Carleen Anderson – Melior Opus Griot

Carleen Anderson is American music royalty. Her mother, Vicki Anderson, was James Brown’s favourite vocalist and her stepfather Bobby Byrd founded the Famous Flames. Now Carleen – a Mercury-nominated star of soul and acid jazz – honours her family’s history in Texas and Mississippi with Cage Street Memorial; a moving testament to her gospel roots and her personal journey from the Deep South to the UK.

MELIOR Opus Griot, conceived, composed, written, and performed by Carleen Anderson, is a music genre blended, new storytelling theatre production she characterises as a Futuristic Opera. It is a fantasy about an ocean-floor society called MELIOR. The format combines the classical music tradition of an Opera – Four Acts/Three Scenes each – with an African historical narrator style, hence its subtitle, ‘Opus Griot’. Inspired by real life events intertwined with time-travel imaginations this performance joins human musicianship with digital soundscapes to deliver a tale of mermaids and land dwellers pursuing earthly harmony amidst spiritual, mental and physical predators. Alongside Carleen in the lead role, the cast features world-renown vocalists, China Moses and Terri Walker, award-winning saxophonist Camilla George, plus a company of Cornwall based performers who will dance and sing in the specially commissioned choir. Accompanied by a Chamber Quartet of headlining Artists in their own right, led by Orphy Robinson, MBE – vibraphonist; Renell Shaw – bassist; Samy Bishai – violinist; and Crispin Ade Egun – percussionist, Carleen adds her digital music performance using MIMU Gloves, a sound source developed by Grammy winner Imogen Heap, that Carleen implements with computerised audio for the production’s alternative Universe aspects.