JAZZ: LAKECIA BENJAMIN
The final night of the 2024 Jazz season is here. Join us on Monday, December 2nd, as we welcome five-time Grammy-nominated saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin to the West Room.
Lakecia Benjamin is a New York-based musician, arranger, composer, and educator. Her music offers a unique meld of several strains of jazz, R&B and funk. A native New Yorker, she won admission to the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and began playing saxophone in earnest. After graduating, she joined the renowned jazz program at New York’s New School University where she studied with jazz veterans Billy Harper, Workman, Buster Williams, and Gary Bartz.
Amid much touring and performing, in 2015, she was part of the star-studded cast that played on vocalist and arranger Charenee Wade’s Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson. In addition to Benjamin, some other participants included Marcus Miller, Christian McBride, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, and Lonnie Plaxico. The following year, she was invited by pianist Robert Glasper to participate in the sessions for his Miles Davis tribute, Everything’s Beautiful; she appeared with Stevie Wonder and DJ Spinna on the set’s closing track, “Right on Brotha.”
In 2018, Benjamin issued her Ropeadope debut album, Rise Up, leading a large ensemble in a savvy jazz-funk update for the 21st century. In addition to performing, Benjamin also became an educator, teaching at Jazz at Lincoln Center and at Jazz House Kids.
Benjamin turned heads with her third album by leaving R&B and funk by the wayside. May 2020’s Pursuance: The Coltranes is unlike any other tribute project. Its 13 tunes were equally divided between compositions by Alice and John, and offered sometimes radical reinterpretations. The set was greeted with global acclaim by critics upon release.
In January 2023, Benjamin released Phoenix on Whirlwind Recordings, and featured many guests including Dianne Reeves, Georgia Ann Muldrow, Patrice Rushen, Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney, Sonia Sanchez, and Angela Davis. The album led to three GRAMMY nominations, and universal praise.
Doors will open at 8:00 PM, with the performance starting at 9:00 PM, followed by records spun by Stretch Armstrong.