Peak experience. Really. Tymisha Harris’s A Cabaret of Legends had me in tears.
Harris’s voice is so rich and pitch-perfect, it feels surreal sometimes that she’s singing live.
A celebration of Black female singers, A Cabaret of Legends overflows with substance. Harris sings — and contextualizes — Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam”. And she frames Bob Dylan’s “The Time’s They are A-Changin’”, which Josephine Baker sang at Carnegie Hall, as a tribute to those killed in gun violence, including the dead from the attack on Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, where Harris lives.
As a performer, Harris is glamorous — satin, rhinestones, extravagant flowers in her hair. And she’s completely embodied, the music flowing through her and making itself elegantly visible in her arms, hands, legs.
Harris honours her subjects rather than imitating them, but that honouring includes musical playfulness, sensuality, and raucous celebration — because there’s Ella Fitzgerald, Beyoncé, and Tina Turner.
Opportunities to witness this kind of excellence are rare. Don’t miss it.
Remaining performances: September 8, 5:00; Sept 11, 8:15; Sept 13, 4:30. Tickets
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