Nicole Mitchell
Black Earth Sway
Watch Video
Flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell returns to the Miner stage after her show-stealing performance with SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Terri Lyne Carrington’s 2021–22 Season tribute to the influence of Wayne Shorter, Music Emanon. The former chairperson of Chicago’s iconic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), she brings a special edition of her long-running Black Earth Ensemble called Black Earth Sway, an ensemble devoted to liberation through folk-inspired futurism, in the celebration of open spirits and Black sisterhood. The group features keyboardist Alexis Lombre, drummer JoVia Armstrong, and Coco Elysses on diddley bow, the one-string homemade instrument derived from the West African zither and indigenous to the rural South that influenced the Delta blues sound.