Joy brings rare jazz requests to gallery
The Bermuda National Gallery will host the first in a series of intimate music sessions alongside its current display tonight.
At “Love for Sale: A Jazz Standard”, singer Joy Barnum will perform requests, a rarity, to a limited audience from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Collaboration, she said, was new territory.
Ms Barnum told The Royal Gazette: “Collaborating is not something that I’m used to.
“I would write a song and that would be the end of it. I wrote it, I’d sing it, I produced it and now I’m starting to work with other people.
“That’s rounding me out as an individual and I have Taylor Rankin to thank for that because he’s all about collaborating.”
Ms Barnum featured in the violinist’s three-night festival Leroyfest in June last year.
This three-part series will take place over the next three months and the second show, “Emotions”, is an acoustic set in March with Ms Barnum and her guitarist showcasing original songs from her recent tour.
The last show, a multi-artist affair in April, will have a full band set-up in City Hall’s Earl Cameron Theatre.
Ms Barnum said she wanted to create a true concert experience, with bar, vendors and merchandise available in the main hall.
Attendees can expect to see singer and tap-dancer Live Wires, local poet Stephan Johnstone, Berkeley student Quinn and Ms Barnum’s old friend and pianist MCP.
She said she was working with Mr Johnstone on her current album Black and Honey and an electronic dance music track with a local producer, fresh ground for the artist, which she described as “so much fun”.
The BNG has held music nights for decades — the Art of Music series being the most recent.
Lisa Howie, gallery director, said: “Our members have asked for us to stay open late and this music night is a win-win.”
Doors will open at 7pm encouraging guests to tour the exhibitions, including the newly opened Tribute to Peter Woolcock, while enjoying a cocktail.
Ms Howie described Joy as “explosive” and one of the island’s “hottest talents”.