Tezz Yancey brings pulse and purpose to Zakim Center benefit
It is, Tezz Yancey believes, a perfect blending of an artist and a cause. Just as the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute helps cancer patients and their families gain energy and strength during treatment by soothing their minds, bodies, and spirit, Yancey's multifaceted show benefiting the Zakim Center will seek to help audience members find their "inner pulse" through a journey of different musical styles.
"We all share the rhythm of a heartbeat; rhythm is our common connection as living, spiritual beings," says Yancey, a native of Boston's South End, whose May 8 show at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, entitled "A Rhythmic Journey," will aid research and patient care at the Zakim Center, which offers interventions such as acupuncture, massage therapy, Reiki, meditation, music therapy, nutrition counseling, and Qi Gong (Chinese mind-body exercise).
He will be joined on stage by two singer/dancers and four musicians, who will shift smoothly from the percussive beats of African, Brazilian, and Latin grooves through the jazz and swing era and right up to modern rock-n-roll, disco, and funk.
"The Zakim Center is all about giving people more ways to fight their cancers, no matter what their diagnosis, background, or age," adds Yancey. "Our show offers them a way to connect with others through the pulse of their inner drum — our bond regardless of our race, religious beliefs, class, age, sex, or creed." With a set list ranging from Elvis to Stevie Wonder to Chaka Khan, there is certainly something for everybody.
Having trained at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory (where he received a Musical Theater scholarship), Yancey brings incredible vigor and athleticism to his performances as well as an extremely diverse portfolio.
In addition to headlining his own hit Las Vegas show for two years, he's tapped with Gregory Hines, been the featured vocalist at Boston's Symphony Hall, performed on stage with Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Starlight Express" and most recently in Clint Holmes' hit Broadway-bound musical "Just Another Man," appeared on television's CSI, and toured Asia and Europe as a singer. Not surprisingly, the multitalented Yancey produced, recorded, mixed, and even played every instrument on his debut CD, "Moments of Clarity."
His multifaceted performance approach is partly the result of a multifaceted upbringing. The son of African-American parents, Yancey was raised by his mom, Yvonne, and in part by a white Jewish woman, his godmother Maya Balle, who embraced his artistic yearnings from the start and became his manager — shuttling he and him equally talented sister Tanisha, a gospel singer, to auditions.
By the time he was 13, he and Tanisha were performing up and down the East Coast at parties, weddings, and Bar Mitzvahs.
"People would just flip out over those two kids," recalls Balle, who also helped raise Tanisha. "It's not just that they were talented; they were also kind, remarkable, loving human beings, with an unusual way about them."
In high school came stints for Tezz as a soloist in a gospel choir and membership in two a cappella jazz quartets, and his skills at basketball and other sports translated into tremendous dance moves. He later put his athleticism to work by incorporating everything from roller skating to stilts into his Las Vegas act. Reviewers have noted his unique blend of talent and charisma.
"Tezz Yancey...as the dancing, singing, and acting talents of a pro. But it's that look in his eye — that magical something that says, 'Watch me' — that makes him impossible not to notice," Anthony Del Valle of the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted of Yancey's "Just Another Man" performance.
Yancey's appearance in another production, the disco-infused "Another Saturday Night," caused Anthony Tommasini of the Boston Globe to note his "take-that-Tom-Cruise smile" and Gary Susman of the Boston Phoenix to call him "easily the best singer and dancer in the lot. Tezz's tapping feet execute moves Michael Jackson would envy."
As he prepares to bring those feet back home to Boston and perform again in front of Balle, his parents, and grandparents, Yancey is also excited to be doing so for an organization which has helped several family friends through cancer.
"I feel like this was meant to be," he says.
— Saul Wisnia
saul_wisnia@dfci.harvard.edu
For more information about Yancey's May 8 performance, and to buy tickets, visit www.zakimcenterevents.com or call (617) 977-9779.
