Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber

Biography

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber is an American improvisational ensemble founded in 1999 by Village Voice icon Greg Tate and co-led with bassist Jared Michael Nickerson. The band was originally conceived as a forum for New York area improvisational musicians to compose, record, and perform material reflecting the breadth and depth of American diasporan music in the 21st century. The ensemble's founding members gathered in a Hell's Kitchen rehearsal studio in late August 1999 and made their debut at the legendary CBGB venue shortly thereafter, featuring an initial lineup of Vijay Iyer and Bruce Mack on keyboards, guitarists Rene Akhan, Morgan Craft, and Kirk Douglass (later of The Roots), bassists Jared Michael Nickerson and Jason Di Matteo, drummers Swiss Chris and Qasim Naqvi, vocalist Eisa Davis, and violinist Simi.

The band's defining characteristic is its use of 'conduction,' a system of hand and baton signals developed by Butch Morris that cues various musical themes and musicians during live performance, allowing the ensemble to create fresh interpretations at each show. Under Tate's direction, Burnt Sugar freely moves among funk, jazz, rock, free improvisation, soul, hip-hop, and experimental music, drawing inspiration from post-modernist American composers including Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. The group's mission explicitly rejects commercial categorization of Black music, instead creating hybrid forms grounded in various musical traditions and cutting-edge music technology.

Burnt Sugar has evolved into a sprawling ensemble of 12 to 26 members, releasing multiple albums including their 1999 debut 'Blood On The Leaf' and the epic three-disc 2000 sophomore release 'That Depends On What You Know.' The band has performed internationally and collaborated with notable artists and institutions, including a 2002 dance adaptation of Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' with choreographer Gabri Christa at Central Park Summerstage. Greg Tate led the ensemble until his death on December 7, 2021, leaving behind a legacy as one of the few modern music groups to freely synthesize diverse vocal and instrumental traditions.

Fun Facts

• The band's name conflates two mystical musical traditions: Sun Ra's Arkestra and the Wu Tang Clan's '36 Chambers,' reflecting Greg Tate's vision of honoring both avant-garde jazz and hip-hop traditions.
• Burnt Sugar made their debut at CBGB in late 1999 and recorded their debut album 'Blood On The Leaf' in December of that same year, establishing themselves quickly in the New York downtown music scene.
• The ensemble's personnel is deliberately fluid and expansive, ranging from 12 to 26 members, allowing the band to freely juggle a wide spectrum of experimental soul-jazz-hip-hop styles and incorporate diverse instruments including dulcimer, whistling, and whispered vocals.
• In 2002, Butch Morris made his first official appearance with Burnt Sugar during a collaboration with choreographer Gabri Christa on a dance adaptation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring at Central Park Summerstage, formalizing the band's use of his conduction system.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Butch Morris - Developer of the conduction system that became the foundational directing method for Burnt Sugar's improvisational approach (Conduction system methodology) [1999-present]
• Duke Ellington - Post-modernist American composer cited as a primary inspiration and progenitor for the band's musical philosophy (General compositional influence) [Historical influence]
• Sun Ra - Mystic composer whose Arkestra served as direct inspiration for the band's name and communal exploratory nature (General influence on band conception) [Historical influence]

Key Collaborators

• Jared Michael Nickerson - Co-leader and bassist of Burnt Sugar since its founding (All Burnt Sugar releases and performances) [1999-present]
• Vijay Iyer - Founding member on keyboards (Blood On The Leaf, early Burnt Sugar performances) [1999-2000s]
• Kirk Douglass - Founding guitarist, later became member of The Roots (Early Burnt Sugar recordings and performances) [1999-2000s]
• Eisa Davis - Founding member and vocalist (Early Burnt Sugar albums) [1999-2000s]
• Gabri Christa - Choreographer who collaborated on dance adaptation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (The Rite of Spring adaptation) [2002]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia