Corinne Bailey Rae releases 'Peach Velvet Sky' - beautiful new single & video
CORINNE BAILEY RAE
RELEASES NEW SINGLE
‘PEACH VELVET SKY’
WATCH HERE
NEW MUSICAL PROJECT
BLACK RAINBOWS
DUE SEPTEMBER 15
PREORDER HERE
VERY SPECIAL UK PERFORMANCES
OCTOBER 25 / 26 / 28th – LADBROKE HALL, LONDON
Grammy-winning singer/songwriterCorinne Bailey Raehas released her new single, ‘Peach Velvet Sky’with an accompanying video directed byGregory Berg.
The song is taken from her highly anticipated new albumBlack Rainbows,her first album of new material in seven years, coming out onSeptember 15thviaThirty Tigers. Regarding the track Bailey Rae explains,“‘Peach Velvet Sky’ is about the fragments of sunset Harriet Jacobs saw, through the tiny loophole she made, and its ultimate width and wonder when she finally found freedom."
Watch/share the videohere. Pre-save/pre-order the albumhere.
The transcendent ballad is inspired by the true story ofHarriet Jacobstold through her self-written autobiographyIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Bailey Rae originally read Jacobs’ story as a child, however after rediscovering it within the Stony Island Arts Bank she was empowered.
"Reading in The Johnson Publishing Library reignited my interest in the life of Harriet Jacobs,”remarks Bailey Rae,“I had read her autobiography, 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl', as a teen. An aunt from America had sent me a copy of 'Six African American Narratives', and I went straight to 'Incidents', as it was the only one written by a woman. Re-reading the work as an adult and a mother, I was even more profoundly affected by Harriet Jacob's mental fortitude and courage, as well as being shocked anew by the injustices and cruelties of her situation.”
Bailey Rae continues“Jacobs, born in 1813, escaped slavery in her early twenties. She feigned her flight North, knowing her obsessive, sexually harassing, and violent 'master' would not relent until he had searched the Free States for her. Instead, she hid in the crawl space above her free Grandmother's storeroom, where she remained, with the help of her grandmother, for 7 years. Jacob bored a small hole through the wall of the cabin, through which she could occasionally see her children as they played nearby. She could sew clothes for them by this light, as well as overhear conversations that pertained to her safety.”
The video features UK dancer / choreographerMayowa Ogunnaikeas well as Bailey Rae. Of the video Bailey Rae says,“I first saw Mayowa in the rehearsals for 'Seeds, Dreams, Constellations', the Contemporary Dance piece I co created withSharon WatsonMBE, in Leeds, Spring 2023. Sharon and Mayowa had begun developing the choreography for 'Peach Velvet Sky' and called me in to see what was happening. I was speechless when I saw Mayowa dance. The grace, the expression, the heaviness of the subject with the fluidity of the movement. Sharon and Mayowa had put in language which evoked Harriet Jacob's story so poetically, her loophole for viewing the world, the compression which ultimately brought her escape, the mental strain, the physical and temporal endurance. When I saw Mayowa dance that piece I knew that we had to film her to bring this story to people.”
‘Peach Velvet Sky’ marks the second single fromBlack Rainbows, following critically acclaimed single ‘New York Transit Queen’. The track has been described by The Observer as“An exciting post-punk glam thrash… like Santigold dismantling Blur’s Song 2,”and has spent over a month on the BBC 6 Music A-list.
Wide ranging in its themes,Black Rainbows’ subjects are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America’s past. From the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia to the journeys of Black Pioneers westward, from Miss New York Transit 1957 to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs’ loophole.Black Rainbowsexplores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse, ancestors and music as a vessel for transcendence.
In celebration of the new project, Bailey Rae is touring through the USA from Sept 5thto October 7th, playing venues such as Yale University’s Schwarzman Center, New York’s National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.
She will also be performing three very special shows in London’s Ladbroke Hall on October 25th, 26thand 28th plus a special appearance at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland on October 29thCork City, as well as a number of shows in Spain.
CORINNE BAILEY RAE BLACK RAINBOWS
1. A Spell, A Prayer
2. Black Rainbows
3. Erasure
4. Earthlings
5. Red Horse
6. New York Transit Queen
7. He Will Follow You With His Eyes
8. Put It Down
9. Peach Velvet Sky
10. Before The Throne of Invisible God
CORINNE BAILEY RAE LIVE
September 5—Long Island, NY—Staller Center for the Arts @ Stony Brook University
September 6—Washington, DC—Lincoln Theatre
September 8—Philadelphia, PA—Theatre of Living Arts
September 9—New Haven, CT—Schwarzman Center at Yale University
September 10—New York, NY—The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
September 12—Cincinnati, OH—Memorial Hall
September 14—Chicago, IL—Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at University of Chicago
September 17—Nashville, TN—CMA Theater
September 19—Charleston, SC—Charleston Music Hall
September 20—Durham, NC—Carolina Theatre
September 22—Sugar Hill, GA—The Eagle Theater at Sugar Hill
September 24—Birmingham, AL—Alys Stephens Center at University of Alabama
September 26—New Orleans, LA—Orpheum Theater
September 29—Austin, TX—The Paramount Theatre
October 1—Houston, TX—Stafford Centre
October 3—Dallas, TX—Texas Theatre
October 5—Santa Fe, NM—Lensic Performing Arts Center
October 7—Marfa, TX—Saint George Hall
UK / IRELAND /SPAIN TOUR DATES
October 25—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall
October 26—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall
October 28—London, UK—Ladbroke Hall
October 29—Cork City, Ireland—Guinness Cork Jazz Festival
October 31—Madrid, Spain—Teatro Pavón
November 1—Barcelona, Spain—Studio P62
November 3—Seville, Spain—Cartuja Centre
For further information please contact William Luff or David Sullivan at Wilful Publicity
william.luff@wilfulpublicity.co.uk / david.sullivan@wilfulpublicity.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT CORINNE BAILEY RAE
British singer/songwriter/musician Corinne Bailey Rae shot to stardom with her self-titled #1 U.K. debut album in 2006, featuring the global hits ‘Put Your Records On’ and ‘Like A Star’. Over the course of her career she has released three critically acclaimed studio albums—Corinne Bailey Rae, The SeaandThe Heart Speaks in Whispers—and earned two Grammy Awards, two MOBOS, and been nominated for multiple awards including the BRIT Awards, Mercury Music Prize and BET Awards. Her work for film and television includes the theme to Stan Lee’sLucky Man(SKY1), ‘The Scientist’ for Universal Pictures’Fifty Shades Darkeropening title and soundtrack which charted globally, and in 2020 her song ‘New to Me’ was performed in the filmThe High Noteby Tracee Ellis Ross. Bailey Rae has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Mary J. Blige, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, KING, Paul McCartney, Kele Okereke (Bloc Party), Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Questlove, Salaam Rami, RZA, Tyler The Creator, Paul Weller, Richard Hawley, Stevie Wonder, Tracey Thorn, Pharrell, Logic, Mick Jenkins, Miles Kane and many more.
ABOUT THEASTER GATES
Theaster Gates lives and works in Chicago. He creates work that focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, Gates redeems spaces that have been left behind. Known for his recirculation of art-world capital, he creates work that focuses on the possibility of the “life within things.” Gates smartly upturns art values, land values and human values. In all aspects of his work, he contends with the notion of Black space as a formal exercise—one defined by collective desire, artistic agency and the tactics of a pragmatist. Gates has exhibited and performed at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (2018); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2018); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA (2017); Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2013); Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy (2013) and dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). He was the winner of the Artes Mundi 6 prize and was a recipient of the Légion d’Honneur in 2017. He was awarded the Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2018, as well as the Urban Land Institute, J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Gates is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts and the College and also serves as the Senior Advisor for Cultural Innovation and Advisor to the Dean. Gates is Director of Artists Initiatives at the Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College Museum of Art and the 2018/2019 Artist-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute (GRI).
ABOUT STONY ISLAND ARTS BANK
Designed by William Gibbons Uffendell and built in 1923, the bank at 68th and Stony Island was once a vibrant community savings and loan. Today, the restored Stony Island Arts Bank provides the South Side of Chicago with 17,000 square feet of space for innovation in contemporary art and archival practice. At the time of its construction, the bank was a symbol of the growing prosperity of the South Side, which was experiencing a building boom in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1979 the Bank was closed and it fell into disrepair. In 2012, upon threat of demolition, artist Theaster Gates purchased the building from the City of Chicago for $1. Gates, whose practice harnesses the power of space, objects and the spirit within them, saved the landmark from destruction. Gates sold marble from the original Bank build as “bank bonds” on the commercial art market to finance the renovation and remediation of the building. Today, the Stony Island Arts Bank is a vibrant hub of artistic, archival and cultural activity on the South Side of Chicago. In addition to serving as a gallery, institution and cultural space, the Arts Bank also hosts a variety of events including exhibitions, performances, film screenings and lectures.
