In honor of Black History Month, the Town of Carrboro organized the Black History Month concert series to celebrate local Black artists. To kick off this series, the Chrishawn Darby Quartet performed a free concert in the Century Center on Sunday.
Chrishawn Darby is a drummer from Orangeburg, S.C. Currently, he is pursuing a master’s degree in music at North Carolina Central University, where bassist Kenneth Gay III, pianist Jonah Smith and trumpeter Curtis Olawumi, are all also attending for undergrad. Chrishawn said he feels like a proud big brother watching them each grow as performers and he counts his blessings every day knowing that he gets to play music for a living.
They kicked off the concert with “Basin Street Blues”, a classic New Orleans tune recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1928. New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, a genre deeply rooted in Black culture. Louis Armstrong was the first Black musician to become a global icon; a legend that made tremendous contributions to music and the progress of civil rights.
“This is the music that built this country," Darby said. "This is the music that inspired some of the greatest artists of all time in this country. And so, it is vitally important to me to continue to have this going because you can teach the next generation about the real history of this country. This is a part of our history that should never be forgotten.”
Their next song was their rendition of “Wade in the Water,” a song that explicitly delves into Black history, as its lyrics reference the Underground Railroad, the Bible and the everyday struggles of Black Americans.
The fourth song the quartet played, called “Skylark,” is an arrangement by Smith, and their fifth, “I-40 West” is by Darby himself. Darby draws on a familiar local experience — how hard it is to drive on I-40, due to traffic — in this song. The depiction of this common, stressful, yet unavoidable experience manifests itself into chaotic, bebop-style improvisational jazz.
“For me, what this performance is, it's taking us back to our roots,” Sharon McDonald, vice president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Mu Omicron Omega chapter, said.
AKA is a historically all-Black sorority. The sisters of AKA had a booth at the concert to share with the Carrboro community what they do as a chapter. Events like these are what shape their community, McDonald said.
Rhea Franks, President of AKA, said that this event is a fun way to get out into the community.
