Ranky Tanky with Lisa Fischer

The soulful songs of the Gullah culture are brought to life by this band of native South Carolinians who mix the low country traditions with large doses of jazz, gospel, funk, and R&B. Grammy-winning powerhouse vocalist  Lisa Fischer (20 Feet From Stardom) adds her remarkable versatility and wide-ranging vocal power. 

Grammy-winning quintet Ranky Tanky last appeared at the 2018 New Mexico Jazz Festival and have been referred to as Gullah groovemasters who “celebrate the bone-deep mix of spirituals and gutbucket blues that marks the low country mainland and Sea Islands.” Their debut album was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and the TODAY show and soared to the number one position on the Billboard, Amazon, and iTunes Jazz Charts. Their latest release, Good Time, features playful game songs, ecstatic shouts, and heartbreaking spirituals as well as the group’s first original songs inspired by Gullah tradition.

A “master shapeshifter,” Brooklyn native Lisa Fischer has taken her rightful place among America’s greatest vocalists “whether she’s stretching out in an intimate duo with jazz piano maestro Taylor Eigsti, raising the roof with Ranky Tanky, creating luminous soundscapes onstage with the dancers of Alonzo King LINES Ballet, or following her uninhibited muse with her trio Grand Baton and their organic fusion of Caribbean psychedelic soul and jazzy progressive rock.” She spent much of her career as an elite backup singer for artists such as Luther Vandross, the Rolling Stones, Sting, Tina Turner and Nine Inch Nails, among others. After she was featured in the Oscar-winning 2013 documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, Fischer experienced a course-changing epiphany, realizing she could start defining her own musical path.

She eventually formed her band Grand Baton who she notes, gave me my wings . . . and permission to do whatever I want.” Now at the peak of her powers, Fischer is reveling in the chance to dive into every vocal possibility and while she carries traces of the legendary stars with whom she’s collaborated over four decades, she is “a constellation in her own right.” Ranky Tanky vocalist, Quiana Parler, describes Fischer as “electrifying, timeless, and a force to be reckoned with,” while the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote that Fischer is “not only one of the most superlative all-around singers in the world but also the most artistically, intellectually and emotionally satisfying female performer working today. Period.” Ranky Tanky features Quiana Parler, vocals; Clay Ross, guitar and vocals; Charlton Singleton, trumpet and vocals; Kevin Hamilton, bass; and Quentin Baxter, drums and percussion.