BU to get ‘funky’ with Ranky Tanky

Binghamton University’s Anderson Center will continue its 2023-24 season with a Nov. 2 concert featuring Ranky Tanky and special guest Lisa Fischer.

 

Ranky Tanky, which takes its name from the Gullah phrase for “get funky,” is an American musical ensemble based in Charleston, S.C., that specializes in jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional Gullah music, a culture that originated among descendants of enslaved Africans in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. Southeast.

 

The quintet’s music has been called “soulful honey to the ears” by National Public Radio. The band won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album for its release Good Time. The album also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart. In 2023, they won a second Grammy in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category for Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

 

The group combines jazz, gospel, funk and R&B in its performances. In addition to its own music, Ranky Tanky performs songs carried down through generations in the Sea Islands of the Southeastern United States.

 

“Ranky Tanky have established themselves as passionate global ambassadors for their local culture and community,” a release from the Anderson Center says.

 

Fischer toured for more than 26 years with the Rolling Stones and has also been a backup singer for a number of other famous artists, including Sting, Luther Vandross, and Tina Turner. A highlight of her career was an appearance in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. She is also a solo artist with her own band and earned the Best R&B Performance Grammy in 1992 for “How Can I Ease the Pain.”

 

“With spiritual truth telling as her compass and loving kindness as her guide, Fischer continues her creative journey, destination unknown,” the Anderson Center release notes.