Jimi Haha Davies helped organize and will perform at The Sound We Make.
Some of Annapolis’s top local performers—four artists known for their frequent gigs around town and beyond—will shapeshift this month as part of a unique collaboration. In The Sound We Make, taking the stage on May 31, they’ll get to perform some of their original songs in full concert mode, with live orchestral backing.
The evening promises to be a rich mix for both the musicians and their listeners. It takes place in the Live Arts Maryland Studio at the Annapolis Mall, a 200-seat venue that offers a dynamic setting for performances and is fast becoming an integral part of the Annapolis arts scene.
“The Sound We Make is exactly the kind of project Live Arts Maryland is excited to support,” says General Manager Dane Krich. “One of our core goals is to help create new opportunities for local artists and connect them with broader audiences. By bringing together Live Arts Maryland, the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, members of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra, and four outstanding local singer-songwriters, this concert creates a unique artistic collaboration that simply wouldn’t exist otherwise. It reflects our commitment to expanding performance opportunities in our community and making a space where new artistic ideas can come to life.”
Jimi Haha Davies, a multi-faceted musician, songwriter, publisher, and visual artist, provided the creative impetus for the show. The lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for the nationally known band Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, says that The Sound We Make is the realization of a long-held dream.
Madisun Bailey will perform with a live orchestra in The Sound We Make on May 31.
Blues artist Dean Rosenthal will bring his home-grown songs to the celebration of local musicians
“I came up with the concept close to a decade ago,” Davies explains. “I kept seeing classical orchestras inviting national artists to perform with them, and thought it would be a great idea to do it here with Annapolis artists, to help broaden the audience and highlight local songwriters. It’s an opportunity to meld classical music, which has always been sort of a suit-and-tie genre, with the jeans-and-t-shirt style of local rock, folk, blues, funk, or hip hop music.”
Davies invited three other local musicians—Rahsaan “Wordslave” Eldridge, Madisun Bailey, and Dean Rosenthal—to join him for The Sound We Make project, and asked each to send a few of their songs to arranger Daniel Capelletti, who will score them for the concert. Selecting which works to feature was the artists’ first challenge.
For one of his numbers, Eldridge chose “The Perfect Work of Art,” a song he wrote almost two decades ago. “I had performed it a cappella in open mic sessions in Baltimore for years, but I always heard the orchestral sound of it in my mind,” he recalls. “I was hearing strings, a big sound. This (new version) is close to what I was originally thinking, and made me excited about what it could be.”
Songwriter Madisun Bailey says she also had strings in mind when she envisioned the score for her “Forest Green,” the title track on her upcoming album. “It’s a song with a very open feel, with lots of room for instrumentation,” she explains. “I want to transport the listener to a forest, and I think the strings will help take them there. There will be more space, more layers. In another song, ‘Glass’—also on the new album—there’s a bridge that could lend itself to instrumentation. I hear it, a bit.”
Poet and musician Rahsaan “Wordslave” Eldridge once imagined his songs with an orchestra behind them.
Dean Rosenthal, a fixture on the local performing arts scene, writes songs in the tradition of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. “Once, I sang blues songs about places I’d never been, but then I had an epiphany and started singing about the places that I know,” he says. “‘Left into Galesville,’ one of the songs I sent to the arranger for the concert, is actually based on Mapquest directions. When I sing it, I can see that ‘hey, I’ve been there’ look on people’s faces. Next thing I know, they’re singing along.” The audience for The Sound We Make just might be, too.
One of the numbers Jimi Davies will contribute is a song called “Balancing Act” which he’s performed with his other band, Jarflys. It also appeared on a solo recording project, Mend The Hollow. Another offering will be a track from his latest Jimmie’s Chicken Shack studio album, 2econds.
“That’s a song I started writing in 2002 but didn’t finish until 2022,” he explains, “and it’s called ‘The Sound You Make.’” More than two decades later, the composer will get to hear his work burnished and expanded with a live orchestral accompaniment. Says Davies of his involvement in the project, “I just thought it would be great to feature our local artists and incorporate some members of the youth orchestra with seasoned musicians, so we can bridge the age gaps in our audiences.”
“Jimi has such energy,” Rosenthal says, admiringly. “For him, it’s all about taking care of the local music scene.”
The Sound We Make will be performed on Sunday, May 31 at 8 p.m. at Live Arts Maryland Studio at the Annapolis Mall. For tickets, visit liveartsmd.org or call 443-771-5198.
