In a quaint townhouse not far from Penn State's campus thrives the beautiful music of an unknown band.
From the living room, the beat of drums pulsates through the floors, while dancing with the rhythmic melodies from a keyboard. Occasionally accompanying the instrumental sounds is either one of three dynamic voices.
At one moment, the deep, velvety sound of a hip-hop emcee emerges and recedes. Later, the soothing and inspiring messages of a spoken word poet takes over. Overlapping the other vocalists or singing solo, the smooth and exotic voice of a female singer displays her talent.
That unique musical experience is created by a new and upcoming group, Seventh Avenue.
The group, which is a collaboration of three vocalists and four musicians, will be debuting its recently recorded LP at a listening party titled Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil, at 9 p.m. today in the Espress'ery café in Pollock Commons.
Attendants can expect to enjoy music reminiscent of such diverse artists as Santana, Jimi Hendrix, the Roots and even Sade. The group is comprised of musicians who play the bass, guitar, trumpet, drums, keyboard along with an emcee, spoken word poet and singer. They make Seventh Avenue's music a unique combination which can be described as a fusion of soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop.
"Through my music I want to profess the truth by having a message without lyrics," said Joshua Wright-Hill a.k.a. "The Truth" (sophomore-marketing and international business). Hill, who is the current Mr. Black Penn State, plays the trumpet, keyboard and is also the group's musical director.
"I basically blend all the ideas out into a smoothie," Hill continued when explaining how he produces Seventh Avenue's sound.
In addition to playing the trumpet and keyboard, Hill sings, dances and plays the guitar, piano and drums. Some of his musical inspirations include Stevie Wonder, Prince and Babyface.
Along with Hill, Joseph Dawkins a.k.a. "Allways" and Chenits Pettigrew a.k.a "Tomorrow" (senior-media studies) founded Seventh Avenue. Other members of the group include LaShawne Long (senior-kinesiology) a.k.a "Soultree," Juan Sessoms (senior-animal science) a.k.a. "Pocket," Andrew Murphy a.k.a "Thoroughbred" and Jason Clark (sophomore-international business marketing). Long is the singer; Sessoms is the drummer; Murphy is the guitarist; and Clark is the bass player.
Dawkins, who is a class of 2000 Penn State alumnus and former president of Black Caucus, didn't start to seriously perform as a spoken word poet until the spring of 1999 when he met Pettigrew, who was also involved with Black Caucus as their political action committee chair.
Both Dawkins and Pettigrew are writers and through word of mouth, learned of an open mic session at the Espress'ery, which Hill originally organized.
Through the open mic sessions, Dawkins, Pettigrew and Hill learned of each other's talents and begin to formally organize a group. Dawkins described his art of spoken word as "breathing life into poetry."
The name Seventh Avenue was created from the belief that seven is a very spiritual number, which represents the creative, divine forces in the universe. Avenue is a destination, location or home. Hence, Seventh Avenue wants to be the home and pathway to all that the number seven represents as expressed through the music, according to the Seventh Avenue press release.
"My goal is to get people thinking and feeling," he said. Some of Dawkins inspirations include poets such as Sassy Ross and Saul Williams.
Pettigrew, the emcee of the group, is primarily responsible for the group's hip-hop flavor. "I swing a double-edged sword to entertain you and educate you," was how he explained his role in Seventh Avenue.
Other emcees that inspired Pettigrew are Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Biggie Smalls.
In addition to Seventh Avenue's performance tonight, poet and author, Sassy Ross will be there to sign her newly released second book titled Barefoot and Funky.
