and faith in
the Gullah community,
so we feel that
definitely our music is,
um, really primed for what's
happening right now.
[Playing lively jazz]
Brown: Ranky Tanky is hoping
to return to large venues...
Singleton: It was in
this very room that we recorded
our Grammy Award-winning album.
[Crowd cheers]
Brown: while still playing
for local friends and family,
as we'd seen on our visit...
Ross: ♪ Good time, a good time ♪
Ranky Tanky:
♪ We gonna have a time ♪
Brown:
embracing the good time
and joyful sounds
of Gullah.
Ranky Tanky:
♪ Shake it, yeah ♪
♪ Shake it, go... ♪
Next, another musician
with a strong connection
to her musical roots.
Vocalist Rhiannon Giddens
sees herself
as part of the tradition
that includes
some of the great ladies
of music:
Odetta, Patsy Cline,
Dolly Parton,
and Nina Simone.
Giddens shared
with Jeffrey Brown how
she uses
historical inspiration
to inform her own sound.
Giddens: ♪ Waterboy ♪
Brown: It's a powerful song,
"Waterboy,"
made famous by
the folk singer Odetta,
now becoming a signature
for a powerful
new voice of today, belonging
to Rhiannon Giddens.
Giddens:
♪ ...tell your Pa on you ♪
♪ It's all become ♪
so complicated... ♪
Brown: Her debut celebrates
women who influenced her,
some famous like Dolly Parton
and Patsy Cline...
Giddens:
♪ ...you stay ♪
[Different song playing]
Giddens: ♪ Pawn my watch... ♪
Brown: others,
like Sister Rosetta Tharpe
and Libby Cotten,
much less so.
Giddens: ♪ ...everything
that was in my name ♪
♪ Oh, Lordy me, ♪
didn't I shake sugaree? ♪
♪ Everything I got ♪
is done and pawned... ♪
Giddens, voice-over: I've been
really thinking about the woman
in Americana music and the woman
in American history and just
kind of thinking about all
these really strong women
who, you know,
broke down doors
and, you know, had to kind of
overcome lots of hardship
to, like, even have
a music career
and just how much I
benefit from that.
♪ ...they asked of me ♪
what could I say? ♪
To me,
all of those songs--
blues, you know,
jazz, uh, country--
you know, all of them actually
do belong side by side
'cause they're all coming out
of this common well of--
of sort of the proto-American
music, like, this root stuff,
you know, and so it was
just kind of irresistible
to be able to--to do
them all together.
Brown:
Giddens studied opera
at the Oberlin Conservatory
in Ohio.
It was there she came back
to earlier loves:
folk music, first
through contra dance,
similar to line-dancing,
and then string band music
from Appalachia.
♪ When the waters flow ♪
and the grasses grow... ♪
Brown: That led to
an exploration of the often
overlooked role of
African-Americans in the genre.
Her group,
The Carolina Chocolate Drops,
won a 2010 Grammy
for Best New Folk Album.
♪ I am a country girl... ♪
Giddens, voice-over: String band
music is a cross-cultural thing.
It's not a white thing.
It's not a black thing, either.
I'm a mixed-race person,
you know, and I
was raised with both
culturally, and I
was raised sort of,
you know, with this Southern
sort of mélange
of cultures, and so,
to me, getting
that information out there
is way, way important
because it's like, "Look, guys,
like, this is why
American music is so strong."
♪ If you don't ♪
come right here ♪
♪ If you don't come ♪
right here... ♪
Brown: Then,
one of those moments
that can change a career...
Giddens:
♪ ...tear your... ♪
Brown: a concert
in New York in 2013,
put together by legendary music
producer T-Bone Burnett
to celebrate the film about
the early folk music scene,
"Inside Llewyn Davis."
[Singing in Gaelic]
Brown: Many stars performed,
Joan Baez, Jack White,
Patti Smith,
and Elvis Costello
among them...
[Giddens singing in Gaelic]
Brown: but, by all accounts,
Giddens stole the show,
including with a rousing song
sung in Gaelic.
[Giddens singing rapidly
in Gaelic]
It was like,
"Now, don't screw it up,
don't screw up,
don't screw up."
[Singing rapidly in Gaelic]
Giddens: You know,
and the rest of it
just kind of came
as a total surprise.
[Song ends,
cheering and applause]
Brown: Soon after,
T-Bone Burnett offered
to produce Giddens'
first solo album.
Giddens: I'd be a fool
to not use all the tools
at my disposal, you know,
because really,
the important thing to me is
the music and the mission,
so if me being a soloist is
going to be the best way
to get it out to
more people, I'll do it.
If me, like, putting on makeup
and a nice gown
is gonna help the,
you know, the mission
and to get the whole project
taken forward, I'll do it.
[Vocalizing]
Brown: But you're
being, in a sense,
for the larger public,
discovered at 38.
Yeah, and I--I am
so grateful for that.
I was an idiot at 28,
you know what I mean?
Like, not to say
that I'm, you know,
I'm about half-idiot
now, so, you know, you
just learn so much
as you get older, I've
got kids, like, I just
know what's important
in this life.
It's a good spot to
be in at the moment.
♪ She told me that she ♪
wouldn't mind ♪
♪ And then commenced ♪
to roam ♪
Finally,
another musician embracing
a full palette of sounds is
Grammy Award-winning artist
Gary Clark Jr.
Best known for his fusion
of blues, rock, and soul,
Clark reflects on the past
and shares his hopes
for the future.
Jeffrey Brown is back.
["This Land" playing]
Clark: ♪ Paranoid
and pissed off... ♪
Brown: In the title song
of his latest album "This Land,"
Gary Clark Jr. sounds
an angry cry...
Clark: ♪ Right in
the middle of Trump country ♪
Brown: about the racism and
hatred he sees in America today,
and a confrontation he himself
had with a white neighbor
after he bought a new ranch
outside his hometown
of Austin, Texas.
Clark: ♪ Go back where
you come from ♪
♪ We don't want, ♪
we don't want your kind ♪
♪ This is where I ♪
come from ♪
♪ This land is mine ♪
♪ This land is mine ♪
Clark: Basically,
"This Land" is me saying,
"Yeah, there's all this around,
but forget everybody.
"Nobody can bring you
down in your head.
"Nobody can make you
feel less than.
"Nobody can make you
feel not equal to.
"Be strong, be proud,
be humble, but don't
let 'em break you."
Brown: Clark is a proud product
of Austin's famed
Sixth Street music scene--
one club after another,
a wide variety
of live music.
He got his first guitar at 12
and was quickly grabbed by
the sound of the blues,
where, still in middle school,
he found an immediate home.
I had this raw thing,
and there was guitar players
out front, and there was
lead guitar playing,
there was improvisation,
and when I saw these people
playing blues and when I
went down to that blues club,
and it was filled up with smoke
and it was old guys who were
cool with their leather jackets
and their Stratocasters,
you know, and their amps,
I was like, "Man,
I want to be a part of this,"
and they welcomed us.
Think of being 14 years old,
to have your elders
welcome you and be
excited, you know.
Brown: The welcoming
into the blues community
would culminate
some years later in 2010
when Clark was invited
by Eric Clapton
to perform at his legendary
Crossroads Festival.
["Bright Lights" playing]
♪ You gonna know ♪
my name, yeah ♪
It meant something to me.
I felt like I was
a part of something.
Brown:
A brilliant guitarist,
he would play at
the White House in 2012,
win a Grammy
two years later,
but Clark never saw himself
as limited to the blues
and had begun to feel
constrained by what the world
expected or wanted
from him.
His newest album--his third
studio recording--
is his most varied
statement yet,
a broad palette of sounds,
including reggae...
♪ You're not looking ♪
for a lover ♪
a Prince-like falsetto...
♪ You don't understand ♪
how you hurt me ♪
Whoo!
Brown: straight-ahead
Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll riffs.
[Playing fast rock]
[Playing slower rock]
Brown: And also now
in his music,
the hopes and fears
of being a parent.
Clark and his wife Nicole
have two young children.
He says that and the world
they're growing up in
make him want his music to reach
deeper and have greater impact.
Clark: It's because of
this tension and social climate,
you know,
race relations and fear
and the unknown.
How do I maneuver
through that
and teach my kids how
to be strong,
teach my kids how
to be loving
in a world
that can be so cruel?
♪ Come together ♪
Come on! Come on!
♪ Right now ♪
[Song ends]
Yeah, we love you.
Appreciate you.
Nawaz: Each artist you heard
from in this program has
a unique sound and story,
but what brings them together
is their belief
in the power of music
to honor their past
and inspire the future.
Join the conversation
on our website:
and find more canvas art stories
on the "PBS Newshour."
I'm Amna Nawaz.
For all of us
at the "PBS NewsHour,"
thanks for joining me
here on "Beyond the Canvas."
We'll see you soon.
Next time
on "Beyond the Canvas,"
our profile
of Oscar-nominated
Mexican actress
Yalitza Aparicio...
Translator: I enjoy fighting
for my indigenous community
because I feel proud
of who I am.
Nawaz: along with some
of the best cultural creators
in that country.
Stay tuned for
a special episode
featuring the arts of Mexico.
Common:
♪ Hands to the heavens, ♪
♪ No man, no weapon ♪
♪ Formed against yes ♪
♪ Glory is destined ♪
♪ Every day, women ♪
and men become legends ♪
♪ Sins that go against our skin ♪
become blessings ♪
♪ The movement is ♪
the rhythm to us ♪
♪ Freedom is like ♪
religion to us ♪
♪ Justice is ♪
juxtapositionin' us ♪
♪ Justice for all just ♪
ain't specific enough ♪
♪ One son died, his spirit ♪
is revisitin' us ♪
♪ Truant livin' livin' in us, ♪
resistance is us... ♪
Announcer: This program
was made possible by
contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
Thank you.