Sweet Honey In The Rock: So Alive.

Sweet Honey In The Rock play the QPAC Concert Hall on Friday. Alive In Australia is in stores now.

African American a cappella group Sweet Honey In The Rock have been captivating and inspiring audiences for almost 30 years. Since being put together by civil rights activist Bernice Johnson Reagon, 22 performers have passed through the line up, the current quintet having been together now for seven years.

Two years have now passed since the groups last series of Australian shows, and as well as return visit, this tour marks the release of their new album Alive In Australia, recorded by ABC Radio National over three Melbourne Concert Hall performances between 1994 and 2000.

“Bernice Johnson Reagon basically put together how the record came together. I guess she just listened to all the recordings to see how it all worked best and sounded right,” explains the act’s strongest blues singer, Aisha Kahlil, who joined Sweet Honey in 1981.

“The sound has definitely changed and evolved since I joined, based on the type of music that we sing,” she explains. “Different composers and arrangers bring in songs for the group to perform and record, so everyone has their own different style. I think everyone brings something unique and different to the group and the way it sounds. It’s evolved as the women in Sweet Honey have evolved.”

As well as performing with Sweet Honey In The Rock, Kahlil also works as a composer and a solo performer. She is a master teacher in voice and dance, specialising in the integration of traditional and contemporary forms. She is also co-director of First World Productions with fellow Sweet Honey member Nitanju Bolade Casel.

“It’s just the music that I hear, I guess. I’m influenced by things that happen in my life. All those things affect the kind of music that I’m going to write. I’m currently writing for my own project, putting together my own CD called Time & Space. I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do right now.”

“Sweet Honey does take up a lot of time, but everyone in the group does take time to work on other projects. That’s one of the reasons that we’ve lasted so long – it does allow individual members time outside of Sweet Honey In The Rock