Tag Archive for: Tess Mangum

Chief Adjuah to headline Missy Lane’s Block Party Oct. 4!

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Hello Music Lovers! Our festival season started with a bang back in April (Rhiannon Giddens’ incredible Biscuits & Banjos Festival.) To wrap up festival season, We’re honored to be the production company for Cicely Mitchell and Chief Adjuah’s new festival, Missy Lane’s Block Party, right here in our home town of Durham, North Carolina.

For those who remember the magic of Durham’s Art of Cool Festival back in the teens, this is going to feel like home to you. This is more than a block party — it’s a celebration of Black American music, culture, and community. Don’t miss your chance to be part of Durham’s newest tradition. Artists: Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah • Bilal • Revive Big Band ft Nao Yoshioka and Teedra Moses• Kiefer • Braxton Cook • Butcher Brown • Zo! & Tall Black Guy • Tomoki Sanders • Elena Pinderhughes (feat. Samora Pinderhughes) • J Hoard • Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. and did you see–Tank, from Tank & The Bangas?!

This NPR Tiny Desk concert of Christian Scott (aka Chief Adjuah), with more than five million views, featuring block party artist Elena Pinderhughes on flute, is one of Sonic Pie Productions’ CEO’s favorites.

VIP Tickets are $250. General admission is $80. You can also sign up to volunteer and still be a part of all the action.
  • What else are we into? Pride Durham, starting with a Justice Rally and Concert at CCB Plaza Friday, September 26, 5-9 p.m.
  • Four days a week of free, live music and DJs at Boxyard RTP, including a POLKA NIGHT (also September 26)
A branded white and red graphic featuring polka band The North Carolina Polka Time Allstars and their instruments (accordion, upright bass, horns, small drum kit, etc.)

Sonic Pie Productions Presents Free Concert November 23: Blues Guitarist Jontavious Willis

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(Durham, NC) Durham-based concert production and curation company Sonic Pie Productions presents Blues guitarist and songwriter Jontavious Willis Saturday, November 23, 8:30 p.m. This concert, at Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, is free and open to the public. 

28 year old Grammy-nominated Blues musician Jontavious Willis is resolved in his mission: to reinvigorate today’s Blues with the spirit of the past. Inspired by a time when the Blues were plentiful and rhythm reigned supreme, Jontavious leverages his unique sound—a synthesis of his rural Georgia heritage and reverence for traditional Blues—to get the world dancing again. Jontavious and his band perform original, toe-tapping tunes in the style of Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel Blues. Dynamic vocals, technical prowess, and an abundance of Southern charm keep Jontavious sending jolts of vitality through the Blues community. 

“That’s my Wonderboy, the Wunderkind. Jontavious is a great new voice of the 21st century in the acoustic blues” says American legend and mentor Taj Mahal. Joyous and resonant, Willis’ brand new album, West Georgia Blues, is an invitation to everyone out there—whether Blues aficionado or just passing through the genre—to connect with the very universal emotions captured through the Blues. Entirely self-produced, the album comprises fifteen original songs that tackle time-honored themes from heartbreak and loneliness to celebration and self-discovery. 

How does Jontavious connect as a young black man in the 21st century with the music first recorded in his great-great grandfather’s youth? “In some aspects the same problems of those days are still occurring. Out of all the current music I connect with the blues the best. The same blues songs of the Jim Crow era can still be sung today. The songs about getting mistreated and abused are still fights we battle daily” he says.

Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, at 310 E. Main Street, in the heart of downtown Durham, North Carolina is one of Durham’s newest intimate music venues and cocktail bars. Ample parking in the adjacent lot is free. This is a general admission event, with a combination of seated, standing and dancing room. Doors open at 8 p.m. Though admission is free, you must reserve a ticket at https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/59475083/jontavius-willis-presented-by-sonic-pie-productions-durham-missy-lanes-assembly-room-venue

This project is supported by the Durham Arts Council’s Durham Culture & Arts – Invest to Restart.

Durham, North Carolina-based Sonic Pie Productions, founded in 2013, creates community and commerce via curated concert bookings, consultation and sound production services. For more information visit www.sonicpieproductions.com.

Sonic Pie Productions Announced As Missy Lane’s Assembly Room Production Crew

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Sonic Pie Productions has been working on an exciting new project–one that will change the landscape of North Carolina and the south’s music scene: Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham, North Carolina’s newest music venue at 310 E. Main Street, opens next month and Sonic Pie Productions will serve as the venue’s production management and front of house sound engineer crew.

What to know:

  • This intimate venue will focus on Black American Music.
  • Missy Lane’s is owned by Durhamite Cicely Mitchell.
  • Most shows are seated with an early 6:30 p.m. curtain and a later 9 p.m. show. Occasional standing room only capacity is less than 230! Tickets: HERE.
  • Members get benefits such as ticket pre-sales, private events, preferred seating.
  • Enjoy a drink or coffee at the beautiful front bar any time.
  • Missy Lane’s Assembly Room mission statement: Our mission is to provide a safe space for people to assemble, socialize and build community.

Just announced: Tickets go on sale tomorrow for boundary-pushing quartet The Bad Plus, playing Missy Lane’s Assembly Room’s inaugural season April 3rd and 4th (after stops in Japan & Sweden.)

Sonic Pie Productions Founder/CEO Tess Mangum says “Missy Lane’s is a long-awaited, much-needed venue about to wrap you in beautiful sound and surroundings. We can’t wait for opening night and years of jazz, latin, gospel, soul and R&B.”

Voyager Raleigh: Exploring Life & Business with Tess Mangum of Sonic Pie Productions

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LOCAL STORIES

Exploring Life & Business with Tess Mangum of Sonic Pie Productions

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tess Mangum.

Hi Tess, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a seventh-generation North Carolinian. Though I grew up in a musical family (my grandmother, Kate Mangum, taught Randy Travis how to play guitar and great-uncle Homer Briarhopper was fortunate to call Doc Watson a fan), I always felt my role in the family business was behind the scenes.

When I was an undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill, there were no formal music business/music industry degrees, so I quilted together my own by majoring in public relations and adding in music industry internships, part-time jobs, fieldwork and an independent study. By doing this, I was able to land a job right out of college, working for a small world music record label in Durham, NC. A few years later, I became the first in my family to get a Master’s degree (M.A., Ethnomusicology, University of Limerick, Ireland.)

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Not smooth but not boring! For instance, a decade ago, a few weeks before Christmas, I got laid off with no notice. We’re talking go to work with a job and health insurance but come home a few hours later with a box of desk things, memories, and a lamp. However, two months later, I was officially incorporated as Sonic Pie Productions, LLC. (I spent a lot of time that holiday season reading about, researching and planning the new, uncharted entrepreneur era!)

The Covid pandemic has acted as a big curve ball in this business as well.

We’ve been impressed with Sonic Pie Productions, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sonic Pie Productions is a concert and festival production and curation company. We curate (book talent for) festivals and concert series, offer P.A. and staging rental, sound engineers, stage management and event logistics navigation. We are also able to do consulting work related to the arts, economic development, placemaking, cultural diversity and social impact.

In fact, what sets us apart is that we integrate social impact as the core part of the business. It IS possible to build community and commerce. We often work in tandem with local and national non-profit organizations to produce events all people can enjoy. Another way Sonic Pie Productions is different from other companies offering similar services is the strength and diversity of our crew–this is a HUB-certified women-owned company, and you’ll find women, people of color and LGBTQ here!

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was always the one who would talk to the “new kid” at school. I was fiercely independent and good at public speaking. I lived for band and theater classes.

Contact Info:

      

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The Making of an Award Show (Sonic Pie Productions Style)

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When Sonic Pie Productions was awarded an event production/management contract from the City of Raleigh and Raleigh Arts, for their annual Raleigh Medal of Arts Award show, we knew it needed to be a hybrid event. But this time, not hybrid in the sense we all became used to the past 2 1/2 years (part in-person, part virtual/online.)

This event was coming back, LIVE, and in a proper theatre! (Theatre In The Park, in Pullen Park, near North Carolina State University.) Though not without its challenges, the space (originally built in the 1930s by the WPA as an armory) allowed us to stretch out, creatively–even embracing a few aspects of a traditional award show, such as an Awardees red carpet arrival and interview segment, viewed by family, friends and patrons.

The 2022 Raleigh Medal of Arts Awards was held on Thursday, October 20 at 7 p.m. Hosted by Rissi Palmer, the awards featured presentations and performances honoring extraordinary achievements in the arts by:

  • Alluvial Decoder by A Gang of Three
  • Linda Dallas
  • Paul Friedrich
  • June Guralnick
  • S.T.A.R. Special Theatre Arts of Raleigh
  • The Veldt 
  • Patrick Torres

YouTube footage is coming soon. In the meantime, here is a photo essay from @coco.butter.shutter and @willasteinphotography

Etching the Days Into the Wall Since You Last Saw a Live Concert?

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This week, Cardinal & Pine published an extensive feature about Covid’s impact on North Carolina’s music industry and economy, including part of a candid interview with Sonic Pie Production’s founder & CEO, Tess Mangum. From IBMA, J. Cole and Amythyst Kiah to Ramseur Records and PineCone, you’ll want to read the entire piece, by Jesse James DeConto.

The $25K phone call, Whippoorwill Arts Festival, Duke Performances and Rolling Stone–a smokin’ hot August for Kamara Thomas!

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Duke Performances presented Kamara Thomas (represented exclusively by Sonic Pie Productions) as a part of Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series brilliantly shifted Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filmed by: Saleem Reshamwala, John Laww, and Ismail Abdelkhalek. Audio recording and mixing: Ryan Pickett Audio technician: Christopher Scully-Thurston Production: Suzanne Despres and Sibyl Kemp

The $25K Call From California
Imagine getting to pick up the phone and share THIS news with your artist, like SPP CEO Tess Mangum did a few weeks ago…”An out-of-the-blue phone call that quickly leads to a $25,000 grant for a little-known musician sounds too good to be true. North Carolina singer-songwriter #KamaraThomas wasn’t sure at first if it was a prank, but her scheduled appearance at the Whippoorwill Arts Festival of Americana Music this weekend is proof that the Bay Area organization is an all-too-rare bright spot for Americana performers contending with shuttered venues and a dearth of gigs”
San Francisco Chronicle

If it weren’t for Covid-19, Kamara would be in California right now, for the festival, along with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Brittany Haas, banjo-forward songwriter Snap Jackson and more. “Go” to the festival via YouTube or Facebook livestream or check out the schedule of workshops.

Black Equity in Americana: A Conversation
If you missed Black Equity in Americana: A Conversation, sponsored by the Americana Music Association featuring panelists Marcus K. Dowling (moderator), Adia Victoria, Rev. Sekou, Lilli Lewis

Kamara Thomas Music, and Jason Galaz of Muddy Roots Music Festival watch the Zoom. Or, read the review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Microaggressions, stereotypes and judgement calls, at best, are a frustrating distraction from the real art and business of expressing yourself. At worst, they costs artists millions of dollars in lost wages and can make you want to quit the biz altogether.

The story behind the name Sonic Pie Productions

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With a name like Sonic Pie Productions, you might hope to find a bakery, rather than a sound production company, but there is a pie connection. Choosing a name when incorporating a business is harder than it seems. It’s got to somehow represent a worldview, mission and purpose. It should be easy to remember, timeless–and you must research beforehand that it’s not already in use. The last thing you want, three years into your branding and brand awareness is a cease and desist letter. So, here’s our story behind the name Sonic Pie Productions.

Sonic alludes to the importance of one of our five sense: sound.

Productions: we curate and produce concerts and events.

But why Pie? The way we figure, anything inside flaky dough is good. Peach pie, Jamaican beef patties, samosas, empanadas…they’re all good. When you go with Sonic Pie Productions, your pie might have some jazz in it–some soul–or rock and roll. Maybe you need help producing a street fair, vintage motorcycle rally or literary event. Your pie is going to be great!

Pictured above is a pie Sonic Pie Productions CEO Tess Mangum made today, in her beloved grandmother Kate’s 50(?) year old pie and biscuit pan. If the house was burning down, she’d grab the kids, the dog and this pan.