Sounds of Blackness re-imagines a holiday classic

An interview with Gary Hines about The Night Before Christmas

Sounds of Blackness (www.soundsofblackness.com) is a time-revered Twin Cities music institution, second only to a certain soulster with a penchant for purple. Their greatest hit, the enduring classic “Optimism” (you may know it by the refrain, “keep your head to the sky”) still gets airplay wherever R&B radio station are serious about their R&B. They are, of course, in constant demand around the country and abroad.

Sounds of Blackness has earned, in a litany of national accolades, three Grammies, a Soul Train Award and an NAACP Image Award. What even diehard devotees to the premiere ensemble may not know is that they’ve entertained across five continents, including stints ranging from such prestigious patronage as heads of state, the 1996 Olympics and 1994 World Cup, to grateful audiences among the disenfranchised, such as homeless children.

Sounds of Blackness also has performed with the likes of Elton John, Sting, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and his royal purpleness, home-grown hero Prince. So, their upcoming Minneapolis and St. Paul appearances are opportunities to enjoy singular artistry while the enjoying is good.

Starting with their holiday appearance, for which you can celebrate both Kwanzaa and Christmas, a musical fantasy, The Night Before Christmas, at the Guthrie Theater. This, before you imagine yet one more bland Hallmark card on-

stage, is a fascinatingly imaginative, authentically cultural contemporary take on the classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” With script, book and music by producing music director-founder Gary Hines.

Hines (GH) recently sat at a South Minneapolis coffee shop for a conversation with the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder to reflect on Sounds of Blackness.

MSR: You didn’t start what evolved into Sounds of Blackness.

GH: Russell Knighton founded The Macalester Black Voices which was [our] foundation.

MSR: Then?

GH: [I was] asked on as director. They were already excellent at the time. In the tradition of Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones. Performing the entire spectrum of Black music. We expanded the repertoire, which was mainly freedom songs — gospel and spirituals. Expanded it to jazz and blues and R&B. The entire diaspora. Hence the name. That was in January of ’71 at Macalester College.

MSR: For someone who’s had the kind of phenomenal success Sounds of Blackness enjoys, you’re surprisingly down to earth. It doesn’t seem to have gone to your head.

GH: You know what? We’re all in this thing together. It’s all only by the grace of God, dedication of a lot of brilliant people, and the support of our community. You never lose that perspective.

We took to heart Paul Robeson’s quote that all true artists have a responsibility to their people. We got that kind of respect. Brothers like Mahmoud El-Kati. He has guided us since our Macalester days. He was a professor there and helped to mold our frame of reference with that African and African history frame of mind. That message. So, all of that plays into it.

MSR: This business of The Night Before Christmas is not merely a concert.

GH: We decided to branch off into musical productions in the late ‘70s. Our first one was Africa to America. We have our ‘60s show called Soul of the ‘60s. We did tributes to James Brown, Aretha, Sam and Dave, Sly and the Family Stone. Costumes and choreography with a full band. It was, we want to get this going in one direction, keep expanding this musical production thing, and still have regular concerts. And we came up with this.

The Night Before Christmas was, as you know, a poem by Clement Clarke Moore, a family favorite. Before my family moved to Minnesota from Yonkers, New York, Mom would read it to us and it was always a favorite of mine. I was, like, okay, we’re going to build a piece around this.

I was writing about two or three days nonstop, the script, the songs. It was funny. I came to a group rehearsal, and you had to see the looks on the members’ faces when I first told them the concept about [how] they were going to become reindeer and socks and chitlins. They were, like, okay, this boy has finally lost it. But that’s how it came about. The first show was 1978 at the Guthrie.

MSR: Rap has degenerated into something nowhere near what it started out to be, The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and such. Now you have Rudolph the Rappin’ Reindeer in the production. Rudolph is not going to be strutting around with his pants hanging off, right? He’s a positive reindeer.

GH: Absolutely. This is a family show for everyone from grandkids to grandma. We remain true to Clement Moore’s original, follow a progression of all the characters. But, then, of course, we had to put it on the Black side.

So, one of the liberties we take is [with] Rudolph. In the original it says the children were asleep in their beds with visions of sugarplums in their heads. In ours, the kids are all nestled up with visions of chitlins dancing in their heads. The chitlins come to life [in a] song and dance. And talk about what it’s like to be a chitlin. It’s hilarious.

Actually, having Rudolph is a liberty, because he isn’t mentioned in the poem. We do some twists and turns in the plot to work Rudolph in. He is an homage to the hip-hop kind of thing. And there’s the reindeer, these sisters who are tired of being overlooked. So, they go on strike. On Christmas Eve.

MSR: Yeah, that sounds about right.

GH: When people see Santa and see that he’s Black, they already didn’t believe in Santa Claus. Now, they really don’t believe in him. You have all this going on, and Rudolph is key to bringing everything together.

We love the original, but, we’re the Sounds of Blackness, so we have to make it relevant to our culture and our legacy. Our mice are some hood mice. We even have a James Brown mouse. The stockings do an homage to the great vocal groups like Mills Brothers, The Drifters. We said, let’s be true to the poem, but what would happen, for instance, in our neighborhood if at midnight all of a sudden you hear this loud clattering noise, look out your window, and you see a sleigh with eight reindeer pulling the brother across the skies. What would you really do if you saw this? What would happen?

MSR: What’s next for Sounds of Blackness?

GH: We have a few things. Locally, we’re going to do the governor’s Martin Luther King commemoration at Macalester, so I’ll be back at my alma mater. That’s January 19 for MLK Day. Then, February 8 at Orchestra Hall, it’s the 35th, I believe, anniversary of Vocal Essence’s Witness: Let Freedom Ring, and we’ll be on their program, doing music of the Civil Rights Era. March 19 we’ll be at the Ordway for the opening of their newly renovated theater, the new wing. On top of finishing our next CD, which we’re looking to release either early or mid-2015.

The Night Before Christmas by Sounds of Blackness plays December 22. Reserved tickets available at the Guthrie Theater Box Office; charge by phone at 612-377-2224 and www.guthrietheater.org. Reserved tickets are $39.50, $35.00 & $20.00 (children under 10). Doors open 7 pm; curtain 7:30 pm.

Dwight Hobbes welcomes reader responses to P.O. Box 50357, Mpls., 55403.