NPR First Listen Streams There Is No Other, The New Album By Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi, In Advance Of May 3 Release On Nonesuch
There is no Other, the new album by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi, is now streaming in full in advance of its release next week, May 3, on Nonesuch. Produced by Joe Henry and tracked over an intensely productive five day period in Dublin, Ireland, there is no Other is at once a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience.
Listen to NPR's First Listen here.
there is no Other "(shows) the ease with which the boundaries of genre and nationality can be broken through music." NPR says. "There, this album dwells: in the quiet times where people live fully with each other ... Rhiannon Giddens turns her exquisite voice and sensibility toward this psychic territory on ... her new collaboration with the Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi ... (an) exploration of heartfelt exchange and private longing."
Tracing the overlooked movement of sounds from Africa and the Arabic world and their influence on European and American music, there is no Other illuminates the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience. It primarily features only Giddens and Turrisi playing one or two instruments together. The album comprises a mix of original songs penned by Giddens and a diverse set of interpretations ranging from the Ola Belle Reed's "I'm Gonna Write Me a Letter," and Oscar Brown, Jr's "Brown Baby," the Italian traditional "Pizzica di San Vito" to the aria "Black Swan" by Gian-Carlo Menotti.
Giddens recently told the Irish Times: "It's all about movement, for both of us...movements of human beings and how we affect each other. If you just look at our range of instruments, where they've come from and how they've travelled across the world, it's pretty amazing. The way that both of us appreciate music is very similar because we're both educated about where the music is coming from. But when it comes to playing, we're both just playing what we feel."
Giddens and Turrisi have also announced an extensive 2019 tour; see below for a full list of dates.
In addition to the release of there is no Other, Giddens will be joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra on May 22nd and May 23rd for a pair of performances, and on May 24th and 25th she will curate concerts that highlight the great black composers who have been hiding in plain sight, including Lara Downes and Darius de Hass. She also appears in Ken Burns' upcoming Country Music series airing in September on PBS, revealing the lesser-known black roots of country music.
“This is acoustic roots music at its most glorious, and Giddens is fast becoming the genre's brightest star in the firmament.”
- 9/10 review in Uncut
“(Francesco's) accompaniments, often on old/unusual instruments, add a strange, delicate beauty to Giddens' solemn, powerful soprano.”
- 4/5 review in Mojo
There is no Other Track List
1. Ten Thousand Voices
2. I'm Gonna Write Me a Letter
3. Wayfaring Stranger
4. there is no Other
5.Trees On The Mountain
6.Pizzica di San Vito
7.Brown Baby
8.Briggs' Forró
9. Little Margaret
10. Black Swan
11. I'm On My Way
12. He Will See You Through
Rhiannon Giddens Tour Dates:
4/25 - New York, NY - Jazz at Lincoln Center (Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns)
4/26 - New York, NY - Jazz at Lincoln Center (Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns)
4/27 - New York, NY - Jazz at Lincoln Center (Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns)
5/16 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
5/19 - Greensboro, NC - Harrison Auditorium (Q&A with Ani DiFranco)
5/19 - Greensboro, NC - Presbyterian Church of the Covenant (benefit concert for the Experiential School of Greensboro)
5/22 - Boston, MA - Symphony Hall (“Redefining American Music” series)
5/23 - Boston, MA - Symphony Hall (“Redefining American Music” series)
5/24 - Boston, MA - Symphony Hall (“Redefining American Music” series)
5/25 - Boston, MA - Symphony Hall (“Redefining American Music” series)
7/23 - Westport, CT - Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts (Our Native Daughters)
7/24 - Washington, DC - Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Our Native Daughters)
7/25 - Chautauqua, NY - Chautauqua Institution (Our Native Daughters)
7/26 - Albany, NY - The Egg (Our Native Daughters)
7/27 - Wolfeboro, NH - Great Waters Festival (Our Native Daughters)
7/28 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival (Our Native Daughters)
There is no Other Tour - Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
7/11 - Auburn, NY - Auburn Public Theater
7/12-7/13 - Guelph, Ontario - Hilldside Festival
7/14 - Greenfield, MA - Green River Festival
9/6-9/9 - Stanford Hall, Leicestershire, UK - The Long Road Festival
9/19 - Birmingham, AL - Alys Stephens Center
9/20 - Atlanta, GA - City Winery
9/21 - Nashville, TN - City Winery
9/23 - Charlotte, NC - McGlohan Theatre at Spirit Square
9/25 - Raleigh, NC - North Carolina Museum of Art
9/26 - Washington, DC - Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
9/27 - Princeton, NJ - McCarter Theater
9/28 - Wilmington, DE - Grand Opera House
9/29 - Burlington, VT - Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
10/1 - Brownfield, ME - Stone Mountain Arts Center
10/2 - Boothbay Harbor, ME - The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor
10/3 - Cambridge, MA - Sanders Theatre
10/4 - New York, NY - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
10/19 - Los Angeles, CA - Pico Union
10/23 - Kent, OH - The Kent Stage
10/25 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
10/26 - Chicago, IL - City Winery
10/27 - Chicago, IL - City Winery
10/29 - Bloomington, IN - Buskirk-Chumley Theater
10/30 - Iowa City, IA - The Englert Theatre
10/31 - Minneapolis, MN - The Dakota
11/1 - Minneapolis, MN - The Dakota
11/2 - Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House
11/3 - Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House
11/22 - London, UK - London Jazz Festival
Nonesuch Store: http://smarturl.it/thereisnoOther/nonesuchstorebuy
Spotify pre-save: http://smarturl.it/thereisnoOther/spotify
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/thereisnoOther/itunes
Apple Music: http://smarturl.it/thereisnoOther/applemusic
Tour dates + pre-order info: https://events.seated.com/rhiannon-giddens