Friday’s Rock is Black show at Zhou B Art Center is more than a concert, it’s a movement

Malek Azrael & The Vibez. // Photo Courtesy of Malek Azrael’s Instagram

This Friday, Feb. 28, the Zhou B Art Center will feature ‘Rock is Black‘, a “groundbreaking concert” which celebrates Black artists in rock—“a genre where their contributions are often overlooked.” The show also serves as the release party for Malek Azrael & The Vibez’s new EP, Feels Like…, described as “a transformative project redefining rock through a Black lens.” Along for the ride are Stephonne, Jamogi & The Jammerz, and Frankie Shorez & Mercy Fire, making this a show unlike any other. We spoke with Zhou B Art Director Izzy Vivas, along with Malek Azrael, about how the project came to be and what it aims to accomplish.

It began when Vivas contacted Azrael with the simple statement and question: “Hey, I want to put on a show. What would you like to do?” After the musician took a week to sit with it, he came back to the situation and said, “I don’t want to just do a show where it’s just Malek Azrael & The Vibez, and it’s just another show. I want it to mean something.”

Photo Courtesy of Rock is Black

It began with the statement, “rock is back,” which tripped a light in the musician’s head, he explains.

“Then I was like, ‘Oh, what if I say rock is Black?’” Azrael recalls of the jolt of inspiration. “Because it actually is so true. It says so much with just a simple three words—’Rock is Black.’”

“You can definitely imagine my excitement with wanting to bring people that I’ve worked with in the past, people that I’ve admired and Malek is both of those things,” says Vivas of how she views the event.

The additional artists on the Rock is Black bill consist of musicians that Azrael had met over the course of the past couple of years as he and his bandmates played rock venues around Kansas City. Every time the musician ran into somebody that shared his background as a Black artist in the rock world, a conversation would unflod.

“Being Black people from Kansas City who were in the rock scene, we don’t often see ourselves,” Azrael explains. “I kept meeting these people and having conversations, and every time I had a conversation, we were all kind of communicating, ‘We want to see more of ourselves in these shows.’”

After meeting so many artists who felt the same way, Azrael wanted to do a show where they all could show that side of Kansas City in a real, major way, along with it being a great opportunity to collaborate with artists he’s been a fan of and truly admires.

Rock is Black’s lineup shows off a variety of rock sub genres, not just indie rock or straight rock and roll. There are elements of funk and soul, as well, so we asked Azrael if that was an important thing when he was picking artists to be part of this show.

“Yes, very emphatically,” he replies without hesitation. “Very much so because I didn’t want other artists that did exactly the same thing that I did or did the stereotypical ideas of what rock is.”

He points to Frankie Shorez’s powerful voice, the pop-punk energy of Stephonne, and Jamogi & The Jammerz’s “beautiful combination of pop and rock and a little bit of that Louisiana soul jazz world” as the things which attracted him to each artist, and Vivas agrees.

“We were definitely talking a lot about the history of rock and roll and also the nuances of rock and roll,” Vivas says, while also emphasizing that Rock is Black is definitely not a concert, but a movement.

“When you’re trying to make a statement, sometimes you’re just shown the stereotype of what the emblem or place of belonging means, but the show is full of nuance,” Zhou b’s art director clarifies. “It’s full of the exploration and complexities of rock and roll. We want people to connect with it and make it a show where it’s accessible, whether it’s with one artist or with multiple, so having different avenues of musical and auditory interests is very important.”

For those aware of what the Zhou B Arts Center has been doing musically since they opened last June, this is a very different musical direction than the classical music which has heretofore dominated, and Vivas says that’s very intentional.

“We’re always constantly trying to think of ways to engage with new audiences, whether that be with younger people or with people that love classical music,” Vivas emphasizes. “So we’re really excited for the diversity of programming that we’re developing.”

Azrael agrees with this wholeheartedly, saying that he’s very excited to collaborate not just with artists who connect with the same roots he has as a musician, but a non-profit dedicated to the arts in Kansas City.

“Being able to collaborate with a place that already speaks to my own roots, but also the roots that I really try to place in our band, The Vibez, I wanted to make sure that whatever we did next was for the community,” Azrael says. “That was the intention. I think that’s where we really were able to align—that we were like, ‘We want to do something that helps the community or shows something to the community that they didn’t know they had access to.'”

A bit of added resonance is the fact that the Zhou B Art Center’s building once housed one of the the first African American schools in Kansas City. Per the venue’s website, it “resides in the former Crispus Attucks School located in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District […] one of the first African American schools in Kansas City.”

“When [Vivas] told me the history, I was like, ‘Okay, I love honoring the building,’” Azrael says. “I love honoring where we are at. That’s a huge part of really locking into the artistry that has come before.”

While Azrael says that, while it may seem a little too on the nose, it’s also perfect. As he puts it, it resulted in a realization that Rock is Black needed to happen at Zhou B for that very reason, and he’s incredibly grateful for that.

“Because, personally, as an artist in rock, a lot of times I kept running into situations where it felt like people thought I was having a conflict of crisis of identity,” reflects Azrael. “It wasn’t that at all. It was me being okay with embracing something that I knew came from my culture. So where else to do something cultural outside of a place that has trailblazing bones in it?”

Rock is Black takes place at Zhou B Art Center on Friday, February 28, and features Malek Azrael & The Vibez, Stephonne, Jamogi & The Jammerz, and Frankie Shorez & Mercy Fire. Details on that show here.