GRAMMY AWARD WINNER CORINNE BAILEY RAE CONFIRMS NEW MUSICAL PROJECT

GRAMMY AWARD WINNER CORINNE BAILEY RAE CONFIRMS NEW MUSICAL PROJECT
BLACK RAINBOWS
DUE SEPTEMBER 15


photo credit: Koto Bolofo; album artwork

INSPIRED BY THEASTER GATES COLLECTION
AT STONY ISLAND ARTS BANK

DEBUTS NEW SINGLE “NEW YORK TRANSIT QUEEN”

June 19, 2023—Today, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae confirms her years-in-the-making Black Rainbows project. Inspired by the objects and artworks collected by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, the work includes a collection of songs, a book Refraction/Reflection of the Arts Bank photographed by Koto Bolofo, live performances, visuals, lectures and exhibitions—a bold move from her previous work.

The album Black Rainbows is set for release September 15 via Thirty Tigers. Pre-save/pre-order the album here. The first single, “New York Transit Queen,” is out now; listen/share here, and watch the video trailer here. In celebration of the new project, Bailey Rae is taking her live show to select U.S. cities this fall including Yale University’s Schwarzman CenterNew York’s National Jazz Museum in HarlemUniversity of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, and Bailey Rae will be making an appearance at the 35th Annual Chinati Weekend in Marfa, TX. See below for the full tour routing.


book artwork
 

“I knew when I walked through those doors that my life had changed forever,” says Bailey Rae. “Engaging with these archives and encountering Theaster Gates and his practice has changed how I think about myself as an artist and what the possibilities of my work can be. This music has come through seeing. Seeing has been like hearing, for me. While I was looking, songs/sounds appeared.”

Wide ranging in its themes, Black Rainbows’ subjects are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America’s past. From the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia to the journeys of Black Pioneers westward, from Miss New York Transit 1957 to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs’ loophole. Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse, ancestors and music as a vessel for transcendence.

In continued homage to African American art, Bailey Rae chose Amanda Williams and Koto Bolofo for the art direction and photography, respectively, of the project. Amanda Williams was recently honored as a 2022 Macarthur Fellow, with her work exhibited at highly acclaimed museums across the country notably New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. In similar excellence, Koto Bolofo was awarded the 2022 Lucie Award for Achievement in Advertising in Photography, with his editorials featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ and many others.

ABOUT CORINNE BAILEY RAE

English singer/songwriter/musician Corinne Bailey Rae shot to stardom with her self-titled #1 U.K. debut album in 2006, featuring the global hits “Put Your Records On” and “Like A Star.” Over the course of her career she has released three critically acclaimed studio albums—Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea and The Heart Speaks in Whispers—and earned two Grammy Awards, two MOBOS, and has been nominated for multiple awards including the BRIT Awards, Mercury Music Prize and BET Awards. Her work for film and television includes the theme to Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (SKY1), “The Scientist” for Universal Pictures’ Fifty Shades Darker opening title and soundtrack which charted globally, and in 2020 her song “New to Me” was performed in the film The High Note by Tracee Ellis Ross. Bailey Rae has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Mary J. Blige, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, KING, Paul McCartney, Kele Okereke (Bloc Party), Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Questlove, Salaam Rami, RZA, Tyler The Creator, Paul Weller, Richard Hawley, Stevie Wonder, Tracey Thorn, Pharrell, Logic, Mick Jenkins and many more.

ABOUT THEASTER GATES

Theaster Gates lives and works in Chicago. He creates work that focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, Gates redeems spaces that have been left behind. Known for his recirculation of art-world capital, he creates work that focuses on the possibility of the “life within things.” Gates smartly upturns art values, land values and human values. In all aspects of his work, he contends with the notion of Black space as a formal exercise—one defined by collective desire, artistic agency and the tactics of a pragmatist. Gates has exhibited and performed at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (2018); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2018); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA (2017); Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2013); Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy (2013) and dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). He was the winner of the Artes Mundi 6 prize and was a recipient of the Légion d’Honneur in 2017. He was awarded the Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2018, as well as the Urban Land Institute, J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Gates is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts and the College and also serves as the Senior Advisor for Cultural Innovation and Advisor to the Dean. Gates is Director of Artists Initiatives at the Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College Museum of Art and the 2018/2019 Artist-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute (GRI).

ABOUT STONY ISLAND ARTS BANK

Designed by William Gibbons Uffendell and built in 1923, the bank at 68th and Stony Island was once a vibrant community savings and loan. Today, the restored Stony Island Arts Bank provides the South Side of Chicago with 17,000 square feet of space for innovation in contemporary art and archival practice. At the time of its construction, the bank was a symbol of the growing prosperity of the South Side, which was experiencing a building boom in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1979 the Bank was closed and it fell into disrepair. In 2012, upon threat of demolition, artist Theaster Gates purchased the building from the City of Chicago for $1. Gates, whose practice harnesses the power of space, objects and the spirit within them, saved the landmark from destruction. Gates sold marble from the original Bank build as “bank bonds” on the commercial art market to finance the renovation and remediation of the building. Today, the Stony Island Arts Bank is a vibrant hub of artistic, archival and cultural activity on the South Side of Chicago. In addition to serving as a gallery, institution and cultural space, the Arts Bank also hosts a variety of events including exhibitions, performances, film screenings and lectures.

CORINNE BAILEY RAE LIVE

September 5—Long Island, NY—Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University

September 6—Washington, DC—Lincoln Theatre

September 8—Philadelphia, PA—Theatre of Living Arts

September 9—New Haven, CT—Schwarzman Center at Yale University

September 10—New York, NY—The National Jazz Museum in Harlem

September 12—Cincinnati, OH—Memorial Hall

September 14—Chicago, IL—Rockefeller Memorial
Chapel at University of Chicago

September 17—Nashville, TN—CMA Theater

September 19—Charleston, SC—Charleston Music Hall

September 20—Durham, NC—Carolina Theatre

September 22—Sugar Hill, GA—The Eagle Theatre at Sugar Hill

September 24—Birmingham, AL—Alys Stephens Center at University of Alabama

September 26—New Orleans, LA—Orpheum Theater

September 29—Austin, TX—The Paramount Theatre

October 1—Houston, TX—Stafford Centre

October 3—Dallas, TX—Texas Theatre

October 5—Santa Fe, NM—Lensic Performing Arts Center

October 7—Marfa, TX—Saint George Hall

UK / SPAIN TOUR DATES

October 25—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall 

October 26—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall

October 28—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall

October 31—Madrid, Spain—Teatro Pavón

November 1—Barcelona, Spain—Studio P62

November 3—Seville, Spain—Cartuja Centre

CORINNE BAILEY RAE BLACK RAINBOWS

1. A Spell, A Prayer

2. Black Rainbows

3. Erasure

4. Earthlings

5. Red Horse

6. New York Transit Queen

7. He Will Follow You With His Eyes

8. Put It Down

9. Peach Velvet Sky

10. Before The Throne of Invisible God

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