Niyonu.
Niyonu Spann had her eyes closed, her hands reaching for the audience. The gesture mirrored the music swirling around her. In all of it was weight and longing, but also, strength and freedom. It was the heady sound of an experienced hand flying into uncharted territory, as on Friday night at the State House, Spann, a musician with a career spanning decades, was launching new music with a new ensemble, digging ever deeper and expanding on the musical and spiritual ideas that had fueled her for her entire life. Backed by a small choir of singers — Foluke Bennett, Paul Bryant Hudson, Ingrid Lakey, Cindy Mizell, and Diane Spann — as well as a band of John F. Adams on keys, Carl Carter on bass, Chris Wright on drums, and Eric Rey on conga, Spann created music of deep grooves, rich harmonies, and poetic lyrics that spoke to the spirit. Mizell regaled the audience with a scorching take on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On?”
The Philadelphia-based Niyonu had come to the State House to officially release her latest album, Spirit Fuel, released in 2021 (and boasting a roster of New Haven musical talent including Paul Bryant Hudson, Jeremiah Fuller, and Dylan McDonnell, as well as featuring an album cover by Kwadwo Adae). But she was also there to launch the Nuyoni Singers, a wildly talented group that took the songs on Spirit Fuel and brought them to wrenching, liberating life.
“We’re in some interesting times,” Spann said toward the beginning of her first set. “Our very first rehearsal with Nuyoni was the first week of March 2020. And literally, that was the last rehearsal we had in person for over two years.” This meant that the State House show was “the first time that we are getting to perform live.” This was met by a strong round of applause.
“It is time that we remember and tell our stories,” Spann added.
Spann’s own story begins in Newark, N.J., “during the uprisings of the late 1960s, confronted by burning buildings and crumbling neighborhoods,” her officially bio reads. Her surroundings “stoked my activist-artist spirit. I was raised in a family where music and social justice held equal sway. My sister, Diane and I would race to the piano after school. My dad and his dad, both named, Roosevelt, were jazz guitarists and pianists. I loved walking over to grandad’s house, full of sweets and sheet music. Mom (Fredretha) was a favorite soloist in Jersey gospel circles while also loving European classical music, especially opera. As a family, music oozed out of our pores but discussions about movements for social justice held great importance around the dinner table.”
She found a spiritual home in church and artistic guidance in an arts high school, “where I allowed my creativity to express through my pen, my piano and especially my voice.” She learned from “community elders — Black Muslims, nationalists, and other everyday street educators. It was a time for raising consciousness.” Born Denise, “I found myself compelled to take a new name. I wanted it to reflect my newly realized commitments and spiritual depth. As I declared my dedication to Great Spirit (then, I would have said, “God”) and to the liberation of my people, I was given the name Niyonu (compassionate one).”
She studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music but also found “that I could not separate my music from my spirituality or from my commitment to abolishing systems that devalued some while elevating others. The works of great musical influences burned in my soul: Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Earth, Wind & Fire as did the writers and poets: Nikki Giovanni, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, and Chinua Achebe.”
After graduating Oberlin, she became a high-school music teacher. In 1994, she founded Tribe 1, “a group that sang original music with complex harmonies and rich percussion.” She released two albums in 1998, one with Tribe 1 and one under her own name. Tribe 1 toured the United States and once in Nicaragua for 23 years, holding a final concert to full house in Philadelphia in 2019. Nuyoni was formed in early 2020. Thanks to Covid, it just had to wait another two years before hitting a stage.
But first, poet Tai Amri Spann-Ryan — Niyonu’s son — performed a short, impactful opening set, reading from his book of poems, Beautiful Ashé. The poems spoke movingly of the difficulties of being Black in America, and about finding the strength to deal with those difficulties by connecting with ancestral spirituality.
The Nuyoni Singers then quickly occupied the stage, hitting the audience with the stunning opener “The Push.” Partaking of the slow, almost tidal rhythms and chants of funk and neo-soul, the song set the tone for the two sets of music to follow. As the lyrics spoke of a spiritual journey inward, an exploration of self and ancestry, and a push toward creating a better future, the singers’ voices blended into a swirl of dizzying, bending harmonies. The band could take it up to dance tempo whenever they wanted, as they did frequently.
But the singers could also create dense soundscapes with their voices, setting up complex harmonies, ping-ponging vocal lines, and raucous, sticky calls and responses, over ripping rhythms from the band that kept time and provided counterpoint. Along the way, Niyonu treated the audience to the world premiere of her latest video, “Webstuck.” Paul Bryant Hudson delivered an intimate, impassioned take on his original song, “John.” Mizell gave the audience a scorching take on Marvin Gaye. Two full sets of music passed by in the blink of an eye and the band took a bow to rapturous applause, from an audience that was entertained — and nourished.