An evening under the Lucky Strike tower
Tucker is a genre-defying recording artist who was featured on “Better,” by Foreign Exchange with Durham rapper Phonte Coleman. The sunny, upbeat song appeared on former President Barack Obama’s 2022 summer playlist. It was yet another milestone for an artist whose work has been heralded from the Kennedy Center to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Yet even when performing for national and international audiences, Tucker’s approach to the arts personifies community.
She was accompanied Wednesday night by a cadre of world-class musicians, including Duke literature professor Maya Kronfeld, a two-time Grammy award-winning keyboardist, and Grammy-nominated guitarist, Keith Ganz.
On an outdoor stage underneath the iconic Lucky Strike water tower, with the former tobacco manufacturer’s brick smokestack as the backdrop, Tucker’s bright, buoyant, virtuoso artistry was on full display for an audience that witnessed her ongoing emergence as a Durham musical icon.
“I am so, so-so-so-so thrilled to be playing for my neighbors, here in our town, in Durham, right around the corner from my home,” Tucker, who lives in the Lakewood-Long Meadow district, told the audience.
She then launched into a set of what she described as her “lovely, lovely favorites,” that included a soulful rendition of “In The Morning,” by Norah Jones; a whimsical take of the jazz standard, “My Favorite Things”; along with a couple of her own compositions, most notably, “November,” her most played song on musical streaming services, and “Hiding In The Light,” the title track of her 2024 album.
Days before her performance at the American Tobacco campus, Tucker spoke with Duke Today about her connection to Durham.
“I think there is something essential in not just living in a space, but being of the space,” she said.
For all her well-deserved acclaim, Tucker is deeply committed to the Bull City.
Tucker describes herself as “a performing, recording and teaching artist.” She is a former director of Kidznotes, a local youth musical instruction program. She regularly strolls with her dog through the neighborhood, performs at select music venues like the Sharp 9 Gallery Jazz Club, the Cary Theater and the Rialto in Raleigh and occasionally shows up for community West African dance classes.
Tucker began her solo career playing at small venues in Durham, like the former Rockwood that’s now Nuvo Taco, and the now-closed Six Plates Wine Bar.
“I asked the Durham Bulls one time if I could sing the National Anthem and they were like, ‘No,’” she said jokingly. “I may go back there and see if I can work that out.”
Participating in the ‘cultural landscape’
Tucker said that to earn a sustainable living, she has to perform outside of Durham, but she also thinks it’s necessary to participate in the city’s growing “cultural landscape.”
“My band is composed of award-winning artists living in the Bull City who work nationally and internationally, who are all happy to claim and represent Durham. I love living in Durham. I can’t think of living anywhere else,” she said.
Tucker, in anticipation of the American Tobacco performance, later added that “it’s an honor to play for my family, my friends and for my community.
“And it’s an honor, as a musician, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hayti Heritage Center, an entity with ‘community’ etched into its foundation and core values.”
She applauded the partnership between Duke Arts and the Hayti Heritage Center, that is perhaps the oldest and most prominent surviving institution in the historically Black Hayti community that was destroyed by urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tucker said the partnership is potentially “transformative.”
Duke is making strides to open the campus beyond the (East) wall and is taking a more meaningful approach to the city where they reside,” she said. “I love the (university’s) intentional way to culturally activate different parts of Durham.”
