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Ranky Tanky

Ranky Tanky released their eponymous debut on Oct. 20th, 2017. By December of that year, the group had been been profiled on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and their album soared to the #1 position on the Billboard, I-Tunes, and Amazon Jazz Charts.

“Gullah” comes from West African language and means “a people blessed by God.” “Ranky Tanky” translates loosely as “Work It,” or “Get Funky!” In this spirit this Charleston, SC based quintet performs timeless music of Gullah culture born in the southeastern Sea Island region of the United States. From playful game songs to ecstatic shouts, from heartbreaking spirituals to delicate lullabies, the musical roots of Charleston, SC are “rank” and fertile ground from which these contemporary artists are grateful to have grown.

South Carolina natives Quentin Baxter, Kevin Hamilton, Charlton Singleton, and Clay Ross first came together in 1998, fresh out of University, to form a seminal Charleston jazz quartet. Now, united by years apart and a deeper understanding of home, these accomplished artists have come together again, joined by one of the low-country’s most celebrated vocalists Quiana Parler, to revive a “Heartland of American Music” born in their own backyards.

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2
Album Review

Ranky Tanky: Good Time

Read "Good Time" reviewed by Chris Mosey


Why change a winning formula? Ranky Tanky's follow-up to their hit debut album takes things further in the same vein: a heady mix of gospel and traditional Gullah songs from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, laced with original music and lyrics. The emphasis this time is on a pounding beat generated by the electric guitar of lone white man Clay Ross and the drumming of Quentin Baxter. Much of the music, especially “Pay Me My Money ...

3
Album Review

Ranky Tanky: Good Time

Read "Good Time" reviewed by John Bricker


The West African phrase Ranky Tanky roughly translates to “get funky" or “work it," according to the band's website. The band earns this title with danceable blends of gospel and jazz, celebrating the Gullah culture found in their home state of South Carolina. Although Good Time delivers more infectious energy than their self-titled debut, Ranky Tanky fails to leave a lasting impression due to weak arrangements and lackluster lyrics. In 2017, Ranky Tanky's first album introduced their unique ...

2
Album Review

Ranky Tanky: Ranky Tanky

Read "Ranky Tanky" reviewed by Chris Mosey


Ranky Tanky are based in Charleston, South Carolina. They specialize in jazz-and blues-influenced arrangements of the traditional music of the Gullah people, who came from West Africa as slaves in the 19th century. They were brought to South Carolina's Low Country and Sea Islands to work on plantations where their knowledge of rice cultivation could be put to good use and where high humidity and mosquitoes made life unbearable for whites and blacks from elsewhere in Africa. Best-known descendant of ...

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Profile

Ranky Tanky: African Rhythms Preserved

Read "Ranky Tanky: African Rhythms Preserved" reviewed by Martin McFie


Liberia, the West African country named for freedom, was partly financed by wealthy Americans as a haven for people who escaped enslavement. Its capital Monrovia was named for US President Monroe. The Gola (also called Gula) tribe are indigenous to the northern borderlands of Liberia with Sierra Leone. The Gola people are farmers who weave swamp grass, grow rice, corn and okra as their staple food. The comparison to the American Carolina Gullah traditions of eating rice, corn ground into ...

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Album Review

Ranky Tanky: Ranky Tanky

Read "Ranky Tanky" reviewed by James Nadal


Against all odds, the Gullah tradition prevails on the Sea Islands of South Carolina's Low Country. Maintaining their West African traditions and singular way of life for generations, their direct impact on African-American music is undeniable, and continues to be a vital source of inspiration. Combining revered Gullah kinship with a jazz sensibility, Ranky Tanky accentuates the spirituality connected to the ring shouts and praise houses, proposing a modern rendition of their ancestral music. Ranky Tanky loosely translates ...

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Festival

Announcing The 12th Annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival Presented By The New Jersey Performing Arts Center November 3-19, 2023

Announcing The 12th Annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival Presented By The New Jersey Performing Arts Center November 3-19, 2023

Source: AMT Public Relations

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) today announced the line-up of the highly anticipated 12th annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival, running from November 3-19, 2023. This year’s program showcases both legendary and emerging artists exploring jazz through the lens of Afrofuturism, Latin music, dance, soul, and more. Presented by way of unique genre-crossing collaborative concerts, this year’s program reflects on the amalgamation of jazz both in its musical form as well as in its force for and response ...

“Ranky Tanky, from Charleston, S.C., sings old Gullah songs — some of them sly moral lessons — in arrangements that connect their beat to a New Orleans lilt.” – New York Times “The biggest surprise of [GlobalFEST], Ranky Tanky proved that exotic music can be both unfamiliar enough to be surprising, and yet familiar enough to provoke swinging hips and nodding heads. When it works, it’s the best of both worlds.” – Paste Magazine “Combining revered Gullah kinship with a jazz sensibility, Ranky Tanky accentuates the spirituality connected to the ring shouts and praise houses, proposing a modern rendition of their ancestral music.” – All About Jazz “This group isn’t bound to any one particular musical genre, and it is grounded instead by an enigmatic, unshakeable and unspoiled tradition that’s long been hidden in plain sight.” – Jazziz Magazine

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Good Time

Resilience Music Alliance
2019

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Ranky Tanky

Resilience Music Alliance
2018

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