Toshi Reagon is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

/blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 musician. She is the daughter of Freedom Singers

The Freedom Singers

The Freedom Singers is a band that was founded in 1962 by Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson , Matthew Jones, Charles Neblett and Rutha Mae Harris ....

 co-founders Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Bernice Johnson Reagon is a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973.-Early life and education:...

, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...

, with whom she has sometimes collaborated on musical projects and of Cordell Hull Reagon

Cordell Reagon

Cordell Hull Reagon was an American singer. He was the founding member of the Freedom Singers of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and a leader of the Albany Movement during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement...

, a leader of the civil rights movement in Albany

Albany Movement

The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Local activists, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were all involved in the movement. The movement was led by William...

, member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...

, and co-founder of The Freedom Singers. She is also the goddaughter of folk singer, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

 and named after his wife, Toshi Seeger.

Reagon began performing when she dropped out of college; soon afterward, Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz

Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...

 invited her to open for him on his first world tour. She has since shared the stage with performers ranging from Ani Difranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

 to Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

.
Her band, BIGLovely, has been performing together since September 1996. The name allegedly comes from a love-letter she received from her girlfriend, which was addressed "To My BIGLovely." The band includes Judith Casselberry on acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 and vocals, Robert "Chicken" Burke on drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s, Fred Cass, Jr. on bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, Adam Widoff on electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

, and Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell is a British stage, television and screen actress.-Personal:Catherine Russell is the daughter of actor Nicholas Smith and his wife Mary. She is married to film producer Richard Holmes and they have two children, Sam and Poppy...

 on mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

 and vocals. The line-up also includes Jen Leigh, Ann Klein, Debbie Robinson, Alison Miller, Kismet Lyles and Stephanie McKay as replacements.

Reagon lives in Brooklyn, New York with her partner and her daughter.

Discography

• 1990 Justice Flying Fish Records
• 1994 The Rejected Stone, self-released
• 1997 Kindness Smithsonian Folkways
• 1999 The Righteous Ones Razor and Tie
• 2001 Africans in America Soundtrack w/Bernice Johnson Reagon, Various artists. Ryco
• 2002 TOSHI, Razor and Tie
• 2004 I Be Your Water, limited self release
• 2005 Have You Heard Righteous Babe Records
• 2008 Until We’re Done self-release
• 2009 Lava: We Become self-release
• 2010 There and Back Again self-release

She has also appeared on numerous Compilations and Benefit recordings including:

• Shout Sister Shout, a tribute to Sister Rosetta Thorpe and Respond II.
• Dreaming Wide Awake, Lizz Wright with Toshi Reagon: Vocals
• Real Music, Chocolate Genius with Toshi Reagon: Vocals
• Raise Your Voice, Sweet Honey In The Rock collaboration with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely
• Africans In America, Rycodisc, Toshi Reagon: Musician, Composer and Associate Producer
• The Temptation of Saint Anthony
• Every Mother Counts Starbucks

Toshi is the esteemed producer of many recordings including:

• The Temptation of Saint Anthony Studio Cast Recording, Songtalk Music 2006
• Sweet Honey in the Rock: The Women Gather, 30th Anniversary Earthbeat Records, 2003
• Sweet Honey in the Rock: Sacred Ground, Earthbeat Records, 1995 Co-produced with Bernice Johnson Reagon
• Sweet Honey in the Rock: In This Land, Earthbeat Records, 1992 Co-produced with Bernice Johnson Reagon

She also appeared on the TV show The L Word in the last episode of season 4 where she sings a song on the beach at Tasha's party.

External links

• Official Website
• Discography at Smithsonian Folkways
  Smithsonian Folkways
  Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...