Angel Elmore believes in the power of sound to heal and be an engine for change and education — and you should too
By Britt Julious
Sep 26, 2019 at 9:46 am
Like her music, composer, clarinetist and singer Angel Elmore (who performs as Angel Bat Dawid) is passionate, intelligent, and forthright. But more importantly, she is on a mission. Period.
“I’m not a politician. I don’t really like weapons. I don’t really like going to marches and stuff like that,” Elmore said. “But I am a musician, and I believe in the power of sound, and I really do believe that if I put this intention out sonically, it really will change stuff. I really do.”
The stuff she aims to change includes the systemic and generational perception of what it means to be black in this country. Elmore operates out of a place of beauty and power, and her music is in reflection of that. She makes music not only to describe the black experience, but you also to amplify and perhaps revolutionize our perceptions of that black experience in America.
Elmore’s goals were not born out of thin air. It is her rich musical background which formed the foundation of her musical destiny. Elmore is a jazz artist, but her influences are far ranging and encompass the breath and beauty of black musical composition. “Hip-hop, jazz, gospel, blues. All of that is black music. They are distinctly different sounds that come from them, but there’s also this thing that ties them all together,“ she said. “All this music came from the spiritual, which was started by my enslaved ancestors. So of course, I can tap into any of that because that is my ethnicity and that is my identity as a black woman.”