Niyonu Feeds The Spirit

Niyonu Spann had her eyes closed, her hands reaching for
the audience. The gesture mirrored the music swirling around
her. In all of it was weight and longing, but also, strength and
freedom. It was the heady sound of an experienced hand
flying into uncharted territory, as on Friday night at the State
House, Spann, a musician with a career spanning decades,
was launching new music with a new ensemble, digging ever
deeper and expanding on the musical and spiritual ideas that
had fueled her for her entire life. Backed by a small choir of
singers — Foluke Bennett, Paul Bryant Hudson, Ingrid Lakey,
Cindy Mizell, and Diane Spann — as well as a band of John F.
Adams on keys, Carl Carter on bass, Chris Wright on drums,
and Eric Rey on conga, Spann created music of deep
grooves, rich harmonies, and poetic lyrics that spoke to the
spirit. Mizell regaled the audience with a scorching take on
Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On?” 
The Philadelphia-based Niyonu had come to the State House
to officially release her latest album, Spirit Fuel, released in
2021 (and boasting a roster of New Haven musical talent
including Paul Bryant Hudson, Jeremiah Fuller, and Dylan
McDonnell, as well as featuring an album cover by Kwadwo
Adae). But she was also there to launch the Nuyoni Singers,
a wildly talented group that took the songs on Spirit Fuel and
brought them to wrenching, liberating life.

“We’re in some interesting times,” Spann said toward the
beginning of her first set. “Our very first rehearsal with Nuyoni
was the first week of March 2020. And literally, that was the
last rehearsal we had in person for over two years.” This
meant that the State House show was “the first time that we
are getting to perform live.” This was met by a strong round
of applause.
“It is time that we remember and tell our stories,”
Spann added.
Spann’s own story begins in Newark, N.J., “during the
uprisings of the late 1960s, confronted by burning buildings
and crumbling neighborhoods,” her officially bio reads. Her
surroundings “stoked my activist-artist spirit. I was raised in
a family where music and social justice held equal sway. My
sister, Diane and I would race to the piano after school. My
dad and his dad, both named, Roosevelt, were jazz guitarists
and pianists. I loved walking over to grandad’s house, full of
sweets and sheet music. Mom (Fredretha) was a favorite
soloist in Jersey gospel circles while also loving European
classical music, especially opera. As a family, music oozed
out of our pores but discussions about movements for social
justice held great importance around the dinner table.”
She found a spiritual home in church and artistic guidance in
an arts high school, “where I allowed my creativity to express
through my pen, my piano and especially my voice.” She
learned from “community elders — Black Muslims,
nationalists, and other everyday street educators. It was
a time for raising consciousness.” Born Denise, “I found
myself compelled to take a new name. I wanted it to reflect
my newly realized commitments and spiritual depth. As
I declared my dedication to Great Spirit (then, I would have
said, “God”) and to the liberation of my people, I was given
the name Niyonu (compassionate one).”

She studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music but also
found “that I could not separate my music from my spirituality
or from my commitment to abolishing systems that devalued
some while elevating others. The works of great musical
influences burned in my soul: Nina Simone, John Coltrane,
Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Earth, Wind & Fire as did the
writers and poets: Nikki Giovanni, Ntozake Shange, James
Baldwin, and Chinua Achebe.”
After graduating Oberlin, she became a high-school music
teacher. In 1994, she founded Tribe 1, “a group that sang
original music with complex harmonies and rich percussion.”
She released two albums in 1998, one with Tribe 1 and one
under her own name. Tribe 1 toured the United States and
once in Nicaragua for 23 years, holding a final concert to full
house in Philadelphia in 2019. Nuyoni was formed in early

2020. Thanks to Covid, it just had to wait another two years
      before hitting a stage.

But first, poet Tai Amri Spann-Ryan — Niyonu’s
son — performed a short, impactful opening set, reading from
his book of poems, Beautiful Ashé . The poems spoke
movingly of the difficulties of being Black in America, and
about finding the strength to deal with those difficulties by
connecting with ancestral spirituality.
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The Nuyoni Singers then quickly occupied the stage, hitting
the audience with the stunning opener “The Push.” Partaking
of the slow, almost tidal rhythms and chants of funk and neo-
soul, the song set the tone for the two sets of music to follow.
As the lyrics spoke of a spiritual journey inward, an
exploration of self and ancestry, and a push toward creating

a better future, the singers’ voices blended into a swirl of
dizzying, bending harmonies. The band could take it up to
dance tempo whenever they wanted, as they did frequently.

But the singers could also create dense soundscapes with
their voices, setting up complex harmonies, ping-ponging
vocal lines, and raucous, sticky calls and responses, over
ripping rhythms from the band that kept time and provided
counterpoint. Along the way, Niyonu treated the audience to
the world premiere of her latest video, “Webstuck.” Paul
Bryant Hudson delivered an intimate, impassioned take on his
original song, “John.” Mizell gave the audience a scorching
take on Marvin Gaye. Two full sets of music passed by in the
blink of an eye and the band took a bow to rapturous
applause, from an audience that was
entertained — and nourished.