Zipper Hall
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In Tines’ solo recording debut, the musician grapples with the legacy of a hero. Exploding the musical repertoire of Paul Robeson, Tines and his band THE TRUTH — pianist John Bitoy and sound artist Khari Lucas — take listeners on a trip from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the floor of a Moscow hotel room in an attempt to understand an icon not through aspiring to his monumentality, but through connecting to his vulnerability.
The album’s sprawling and kaleidoscopic musical landscape brings together elements of classical, funk, Fauré, gospel, John Adams, r&b Shakespeare, and Bach. Tines says of ROBESOИ, which he co-created with director Zack Winokur, “This album is my most personal artistic statement to date. I’ve endeavored to compare and contrast my journey as an artist with that of my artistic ancestor and hero, Paul Robeson, the unparalleled singer, actor, and activist. Standing on his beliefs of egality for the disenfranchised led to governmental and public attacks that almost ended his life. This album is the fever dream of the universal journey to battle internal and external persecution in order to find one’s self and decide what you need to say the most now that you’ve survived.”