Philly, European musicians play collaborative show for inaugural Transatlantic Stars Music Program
Local musicians Charlie Hall, Black Buttafly, Brittany Luna, Khemist Mayfield, and Laurin Talese are paired with French, Bulgarian, German, Portuguese, and Danish musicians for the first iteration of the program.
Charlie Hall and Ruth Koleva | Photo by Ellen Miller
A select number of Philadelphian and European musicians have been spending time together to exchange industry experiences, skills, lessons, and of course music as part of the inaugural Transatlantic Stars Music Program. On Wednesday night, they came together for collaboration show at North Broad’s South Jazz Club to highlight new, original music they created together through the groundbreaking program.
On the Philly contingent are Charlie Hall of The War on Drugs, Black Buttafly, Catbite’s Brittany Luna, Khemist Mayfield, and Lurin Talese. Representing the Delegation of the European Union are Citron Sucré of France, Diana Ezerex of Germany, JJ Paulo of Denmark, LEFT. of Portugal, and Ruth Koleva of Bulgaria.
The pairings between these local artists and the European musicians seemed to be perfect. Together, they blended their own personalities, backgrounds, and musical styles to create pieces that — as a whole — brought the continents together.
The event showed off the relationships, harmonies, and new music birthed from the program.
Adriana Brassart, the Head of Public Diplomacy and Press at the European Union to the United States, said a few words about the partnership between the European and American musicians. Other opening remarks were made by Kerri Park, Executive Director of Philadelphia Music Alliance, and Rev. Moose. Each spoke about the collaboration project as well as the partnership between Philadelphia Music Alliance, Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, and the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.
With the formal, business portion taken care of the night of nonstop music was kicked off by Khemist Mayfield and LEFT. performing original songs together. The sets included a mix of new songs that various pairings of the 10 songwriters wrote together, along with them performing new versions of their older songs as duos and trios.
As Hall and many of the others stated throughout the night, this has been a “beautiful practice in friendship and collaboration.” Hall and his Bulgarian partner Ruth Koleva started their three-song set with a track they wrote together after getting to know one other through conversation.
”Music is a universal language, and I think that is what unites all of us,” Koleva said.
”Music is connective tissue,” Hall said. He and Koleva spent time finding what connects them and what they both love. “Let’s jump and have a swim in those waters, you know?”
Black Buttafly played a solo song with her guitar before, sharing that doing so is atypical for her. She and her guitar also accompanied Talese and JJ Paulo for their song “Remember.”
Earlier in the night, Paulo and Talese made a great pairing; Talese’s vocals and effervescence perfectly partnered with Paulo’s wild stage energy.
Mixed into the new collaborative songs, Luna and Ezerex performed a slower version of Luna’s song “Bad Influence” and Ezerex’s song “Lost Myself” before going into the second song they wrote together called “Dancing in the Rain.”
Citron Sucré ended the night performing several of her own songs with help from her new friends. Starting off with Luna performing a song with her, then Ezerex joined Citron Sucré to play a softer version of her song “Permission.” Citron Sucré got everyone in the audience singing along in French to the verses she taught them.
By the end of the show, South Jazz Club had the vibe of a friends and family party while Citron Sucré, LEFT., Diana Ezerex, and Brittany Luna had fun on stage singing their final song as a group.