(RED BANK – November 4, 2022) Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball, lead singer and founding member of the GRAMMY-nominated and 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest winners Tank and The Bangas, is set to perform Sunday, Nov. 13 at the Count Basie Center’s ‘Brunch At The Vogel’ concert series, sponsored by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation.

Tickets, starting at $45 and inclusive of full brunch service, are on sale now at theBASIE.org, the Basie Center box office and Ticketmaster.  Doors open at 11am, with Ball’s performance set to begin at 12pm sharp.

TARRIONA “TANK” BALL and TANK AND THE BANGAS

Founded in New Orleans in 2011, Tarriona “Tank” Ball and her band – bassist Norman Spence, drummer Joshua Johnson and saxophonist Albert Allenback – released their debut album, Think Tank, in 2013. And while Think Tank brought Tank and the Bangas fandom, it wasn’t until 2017 – when they became the unlikely though wholly-deserved winners of NPR’s celebrated “Tiny Desk Concert” contest – that Tank and the Bangas blew up coast to coast. Almost immediately, the band went from traveling to the likes of Chicago to play to three or four people, to touring all over the world.

“We weren’t expecting to win or not to win,” Ball explains. “We did something we thought was really cool and we thought everybody would vibe with it, but we didn’t know it would change our lives. It was our moment. They picked us unanimously.”

The band’s 2014 live set The Big Bang Theory spread the gospel of their live concert experience (Rolling Stone gushed, “Seeing a Tank and the Bangas show is an exercise in positivity, bringing the spiritual uplift of their church background into a joyful secular context”), while their 2019 studio release, Green Balloon, earned Tank and the band a ‘Best New Artist’ nod at the 2020 GRAMMY awards.

In 2021, Ball released Vulnerable AF, a collection of her poetry and celebration of her days as a slam-poet in New Orleans. Branding her as a “fiery powerhouse,” NPR noted the content of her written words as “full of fantasies and characters… stripping her high-energy bounce down to sheer vulnerability and telling tales and lessons on life.”

“I wrote this book without any thoughts of (the poems) ever seeing the light of day,” Ball explained in a press release. “I was sad, I was happy, I was vulnerable with myself and I wrote every single feeling down.”

In May, Tank and the Bangas released their third studio album, Red Balloon, celebrated for its frank themes of Black life and social justice. “This has been one of the best attempts thus far at capturing what happens when we’re all playing at the same time,” the band said in a release. “Red Balloon is coming straight for your heart and your neck. It’s going to make you bop and think and love, hopefully, and even love people that look different.”

THE COUNT BASIE CENTER FOR THE ARTS and the GIA MAIONE PRIMA FOUNDATION

The Gia Maione Prima Foundation was established by the late Gia Maione Prima with the assistance of long-time friend and counsel, Anthony J. Sylvester of Sherman Atlas Sylvester & Stamelman, LLP. Gia, a singer and widow of famous jazz musician, singer and composer Louis Prima, was a devotee of the fine arts. The Foundation is dedicated to making donations to other tax-exempt organizations that support and encourage an appreciation for American jazz, American popular music and jazz performance.

This includes the Foundation’s work with the Count Basie Center, including its sponsorship of the annual, free Louis and Gia Maione Prima Music Camp, and its contribution to the Basie Center’s capital campaign by way of the Prima Lobby at The Vogel, the organization’s new performance venue. The Brunch at the Vogel concert series celebrates jazz and other art forms and encourages patrons to discover new and traditional music while experiencing the community of live performance.

Said Prima Foundation trustee Anthony Sylvester, “We are excited to have the opportunity to partner with the Count Basie Center for the Arts in bringing this explosive Grammy nominated artist, Tarriona ‘Tank” Ball to New Jersey which exemplifies the foundation’s mission in supporting the arts.”