The only place composer Matt White thought he might be able to perform his 2023 album Lowcountry was Spoleto Festival USA.
With a jazz band, a string section and vocalists, the live version of Lowcountry involves more than 20 musicians. White and his collaborators will perform at 9 p.m. on June 2 in the College of Charleston’s Cistern Yard.
“When people would ask us when we were going to tour it, I would joke and say, ‘The only way we could ever do this live would be at a place like Spoleto,’” White said. “There would have to be enough resources to bring all these people together logistically to make it happen.”
White, who chairs the jazz studies program at the University of South Carolina School of Music, was introduced to the Gullah culture that inspired Lowcountry by his research partner, Coastal Carolina musicologist Eric Crawford. The two visited Saint Helena Island, one of the sea islands that is home to Gullah communities – descendants of enslaved people brought to the Carolinas from Central and Western Africa.
A rich tradition of Gullah language and songs
In Gullah culture, songs and stories are passed down through generations. Gullah elders told White that they feared the loss of this oral tradition.
“We would go down to the islands and record stories and songs as a way of preservation,” he said. “I would edit the songs and give it back to them, just kind of doing it as a labor of love.”
In 2019, White won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition. The award funded his vision to pair the elders’ songs with original orchestrations.
White collaborated with Gullah elders and Saint Helena natives Gracie Gadsen, Rosa Murray and Joseph Murray. To preserve their authentic stories and songs, White offered no vocal instruction. He recorded them in their homes without headphones or complicated studio gear. This approach made a live performance daunting. The elders had only performed a cappella.
Ron Daise, another Saint Helena Island native known for his role on the Nickelodeon TV show Gullah Gullah Island, is Lowcountry’s narrator. His voice is the first one listeners hear as he reads his 1986 poem “Forgotten Moments” on the opening track. On the song “Watchman,” a reference to traditional New Year’s Eve church service in Gullah communities, Daise recites the Emancipation Proclamation. The document is read at midnight to celebrate freedom in the New Year, White explained. At the Spoleto performance, Daise’s role as narrator will expand to introduce singers and help the audience conceptualize the music.
A South Carolina ensemble honors the Gullah culture
Lowcountry preserves and uplifts Gullah language and culture, in contrast to what Daise experienced as a child. “Throughout my childhood and that of many others, the speech of Gullah was seen as something we should move out of our systems,” he said. “Many people said they had it beaten out of them.
“Now with today’s youth and young adults there is a renewed interest and pride in the culture, and that’s why the Lowcountry album and groups like Ranky Tanky are important.”
White recruited other South Carolina musicians to play on Lowcountry, including tenor saxophonist Chris Potter and Grammy-award winning drummer Quentin E. Baxter. Baxter, who’s from Charleston and comes from a Gullah family, also co-produced the album.
“I kind of wrote the music with Quentin in mind,” White said. “A lot of times, I didn’t know how the drumbeat was going to go for a song and he would kind of create on the fly. He just knows all these styles of music so when we are in the studio we will try different things to see what works.”
That sense of spontaneity will continue at Spoleto. The ensemble may perform songs cut from Lowcountry or even a new composition that features all three singers. Performing Lowcountry live is the culmination of a musical and cultural journey he’s taken in South Carolina, White said.
“I’ve done a lot of cool things in my career that I’m really proud of, but I think I’m most proud of performing this live because of the significance of it, and how it talks about a lot of the relationships that I’ve developed since I moved to South Carolina,” White said.
“Charleston is in the Lowcountry, so the idea that these things are taking center stage at one of the greatest music festivals in the United States – it’s really exciting.”
Sarah Merke is a Magazine, News and Digital Journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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