DANNY BOY

KB SOLOMON BRINGS NEW LIFE TO PAUL ROBESON

If music is the universal language, then Paul Robeson was its soul filled accent. Today, no one speaks the language more brilliantly than KB Solomon in SPEAK OF ME AS I AM, a new one-man show featuring the incomparable talent of basso profundo, KB Solomon.

Formerly known as Kevin Bell, KB is a world renowned opera singer who has performed principal roles with major opera companies nationwide and in Europe for twenty years, and is the recipient of many awards, including first place winner in the Metropolitan Western Regional Auditions and finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions.

KB Solomon is the high priest of SoulOpera, a new American sound that's headily contagious, combining classical opera mixed with a meringue of pop, R&B and gospel rhythms. KB Solomon has set the scene for the tide of creative irreverence that is now setting the musical world afire. His music evokes an in-your-face fusion of classical styling and contemporary harmonies.

Because KB is master of this new medium, he doesn't have to sweat the test of tradition. He is free to play with new rhythms, sounds and ideas. He has an excellent knowledge of music history, and his musical inspirations ricochet from Puccini to Pavarotti. For those in the know, KB is one of the most gifted operatic singers ever. Therefore, there is nothing quite as vivid or startling as coming across his latest album, INEXPLICABLE, as if an eagle has just lit upon your hand.

Amazingly, KB Solomon morphs completely into the immortal Paul Robeson: 20th-Century Renaissance man, a hero in any century. Like KB, Paul Robeson was big not only in stature. His interests and life were so expansive that to study Paul Robeson is to study the 20th-century experience.

Compared to previous plays about Robeson, this stirring tribute to an American hero brings to light his political stand and reflects upon the heavy price he paid. The 1 hour 45 minute show features twenty-one patriotic, popular and spiritual songs, most of which Robeson recorded.

"There can be no greater tragedy than to forget one's origin and finish despised and hated by the people among whom one grew up. To have that happen would be the sort of thing to make me rise up from my grave." - Paul Robeson, 1938. If that would happen, Robeson would certainly smile while sitting front row center in SPEAK OF ME AS I AM.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• change
• inspirational
• patriotism
• patriot
• hero
• musicals
• Broadway
• Ol'
• Man
• River
• Danny
• Boy
• Rutgers
• Princeton
• Ne

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