Dominican Presents Grammy Award-Winning Ranky Tanky

Dominican University presents Ranky Tanky, a quintet steeped in the Gullah culture of South Carolina’s coastal plain and Sea Islands, on Sunday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lund Auditorium. Tickets start at $27 and are available through Dominican University’s Performing Arts Center.

Rooted in the Gullah culture derived from slave descendants in South Carolina and Georgia who maintain their own dialect, food traditions and music, Ranky Tanky’s repertoire includes jazz arrangements, spirituals, dance music and children’s rhymes. The band’s name comes from the Gullah expression for “get funky.” Their eponymous debut album was released in 2017 and earned #1 in Billboard’s jazz charts. The band’s second album, Good Time, won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album.

While the band members started playing together more than 20 years ago while attending South Carolina’s College of Charleston, they pursued individual careers until 2016 when Clay Ross, guitarist and vocalist, brought them together with lead vocalist Quiana Parler to form Ranky Tanky. The band also includes Quentin Barber, drums; Kevin Hamilton, bass; and Charlton Singleton, trumpet and vocals. They were interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross in 2017.

For more information, contact Dominican University’s box office at 708-488-5000 or visit events.dom.edu.