Culture

Erykah Badu is returning to a screen near you.
The singer has deeply immersed herself in the upcoming film The Piano Lesson, taking part in producing the score as well as joining the cast as bandleader Lucille at the Pittsburgh Hill District’s famed jazz club the Crawford Grill. In a clip shared exclusively with Billboard, the superstar curates a high-energy jazz performance, with patrons flooding the dance floor to groove along to the melody.

Badu has previously acted in films and TV series, including What Men Want, The Land, Hand of God and more.

The Malcolm Washington-directed film, adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, stars Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins, in addition to Badu. The story, set in 1936 following the Great Depression, follows the Charles family as they clash over an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. As a result, they find “haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy,” per the film’s logline.

Denzel Washington and Todd Black are The Piano Lesson‘s producers, while the music score was created by Alexandre Desplat. 

In addition to her portrayal of Lucille, Badu also wrote an essay for The Piano Lesson‘s accompanying Assouline book that features exclusive artwork celebrating the making of the film. “Ain’t no such thing as a wrong note. That’s the first thing you gotta understand,” she begins, sharing her personal journey with her own musical family heirloom, a piano from her grandmother. “Every time I pressed down [on the keys], even when the sound wasn’t ‘right’ by some textbook standard, I felt the vibrations of truth. Those so-called wrong notes? They were the universe whispering secrets, showing me paths that nobody else could see.”

The book will be available to order here starting Friday (Nov. 22), the same day The Piano Lesson hits Netflix. Watch the exclusive clip from the film above, and read Badu’s full essay via Billboard below.

Ain’t no such thing as a wrong note. That’s the first thing you gotta understand. When my grandmama gave us a used upright piano, made of wood with gold accents and keys yellowed and slightly out of tune, she wasn’t just giving us a musical instrument. She was passing on a portal to another dimension, a way to speak with the ancestors.

I was just a little girl of seven, with tiny hands stretching to reach those ivory bones. Every time I pressed down, even when the sound wasn’t ‘right’ by some textbook standard, I felt the vibrations of truth. Those so-called wrong notes? They were the universe whispering secrets, showing me paths that nobody else could see.

Fast-forward to the set of Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Initially, I’m there to produce music for the score, but next thing you know, I’m acting in the club scene, feeling August Wilson’s words pulse through me like they did back in my days as a theater major at Grambling State. And there’s this scene that was really heavy. Berniece is faced with this haunted piano, a sort of family heirloom with its carved figures, carrying generations of joy and pain. She’s scared and refuses to touch it, like it might burn her fingers with all that history.

But eventually, she relents. In order to exorcise the ghost, she bands on those keys repeatedly, wailing, ‘Help me, ancestors, help me!’ That’s when the magic happens. It ain’t pretty. It ain’t polished. But it’s real. It’s raw. And in those ‘wrong’ notes, in that discord of sound and emotion, both Berniece and the trapped spirit find release.