CHANDA RULE + SWEET EMMA BAND - HOLD ON

​photo by Pia Fronia 

new album
out 22.05.20 [digital]
out 31.07.20 [CD]
(PAO Records / Membran)
includes
HOLD ON
single out 22.04.20

Rooted in gospel, but with a heart full of soul and a voice blessed with jazz, singer and songwriter Chanda Rule has been weaving stories through song, humming melodies and bending words since her childhood in Chicago. Her genre-defying voice has graced musical projects that include a collaboration with sax powerhouse Donny McCaslin, while she has performed as an opening act for the likes of Kamasi Washington, India Arie, Regina Belle and The Whispers.

Chanda’s well-received 2019 debut solo album, ‘Sapphire Dreams’, was a lush compilation of original songs and creative spins on old favourites that saw Dexter Gordon pianist Kirk Lightsey claim that “she is the most amazing, elegant, fascinating, all in all greatest singer I saw in the last 30 or 40 years, and I’ve seen them all.”

Her follow-up effort, ‘Hold On’, is a combination of elegant and inventively arranged gospel and work songs on which Chanda’s African-American roots blend perfectly with European jazz virtuosos such as renowned trombonist and impresario Paul Zauner, trumpet rising star Mario Rom and Hammond magician Jan Korinek. These musicians aid Chanda in transforming the lush melodies and rhythmic influences of New Orleans into her own refreshing style, with the traditional values of the jazz lineage updated into impressive versions of this set of well-known standards.
Recalling a childhood dream where she was flying, Chanda acknowledges “a sea of ancestral energy, supporting me, guiding my flight,” and describes ‘Hold On’ as "a musical libation to them. I honour them with each of these songs that have been steeped in the fields of the American South. Over the years I have been surprised and sometimes incensed at the claims to this music that fell from the lips of my enslaved ancestors. It is their music. They created it, sang it, laboured through it, cried through it, shared their souls in ways that were acceptable to their new world through it.”

With the exception of ‘I’ll Fly Away’ (written by Albert Brumley and inspired by work and prison songs of African-Americans) and ‘Come Sunday’ (written by Duke Ellington), she states that “the songs on this album were originally written and sung by unnamed and undocumented African-American mothers, fathers, workers, prisoners, preachers, sons and daughters.” She adds: “I gave many of the songs a lyrical update. I think those that came before me would have approved. I used to sing the songs because the melody carried me to new places and the lyrics were a retelling of a time that I never had to live through. But I have found out that they also guide and support us through a new time.”

Sweet Emma, incidentally, was a renowned pianist and singer from New Orleans who regularly sang in the Preservation Hall. Nat & Cannonball Adderly dedicated their song ‘Sweet Emma’ to her.

HOLD ON
TRACKLISTING
1  Another Man Done Gone
2  I'll Fly Away
3  Rosalie
4  Sun Goes Down
5  Motherless Child
6  Carry It Home To Rosie
7  Hold On
8  Sinnerman
9  Come Sunday

MUSICIANS
Chanda Rule – vocals
Mario Rom – trumpet
Osian Roberts – tenor sax
Paul Zauner – trombone
Jan Korinek – Hammond organ
Christian Salfellner – drums, percussion