JEFFREY BROWN: Ranky Tanky, it loosely means get funky. And you can see and feel why it's
the right name for a band celebrating and reinventing a music of joy
and pain, rhythms brought by the enslaved from West Africa, spirituals of the Christian
church, themes that resonate today.
It includes songs many know, though you have likely never hear kumbaya quite like this,
an impromptu performance for us by vocalist Quiana Parler and trumpet player Charlton
Singleton.
WOMAN: And the Grammy goes to "Good Time," Ranky Tanky.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JEFFREY BROWN: Fresh off winning a Grammy for the album "Good Time," a first for Gullah
music.
CHARLTON SINGLETON, Ranky Tanky: It meant a lot to me with this community, just because
of the magnitude of the whole Gullah thing.
JEFFREY BROWN: You felt you were representing something?
CHARLTON SINGLETON: Yes.
It's an honor to be here to stand on the shoulders of our Gullah ancestry.
That's representative of how I was raised, to be a musician, from listening and watching
and imitating all of my aunts and uncles and grandparents.
Thank you so much.
And to have it all kind of culminate with a Grammy, wow. Yes.
QUIANA PARLER, Ranky Tanky: Growing up in church, we emulate the elders as well. It
was like a homecoming for me.
JEFFREY BROWN: The ensemble is based in Charleston and specializes in jazz-influenced arrangements
of traditional Gullah, sometimes called Gullah Geechee, which originated among descendants
of enslaved Africans in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.
The four male members of Ranky Tanky have played music together since meeting at the
College of Charleston in the 1990s. But they'd all gone off to do their own things, until
two decades on, guitarist and vocalist Clay Ross proposed reuniting around Gullah. They
brought in Quiana Parler in 2017.
CLAY ROSS, Ranky Tanky: I'm a disciple of this music. This music moves me.
You know, this music has called to me. It's inspired me. And it's been a part of my life
for over two decades. There's no one out there doing a contemporary expression of our South
Carolina roots music, and specifically Gullah music.
JEFFREY BROWN: There's a strong sense of mission with this band, as we saw when percussionist
Quentin Baxter, bassist Kevin Hamilton and Clay Ross offered a lesson in history and
music to students at the Charleston Seventh Day Adventist School.
It wasn't a hard sell, as these fifth to eighth graders quickly took to the clapping, singing
and dancing.
QUENTIN BAXTER, Ranky Tanky: The thing about it is, the music and the message
of the culture itself deserves as big of a stage as it can get.
KEVIN HAMILTON, Ranky Tanky: I like to think of it as hopefully being part of the evolution
of the culture. So, there is a preservation there, but also I think there's also the -- hopefully
sharing it with the world and also adding to it.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, they were singing of the pains they were going through, right, the
difficulties.
PASTOR KAY COLLETON, Manna Life Center: But also songs of praise.
JEFFREY BROWN: The members of Ranky Tanky drew inspiration from places like Pastor Kay
Colleton's Manna Life Center, a church on John's Island, one of the many rural islands
off South Carolina where Gullah culture took root.
Built in 1902 and now on the National Register of Historic Places, it was known as a praise
house, where different denominations would gather, and was home to the Moving Star Hall
Singers.
PASTOR KAY COLLETON: A lot of times, when young people hear the songs of the elders,
they think, oh, that's old stuff. No, that's good stuff. That is music that gives us a
foundation. It helps us move forward in a more progressive state. And so we don't want
to forget that. We don't to lose that.
JEFFREY BROWN: Gullah's popularity today springs from a more difficult past; 91-year-old Abraham
"Bill" Jenkins grew up on John's Island.
ABRAHAM "BILL" JENKINS, Gullah Historian: Everybody looked down on the Gullah then.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes?
ABRAHAM "BILL" JENKINS: Even the people of Charleston, they weren't speak much better
than we do. But they thought, oh, that's those country boys.
JEFFREY BROWN: That's how you were treated, sort of second-class citizens?
ABRAHAM "BILL" JENKINS: Mostly fifth-class citizens.
JEFFREY BROWN: Fifth-class citizens, yes.
But then the music was a relief from that life?
ABRAHAM "BILL" JENKINS: Oh, people glad to get to church. Somebody leads, and the other
one responds, lead and respond.
JEFFREY BROWN: Ranky Tanky band members want to play it forward for current and future
generations. They're also part of larger Gullah cultural moment.
We met Charlton Singleton and Quiana Parler in the Neema Fine Art Gallery, which features
Gullah artists such as Dana Coleman, a childhood friend of Charlton's.
CHARLTON SINGLETON: To see his work and how it has gone out all over the world is just
another feather in the cap of the homeys from the neighborhood.
WOMAN: And nothing says Low Country cuisine like Gullah fried shrimp.
JEFFREY BROWN: TV food shows like "Delicious Miss Brown" reach larger audiences, even as
traditional sweetgrass baskets and other crafts are sold on local streets here.
In the meantime, the band is now performing at large venues.
CHARLTON SINGLETON: It was in this very room that we recorded our Grammy Award-winning
album.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JEFFREY BROWN: And they are still playing for local friends and family, as on this night
at the Truphonic Recording Studio. They closed, appropriately, with the song embracing this
good time for Ranky Tanky and Gullah music.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Charleston.