Sister Nancy, Ayanna Heaven, and Vonnie Mack at Baby’s All Right
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Move Forward Music presented a sold out show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY featuring a live performance by Sister Nancy and DJ sets by Vonnie Mack, and Ayanna Heaven.
DJ Vonnie Mack kicked off the night by spinning reggae songs featuring acts such as Beenie Man, Damian Marley, Dawn Penn, Mr. Vegas, Sean Paul, Buju Banton, and others. Ayanna Heaven was up next and did an abbreviated set that comprised of two or three songs (Marcia Aitken’s “I’m Still in Love With You” was immediately followed by Althea and Donna’s “Uptown Top Ranking”) since Sister Nancy was ready to go on.
Sister Nancy is an act that performs in New York City pretty regularly but every time she books a show here, I have a conflict of some kind. I was so grateful that for this show in October was booked only three months after her Summer Thunder Union Pool show that I couldn’t attend on a Sunday afternoon because I was working on delivering Kelela images from the previous night. My father was born and raised in Jamaica, WI and I grew up listening to her music along with Bob Marley, and Yellowman, so it felt like a personal failure to miss her each time.
Last night, Sister Nancy performed barefoot backed by Ayanna Heaven for her fantastic set. During her performance of “Ain’t No Stopping Nancy,” she mentioned that she was 62-years-old now but has been doing this since she was 15 in 1976 and well, there’s ain’t no stopping her. The demographics of the attendees skewed younger and Sister Nancy noticed this and remarked that she was old enough to be the grandmother of some of the people in the audience.
Before Sister Nancy’s set ended just before 10PM, but before leaving the stage, she mentioned that she’ll be back in NYC next month, and concluded her set with her best-known song, her 1982 single, “Bam Bam,” with many in the room singing those two words for her during the chorus.