IU Soul Revue collaborates with visiting African choral group

The 18 members of Taifa Mziki, a male a cappella group from Nairobi, Kenya, joined the members of the IU Soul Revue for its Thursday class as part of their week-long stay in Bloomington.

After Taifa Mziki finished its first song accompanied with dance in the Neal-Marshal Center Grand Hall, Tyron Cooper, director of the IU Soul Revue, asked the a cappella group how long ago it formed.

When a speaker for Taifa Mziki said they began in 2010, someone in the class shouted, “You all are tight!”

“These are my brothers,” said a member of Taifa Mziki after Cooper asked him what his group meant to him.

The IU Soul Revue ensemble is a performance group dedicated to preserving and expanding people’s knowledge of black musical culture.

Cooper has been affiliated with Soul Revue as the director since 1999.

The band performs popular black cultural music from post-World War II to present and occasionally incorporates original music.

“We always have to find new ways to adapt the instrumentation on any given semester to not only the new repertoire, but also the old repertoire,” Cooper said.

Classes are designed to fit the individual student performers, who acquire their positions in the band through auditions held each semester. Anyone is welcome to audition.

Not only did the two groups play as an open-to-the-public artistic and cultural exchange event, but they also took time to discuss and contrast cultural implications as performing ensembles.

Freshman singer Dexter Clardy is performing for his second semester with Soul Revue.

“I have a lot of respect for people in a cappella groups,” Clardy said. “I know it is hard enough to stay on pitch with a band behind you.”

These artistic and cultural events are geared toward interlinking cultures internationally to further understandings of one another. 

Cooper said he decided to serve as director of Soul Revue because he loves educating students about subtle cultural differences.

“One, I direct Soul Revue because I love to teach,” Cooper said. “Number two, I love black music and culture. Number three, I love culture in general because I love examining the nuances of culture, not only with African-American culture, but I want to deal with the nuances of culture globally.”

Cooper said that his ensembles, as well as the two other African-American ensembles on IU’s campus, do more than improve students’ musical talents.

These ensembles also provide students with an opportunity to increase their social skills by giving them the tools to delve further into cultural distinctions and better understand them, he said.

Lexi Lindsey is an IU alumna who still plays percussion for Soul Revue.

“I learned a lot about professionalism within the music industry,” she said, “(Soul Revue) helped me out a lot.”

Linsey said she decided to join Soul Revue as an undergraduate after hearing them perform.

“I had just seen the band perform that one time, I didn’t even know it was a class,” she said.

She said she met a member of the Soul Revue her freshman year and he told her about auditions.

Soul Revue will play its spring concert May 3 at Ruth N. Halls Theatre.

“(Soul Revue) is open to the general student body,” Cooper said. “We welcome students who feel that they have artistic ability, whether they can sing or play an instrument. I hope they want to understand not only how to perform black popular music, but also understanding the cultural nuances and the industry context.”