moira smiley & VOCO with special guests The Jenkins Family

Show Description

"fascinating & multi-lingual" - LA Times "VOCO is volkish radiance"
-LA Weekly

"the audience is transfixed"
-Dirty Linen

Moira Smiley & VOCO is a visionary blend of voices - redefining harmony singing with the power of folksong, the avant-garde fearlessness of Béla Bartók and the delicious, vaudevillian accompaniment of cello, banjo, accordion, ukelele and body percussion.  VOCO brings songs steeped in Appalachia and Eastern Europe and performances that have the elegance of a string quartet and playfulness of street singing.

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The Jenkins Family band, comprised of 5 New York City residents (Richard, Sandra, Cassandra, Stephanie and Reid Jenkins), performs whimsical original songs and new arrangements of jazz standards and old time fiddle tunes. 

Sandra (Ma) Lynk Jenkins grew up on a dairy farm and spent her youth singing in the Lynk family trio in her grandmother's vaudeville shows and county fairs in upstate New York. She met Richard (Pa) Jenkins in the chorus of a local production of Guys and Dolls, the two fell in love, and they set off on the road in a touring jazz trio. When they knew it was time for the band to begin, they settled in New York, and Richard set up shop playing piano at the Nat King Cole bar to make way for Cassandra, Stephanie, and Reid Jenkins. The three grew up studying jazz and performing at festivals and house concerts where they discovered their love of folk songs and old time music. Cassandra plays banjo in two all girl string bands (Uncle Earl, and the Calamity Janes), Stephanie in the old time duo (the Pearly Snaps), and Reid is a recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music where he studied jazz violin.

Nothing beats the blend of sibling harmony and family history.