Sunday, April 11, 2021

New York Times: "Making Music Visible: Singing in Sign"

"On a recent afternoon in a brightly lit studio in Brooklyn, Mervin Primeaux-O’Bryant and Brandon Kazen-Maddox were filming a music video. They were recording a cover version of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” but the voices that filled the room were those of Gladys Knight and the Pips, who made the song a hit in the 1970s. And yet the two men in the studio were also singing — with their hands.

Primeaux-O’Bryant is a deaf actor and dancer; Kazen-Maddox is a hearing dancer and choreographer who is, thanks to seven deaf family members, a native speaker of American Sign Language. Their version of “Midnight Train to Georgia” is part of a 10-song series of American Sign Language covers of seminal works by Black female artists that Kazen-Maddox is producing for Broadstream, an arts streaming platform."
Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/arts/music/asl-music-deaf-culture.html

Both men spoke of the impact ballet training had on their signing.Credit...Justin Kaneps for The New York Times
Credit...Justin Kaneps for The New York Times


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