Christian McBride: The Movement Revisited and Joe Sealy’s Africville Stories program

Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz

Meridian Hall

TO Live would like to acknowledge Tkaronto, which is a Mohawk word meaning the place in the water where the trees are standing.

We live and work on the traditional territory of Haudenosaunee-speaking nations, including the Huron-Wendat, Seneca, and Mohawk. Haudenosauneespeaking nations have been here since time immemorial, and were more recently joined by the Mississaugas of the Credit.

This place has many Indigenous ports, including where the Humber and Rouge rivers meet other waterways such as Lake Ontario. Ancient longhouses— typical Haudenosaunee housing structures—have been found along both these rivers and in the north of Toronto near modern-day York University. This territory is covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy and the Anishnaabe (Ojibwe) and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the lands and the relationships around the Great Lakes.

What this means is that by living and working here, we all have a responsibility to the environment and to each other, to treat each other and the environment with peace and respect. This means we have responsibilities to honour, renew, and consistently uphold the values and relationships outlined in the ancient agreements.

Today, Toronto is home to Indigenous peoples and settlers from around the world. Let us all come together in an atmosphere of respect and peace to do good work together with good minds. Let’s start building stronger and healthier relationships with each other and the spaces we inhabit in Tkaronto, Ontari:io, Kanata.

Let’s hold our minds together in kindness. Nia:wen. Thank you.

© Dawn Maracle

Welcome letter from TO Live

In November 1967, Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader, Baptist preacher, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, delivered the prestigious Massey Lectures on CBC Radio from Toronto. The Massey Lectures are a celebrated annual broadcast in which a noted Canadian or international scholar gives a weeklong series of lectures on a political, cultural, or philosophical topic.

“Deep in our history of struggle for freedom,” Dr. King said, “Canada was the North Star” the star followed by the Underground Railroad. “We sang of ‘heaven’ that awaited us, and the slave masters listened in innocence, not realizing that we were not speaking of the hereafter,” he explained. “Heaven was the word for Canada.”

Less than six months later, Dr. King was assassinated.

Christian McBride’s The Movement Revisited explores these same social themes that are just as relevant today as they were over 50 years ago.

Powered by a relentless energy and a boundless love of swing, eight-time Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian McBride’s The Movement Revisited is an exuberant and powerful musical tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. in addition to Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and President Barack Obama.

The evening opens with Joe Sealy’s Africville Stories, based on his Juno Award-winning recording Africville Suite. Featuring the legendary Jackie Richardson, the result is a lively and uplifting true story of the history of Africville, Nova Scotia—Canada’s oldest Black community.

TO Live is proud of our ongoing commitment to social change and building a better city through the arts. We strongly believe art not only plays a vital role in society as a source of joy, happiness, and awe, but it also provokes, engages, and inspires.

Tonight’s program is an excellent example of how all these qualities can come together to make a fantastic night of music. Enjoy!

TO Live

Clyde Wagner President & CEO Josephine Ridge Vice President, Programming

Christian McBride: The Movement Revisited and Joe Sealy’s Africville Stories

Christian McBride: The Movement

Revisited

Music director and bass: Christian McBride

Rosa Parks: Yanna McIntosh

Martin Luther King Jr.: Kevin Hanchard

Malcom X: Philip Akin

Muhammad Ali: Michael Blake

Bass and trombone: Max Seigel

Choir director: JD Steele

Drums: Terreon Gully

Keys: Michael King

Baritone saxophone: Carl Maraghi

Alto saxophone: Todd Bashore

Saxophone: Dan Pratt

Saxophone: Steve Wilson

Saxophone: Ron Blake

Trumpet: Brandon Lee

Trumpet: Frank Greene

Trumpet: Anthony Hervey

Trumpet: Nabate Isles

Trombone: James Burton III

Trombone: Michael Dease

Trombone: Joe McDonough

Vibes and percussion: Warren Wolf

Vocals: Alicia Olatuja

Toronto Mass Choir

Artistic director: Karen Burke

Managing director: Glenda Patten

Business manager: Oswald Burke

Sopranos

Avril Condappa

Chantelle Barham

Dawn Sutherland

Maxine Gooden

Naomi Powell

Stacey Asiedu

Vanessa Hamilton

Altos

Deirdra Joseph

Grace-Ann Hunte

Irene Abraham

Joann Harry

Makayla Gardner

Melanie Gillespie

Nicole Sinclair-Anderson

Tara Peterkin

Tiffany LaFleur

Tenors

Darnell Thomas

Jonathan Boddie

Jonathan Nvita

Kyle Boddie

Natareo Johnson

O’Neil Donald

Joe Sealy’s Africville Stories

Composer and pianist: Joe Sealy

Project producer and bass: Paul Novotny

Drums: Daniel Barnes

Saxophone: Alison Young

Vocals and storyteller: Jackie Richardson

Christian McBride is an eight-time Grammy Awardwinning bassist, composer, and bandleader. McBride is the artistic director of the historic Newport Jazz Festival, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), TD James Moody Jazz Festival, and National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He is also a respected educator and advocate as the artistic director of Jazz House Kids and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass summer sessions.

In addition to consistent touring, McBride hosts NPR’s Jazz Night in America and The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian McBride on SiriusXM. Whether behind the bass or away from it, Christian McBride is always of the music. From jazz to R&B, pop/ rock, hip-hop/neo-soul, to classical, he is a luminary with one hand ever reaching for new heights, and the other extended in fellowship—and perhaps the hint of a challenge—inviting us to join him.

Yanna McIntosh is one of Canada’s pre-eminent stage actors, known for her dramatic range and fiery intensity. Theatre credits include Ruined (Obsidian Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (San Francisco), The Baroness and the Pig (Shaw Festival), Hedda Gabler (Volcano), Belle (Factory Theatre), and Skylight (Tarragon Theatre). She has also had an active career on screen, including recurring roles on Y: The Last Man, Beyond Black Beauty, This is Wonderland, Coroner, and The Marsh King’s Daughter.

Yanna was educated at Vaughan Road Collegiate, the University of Toronto, and the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University. She has starred in many shows at the Stratford Festival, including Antony and Cleopatra; Macbeth; The Winter’s Tale; Elektra; Trojan Women; A Little Night Music; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; and Oedipus. She has won multiple awards for her acting, including a Gemini, a Toronto Critics Circle award, and several Dora Awards.

Christian McBride

Music director and bass

Yanna McIntosh Rosa Parks

Hot on the heels of his third Canadian Screen Award nomination, Kevin is excited for another season of crime fighting on the international hit series Hudson & Rex. Audiences may also remember his award-winning turn as Detective “Art” Bell on Orphan Black, or his recent roles in The Porter, Ginny & Georgia, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

For his work in theatre, Hanchard has been recognized with three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations, most recently for his portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final hours in the critically acclaimed play The Mountaintop.

Kevin was an ACTRA councillor for two years and currently sits on the board of directors for both Obsidian Theatre Company, Canada’s leading Black theatre company, and The AFC, which provides emergency financial assistance to Canadians working in the entertainment industry.

An award-winning cultural leader, Philip has been acting and directing for 46 years. He is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading Black theatre company, and has served as its artistic director from 2006 to 2020.

Selected directing credits include Shaw Festival: Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress and Gatsby Jazz, Sonny’s Blues by Jay Turvey/Paul Sportelli; Young People’s Theatre: Million Billion Pieces by David Brock/ Gareth Williams; Obsidian Theatre: Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu; and Harold Green Jewish Theatre: Actually by Anne Zeigler and The Humans by Stephen Karam.

Philip has been the recipient of the Silver Ticket Award, the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award, the Playwrights Guild of Canada Bra d’Or Award, the William Kilbourn Award, the Herbert Whittaker/CTCA Award for distinguished contribution to Canadian theatre, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, as well as the Life Membership Award from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. He is currently the vice president of the board for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (2009 to present) and a director on the boards of the Koffler Centre of the Arts, Against the Grain Theatre, and the Shaw Festival.

Kevin Hanchard

Martin Luther King Jr.

Philip Akin

Malcolm X

Michael Blake was born and raised in Toronto. His acting career began at 16 when he was chosen to be a part of the classic award-winning series Degrassi Junior High. He attended Earl Haig Secondary School in the Claude Watson arts program in drama and went on to study theatre and acting at the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. He was an inaugural member of both the Soulpepper Academy and the English Theatre Acting Company at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Michael’s prolific theatre career has brought him to stages of top Canadian theatres from coast to coast, from the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, Arts Club and Bard on the Beach in Vancouver, Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Theatre Calgary, RMTC in Winnipeg, to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, all over the Greater Toronto Area, The Segal Centre in Montreal, and even all the way to the Stephenville Festival in Newfoundland. He has performed in nine seasons at the Stratford Festival (highlight roles include Othello, Caliban, and MacDuff). Other top theatre credits include Topdog/ Underdog, Mountaintop, and adult Simba in The Lion King at Mirvish. On screen, he was most recently seen in Slumberland and The Lost Symbol.

Alicia Olatuja has been astounding audiences with her exquisite vocals, artistic versatility, and captivating demeanor for over a decade. She first came into the national spotlight in 2013 when she was a featured soloist at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. Shortly thereafter, she assembled her own jazz-based ensemble, which has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Harlem Stage Gatehouse. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Alicia grew up immersed in a wide range of musical styles, including gospel, soul, jazz, and classical. She has a master's degree in classical voice/opera from the Manhattan School of Music.

Michael Blake Muhammad Ali

Alicia Olatuja Vocalist

Joe Sealy has enjoyed a successful career as a musician, actor, composer, music director, and recording artist. He won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for music direction in the Toronto production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. More recently, Joe was the music director of the highly acclaimed Tonya Lee Williams: Gospel Jubilee television special and a CBC Radio special called East Coasting. Joe has performed with a wide variety of notable performers such as Sammy Davis Jr. and John Candy, and with jazz greats Joe Williams and Milt Jackson. He won a Juno Award for Africville Suite.

Jackie Richardson is an award-winning actress and one of Canada’s foremost singers of gospel, blues, and jazz whose career includes performances in concert, radio, television, and recordings. She’s performed across Canada and in countries around the world. Jackie has received NAACP, Juno, Betty, Dora, Jesse, Gemini, TBS, and Canadian Equity Association Lifetime Achievement Awards and nominations. Jackie was honored by the Toronto Star’s commemoration of Toronto’s 180th birthday as one of 180 people considered to have helped shape our city. In 1996, she contributed to Joe Sealy’s recording Africville Suite.

Joe Sealy

Composer and pianist

Jackie Richardson Vocalist and storytelling

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