PORT ANGELES — Ranky Tanky, a Gullah expression, means “get funky,” which fits these five soulful-jazzy-bluesy music makers. Yet there’s plenty more to it, said Charlton Singleton, vocalist and trumpet player with the band that’s on its way here.
The Charleston, S.C.-based group, winner of two Grammy awards, will step onto the stage at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Field Arts & Events Hall, as the long-awaited venue swings into its grand opening weekend.
Tickets and information about Ranky Tanky’s concert and the rest of the weekend’s performances at the hall, 201 W. Front St., are at fieldhallevents.org.
The Gullah tradition, born among the enslaved Africans and their descendants on Sea Islands of South Carolina, is the current coursing through Ranky Tanky’s rhythms. The band’s musical forebears lifted their voices, clapped their hands and stamped their feet to make a rich musical culture. It began hundreds of years ago.
Today, Gullah songs and rhythms are as alive and lively as ever, Singleton emphasizes. He and Ranky Tanky have traveled the world, showing audiences how the band gives its modern interpretations to a traditional art form.
They just returned from a music festival in Brno, a city in the Czech Republic, where the crowd was “all in, from the first note to the last note … they want encores; they want to experience the whole package,” he said.
The whole package, when it comes to Ranky Tanky, ranges from the searing and syncopated “Freedom” to the honey-sweet “Let Me Be” to the joyous “Good Time.”
The band electrifies the Gullah sound, and to add even more fire, it stirs in Singleton’s horn, Quentin Baxter’s drums and Quiana Parler’s bell-clear voice.
Audiences from middle America to northern Europe respond, Singleton said.
“The saying about music being a universal language rings true” — that’s one reason.
Another is because people recognize the beats and melodies. Songs such as “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” and “Kumbaya” come from the Gullah tradition, he said. The Rolling Stones popularized the Gullah tune “You Gotta Move.”
A woman at a Ranky Tanky concert in the Midwest told him one of their numbers reminded her of a song she learned in 4-H.
As for the “Ranky Tanky” expression itself, Singleton said, that comes from a children’s game much like patty-cake. The words go something like: “Pain in my hands,” and then you shake your hands. “Pain in my feet,” and you shake your feet. “Pain in my head,” shake that head.
The point, Singleton said, is “if you have a pain, you shake it out. You get funky with it.”
As a trumpet player, Singleton is known for his grace in complementing Parler’s singing. That comes from years of listening to your bandmates, he said.
Along with guitarist and singer Clay Ross and bassist Kevin Hamilton, they became Ranky Tanky circa 2015. They were good friends for decades prior, Singleton said, adding Parler got audiences’ attention as soon as she began performing at age 9.
Together, the group won its first Grammy for its 2020 album “Good Time” and its second for “Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.”
Steve Raider-Ginsburg, Field Hall executive director, explained why this is exactly the right band for grand opening weekend.
“Ranky Tanky plays celebratory music that is soulful, transcendent,” he said, “mixing the best of American jazz, soul, funk, blues and roots music.”
Field Hall is showcasing artists “from Washington to the world,” he added, with Tacoma native Diane Schuur performing Friday and Saturday, BANDALOOP vertical dance company on Saturday and Unit Souzou, the Japanese taiko group, on Sunday.
The grand opening of the estimated $50 million facility will begin with the opening of “Creations of the Klallam People” in the new waterfront gallery space on Thursday; the welcoming ceremony will be at 5 p.m. today followed by the gallery opening and reception.
Asked if he’d like to say anything more about Ranky Tanky’s first trip to the Olympic Peninsula, Singleton offered two words.
“Get ready,” he said.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend.
