The celebrated musician Adam L. McKnight is sharing his musical journey with stories, holiday music and original songs at the Alliance Theatre this month. He has performed with everyone from Stevie Wonder. BB King and Diana Ross to Faith Hill, Gloria Estefan and The Temptations. McKnight is performing with several guest artists in the concert series “A Gift of Love” on the Hertz stage of the Alliance Theatre through Dec. 23. The show is directed by the acclaimed Atlanta-based director and choreographer Patdro Harris, and both artists joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about their collaboration for McKnight’s holiday show.
Interview highlights:
McKnight’s humble beginnings in a lifelong music journey:
“I grew up in the church, and so it was, of course, the little choirs, the choirs in the church,” said McKnight. “I had been playing trumpet in the band since I was in fourth grade, and in high school I met one of the other trumpet players whose family were musicians and they had a band that they were putting together with young musicians, and they asked me to be in the band… It was a huge band, 10 piece. And so when I got in the band, this was the first time I actually attempted singing R&B music… That was my first experience, and from then on, I am blessed and thankful that music has continued to be the forefront of my life.”
How Patdro Harris took on the task of directing “A Gift of Love”:
“My approach to the work was to help create the narrative. To start it off, I thought, I know what kind of person he is. He’s a humanitarian, he loves art and he loves people. So I tried to shape something as a director,” said Harris. “Not only as a director; I got a chance to be a part of the creative team to develop what this was going to be. And I said, ‘Okay, well great, then let’s go from this approach. Let’s start with the music, because he loves the music.’ So let’s be ‘Loved by the Music.'”
He went on, “The next part of it — he finds comfort in his community. So we put songs to go with that, and the last thing we wanted to share was, when he looks at you, does he see himself?… He’s always thinking about others, so we just had a ‘me’ section. ‘When I look at you, I see me.’ So that was my approach to get into the narrative and to get songs and narrative and story that went with… his original music, of course, which is absolutely wonderful, and to share things from Stevie Wonder, from Earth Wind & Fire.” McKnight chimed in, “And Luther Vandross. Those are some of my favorite artists who I listened to and got inspiration from throughout the years.”
How each show shapeshifts to accommodate unique guest artists:
“They all have their own space, so it’s very unique to them. So we cater to what they are,” said Harris. “There’s, like I said, the three sections. There’s the ‘Loved by the Music’ section. That’s the village section, which they actually enter in. We have a sweet surprise everybody if you come to the show,” he teased. “But we do it differently with all of them.”
Harris continued, “We have a special section. We have them do a number that they like… so we shape that show around how they come in. So we have a tech rehearsal each week, then our first week is Karan Kendrick. Then it’s Myra Walker. Then Maria Howell is the next person. So each week there’s a different artist who has a different sound, has a different energy and also pulls different things out of Adam too, which is absolutely beautiful — and how he likes to collaborate. We get a chance to get a full circle of his community coming in.”
“A Gift of Love” with Adam L. McKnight is on stage at the Alliance Theatre through Dec. 23. Tickets and more information are available at www.alliancetheatre.org/production/2022-23/a-gift-of-love-with-adam-l-mcknight.
