Kensington School Kicks-Off Black History Month With A Beat

With a neighborhood as diverse and talented as Kensington, a school music festival is rarely just an evening of amateurs.

This year, the two-day P.S. 130 Music Festival will feature a rare, interactive performance by Transcendence featuring award winning artists Jaimeo Brown and Chris Sholar in celebration of Black History Month.

In addition, parent performances range from Appalachian to Latin music; traditional Bengali song to rock, jazz and R&B; and classical to musical theater to Irish folk.

Transcendence is a musical project created by drummer and educator Jaimeo Brown and grammy award winning artist Chris Sholar. Their album Work Songs was named by NPR as one of the top ten albums of 2016.

Work Songs uses digital sampling to combine 1930s field recordings of Alabama quilters, an inmate from Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Prison Farm, Japanese folk songs, sounds from urban construction projects and more to create a patchwork-like timeline.

Brown and Sholar add a team of contributing artists to build the musical foundations for their songs, featuring Jaleel Shaw and JD Allen on saxophone, vocalist Lester Chambers, and keyboardists Big Yuki and James Francies.

Brown often begins with material created by people in dire straits. “Music created for the purpose of healing, community building, survival, and worship tends to show us something deep about what and who we are,” he said.

Strong and distinctive ‘mantras’, or rhythm elements, run throughout the songs, capitalizing on Brown’s experience as a drummer. “Mantras…all have rhythmic characteristics that serve the purpose of the music and the community,” said Brown.

In many cases, those rhythmic mantras are far older than the field recordings themselves. There’s a direct link to music created in the days of slavery, and even stretching back further to the polyrhythms of West African music.

Brown’s determination to have his music serve the community is what brought him to P.S. 130. Kim Smith, who is on the school’s PTA Music Committee, explained that the committee uses proceeds from the festivals to bring in artists who directly enrich the curriculum.

“The P.S. 130 PTA Music Committee supports music education at the school and brings visiting artists directly into classrooms. We had Martha Redbone for the 4th grade Eastern Woodland Indian unit, pipa master Min Xiao Fen for 3rd grade’s Ancient China unit, and Jaimeo Brown for the fifth grade’s Slavery vs Freedom unit,” Smith said.

Debbie Deane, a founding member of the school’s Music Committee, was so inspired by Brown’s 5th-grade presentation, she invited him back to the school for Saturday’s community event. The school added a second day to the annual Music Festival, having Transcendence kick off Black History Month celebrations.

“My goal is to create something that feels good, is soulful and speaks to hearts. Something spiritual and moving,” said Brown. The performance will feature interactive music and discussion about the Transcendence project, which focuses on African American history.

Check out the P.S. 130 Music Festival at 713 Caton Avenue. Festival performances are scheduled for 6:30pm on Friday, February 10 and 10am on Saturday, February 11. No tickets necessary, the show is free and open to the public. Donations at the door — and proceeds from the bake sale — will benefit music programs at the school.

[Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the performance will be held at 70 Ocean Parkway near East 5th Street, which is the Lower School. The performance will be held at the Upper School at 713 Caton Avenue.]