Mwenso and The Shakes “Hope-Resist-Heal: A Celebration of Black Joy”

When Mwenso and The Shakes opened the Center for the Performing Arts fall 2021 season in September, it had been almost nineteen months since the center had presented an in-person performance. It didn’t take long for the animated Harlem-based band, performing in front of a capacity crowd on the Eisenhower Auditorium patio, to shake the cobwebs off the venue.

The Black roots band will return for the spring 2022 season when it performs “Hope-Resist-Heal: A Celebration of Black Joy” — this time inside Eisenhower. Band members will also participate in a variety of engagement events as part of a multiday residency.

A Jazziz writer calls Mwenso and The Shakes “a unique troupe of global artists presenting music that merges entertainment and artistry.” A New York Times critic describes the genre-spanning band as “intense, prowling, and ebullient.”

A native of Sierra Leone, Michael Mwenso moved to London as a youngster and by his early teens found himself on stage with soul-music great James Brown. After organizing a late-night jam session at Ronnie Scott’s, a London jazz club, Wynton Marsalis hired Mwenso as a musician and a curator at Jazz at Lincoln Center.