“Ms. Benjamin’s music is every bit as assertive and vital,”
– Martin Johnson, The Wall Street Journal
Lakecia Benjamin’s majestic Pursuance: The Coltranes featured a star-studded cast reinterpreting pieces by iconic jazz power couple John and Alice Coltrane
-Rollingstone
-Financial Times
The alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin plays jazz that is sprinkled with the rich flavors of funk and soul—she’s a crafty traditionalist who remains in step with the rhythms of the young generation
-The New Yorker
“Equally melodic and assertive, her sound feels rooted in tradition, yet broad enough to encompass R&B and Latin music; its pronounced funk suggests allegiances to hip-hop and dance.”
-Marcus J. Moore, The New York Times
“She came to play in the band of Rashied Ali, the last of Coltrane’s drummers, and now has made her own ambitious statement, Pursuance: The Coltranes“
-The Sydney Herald
“The wide sense of adventure on Phoenix reveals Benjamin as ambitious as she is focused, energetic, and perceptive,” Thom Jurek, All Music
“With such an expansive, expressive album now under her belt, it will be fascinating to see where Benjamin’s muse takes her next,”
– Jason Gross, The New York City Jazz Record
If a star emerges from Winter Jazzfest it could well be the alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin. Jazz festivals looking to book a charming performer capable of captivating the masses and appealing to the serious-minded fans need look no further.
-Poll Star
“Benjamin exudes star-quality and authority in equal measure, qualities as evident in the music presented on this solid addition to her discography.”
– Ron Schepper, textura
Vote for Lakecia in “Outstanding Jazz Album”
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Lakecia Benjamin has received three category nominations at the 66th GRAMMY® Awards, including Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Best Jazz Performance and Best Original Composition
Lakecia Benjamin wins prestigious German Jazz awards prize
“Lakecia Benjamin draws on the intense wellspring of classic John Coltrane and adds the sonics and history of her main instrument, alto sax. That core aesthetic was established even before she took the stage”
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Lakecia Benjamin’s Album Phoenix Released Jan 27th 2023 Via Whirlwind Records is number #1 on the Jazz Charts Three weeks and counting
Voted as the winner of the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll “Rising Star Alto Saxophonist” and Up & Coming Musician of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association, the Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2023 Artist-in-Residence, charismatic and dynamic saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, fuses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip-hop, and soul
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We are thrilled to welcome alto saxophonist, bandleader, and educator Lakecia Benjamin as this year’s festival curator. She played the waterfront stage at the 2022 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, opening for George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Now she’s helping us shape a momentous 40th anniversary celebration for the festival
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Shots ring out. Sirens wail. Upon arrival on alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin’s fourth studio album, Phoenix, we are thrown immediately into unsettling territory.But this ominous opening sets the tone for a story of eventual healing, transformation, resilience and rebirth. Like the mythological phoenix, we rise to overcome whatever trials and tribulations we face collectively or individually.
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Lakecia Benjamin rises up from injury, loss and adversity to address the humanity in all of us. Live interview speaking about her lastest album ‘phoenix”
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In March 2020, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin released Pursuance: The Colltranes, her fiery, imaginative third album. While driving home from a performance in Ohio in 2021, her car left the road in a rural area and flipped over in a drainage ditch. She suffered multiple injuries including neurological damage and a broken jaw. Three weeks later she was touring Europe.
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‘I had to do dramatic things to get attention’: sax player Lakecia Benjamin on crashing Prince gigs and charming Stevie Wonder.
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The up-and-coming jazz musician displays a more nuanced sound and showcases a sizzling band and several guest collaborators on a new album.
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A Car Accident Couldn’t Halt the Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin’s Rise
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Lakecia Benjamin’s last album, Pursuance, was a tribute to the music, spirit, and inspiration of John and Alice Coltrane. This one is more diffuse, but it’s in large part a consideration of female resilience;
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Jazzwise magazine’s February issue is out now with fast rising New York alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin on the cover and talking about her bold new album Phoenix in a compelling feature interview inside.
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Feel The Power
When DownBeat caught up with Lakecia Benjamin in November via Zoom, the saxophonist and composer was clad in a cherry red sweatshirt, wearing angular, postmodern chrome eyeglasses. Her shirt was emblazoned in black with “Anyone who can’t dance to John Coltrane can’t dance,” a quote attributed (on the garment) to Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Lakecia Benjamin had no trouble communicating the intensity of a live performance through a streaming screen.
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“Lakecia Benjamin, Pursuance: The Coltranes was one of the albums of the year !”
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Every morning, the alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin rises before the sun, settles behind her 88-key electric piano and offers wordless thanks to the Creator. “My goal is to get to it before sunrise,” she tells GRAMMY.com from her New York apartment. “That’s when the universe is most receptive, right before the day is about to break and everyone gets in their prayers. I’m there before everyone.”
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Each summer on ABC Jazz, we spend the break listening back to some of our favorite feature albums from the year just past. 2020 was of course a difficult year for musicians in particular – but even though gigs were hard to come by, there were plenty of great studio albums that made their way into our inbox.
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For Lakecia Benjamin, a saxophonist and bandleader from New York, the year began promisingly with plans for a new CD, Pursuance: The Coltranes, and a worldwide tour to promote the project. She expected the tour to recoup the money spent to book studio time and for the featured artists who appeared on the project. But the CD dropped on March 25 — just as the pandemic began to force closings across the United States.
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Altoist Lakecia Benjamin‘s majestic Pursuance: The Coltranes featured a star-studded cast reinterpreting pieces by iconic jazz power couple John and Alice Coltrane
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Lakecia Benjamin wins 2020 Downbeat critics poll rising star alto saxophone . Also places in Album of the year , Rising Star arranger and Rising star producer .
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The alto saxophonist’s tribute to John and Alice is a lesson in logistics
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Benjamin extends the connection in this episode, sharing a song they recorded together off her new album Pursuance: The Coltranes. Ari Shapiro talked to her at length about the record, which reinterprets the work of John and Alice Coltrane with the help of a staggering ensemble cast, and about an artist she is grateful for: James Blake.
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Congratulations to all the winners of the 25th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, listed below
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New York City-based altoist Lakecia Benjamin plays a special Home Session for J to Z and shares music that has inspired her career.
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Fast-rising altoist Lakecia Benjamin talks to Thomas Rees about the healing power of music and the story behind Pursuance, her star-studded, intergenerational tribute to those twin powerhouses of spiritual jazz, Alice and John Coltrane
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Pursuance is Benjamin’s most ambitious project so far, not only for its eye-popping lineup, but for the magnitude of its subject matter: the compositions of Alice Coltrane and John Coltrane .The meaningful twist here is the equal weight that Benjamin gives to Alice’s work, intentionally dividing the album’s 13 tracks about equally between the two musicians.
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At first, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin was ambivalent about recording a Coltrane tribute album, but ultimately pulled the trigger knowing that her concept was materially different than the scores of Coltrane projects that preceded hers. Pursuance (Ropeadope Records) honors and interprets the music of both Alice and John Coltrane
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That new album, Pursuance: The Coltranes, not only pays tribute to John and Alice Coltrane, but also stands as a testament to her relentless nature. She literally pursued each and every jazz great that graces her album from bassists Reggie Workman and Ron Carter, to alto saxophonists Gary Bartz and Greg Osby, to vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets.
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New York City altoist Lakecia Benjamin has assembled an intergenerational all-star cast for this tribute to Alice and John Coltrane. Benjamin's alto sound is one of the first things that grabs you about the album. It’s rich, soulful and drenched in the blues. She plays with such passion and such commitment you know she means every note, and it’s hard to think of a more fitting tribute to the Coltranes than that.
Afro Punk previews new single Alice Coltranes "Om Shanti"
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If a star emerges from Winter Jazzfest it could well be the alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin. Jazz festivals looking to book a charming performer capable of captivating the masses and appealing to the serious-minded fans need look no further
See Article
The alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjaminplays jazz that is sprinkled with the rich flavors of funk and soul—she’s a crafty traditionalist who remains in step with the rhythms of the young generation.Benjamin presents music from her upcoming project, “Pursuance,” an homage to the brilliant, timeless work of Alice and John Coltrane.
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Alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin achieved the unbelievable last August by recruiting close to three dozen players from across the generations to record the music of John and Alice Coltrane during two marathon 12-hour days.
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NPR features Lakecia Benjamin as the top 3 women to watch !
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Lakecia Benjamin is a product of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Her upbringing and background strongly inform her worldview and playing.Whether onstage as a leader or band member, she’s possessed of energy and intensity unmistakably geared to giving her audience a good show.
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She was reared on the music of James Brown, The Meters and Sly and the Family Stone, and as she set out on her own in the music world, she brought those influences with her, mixing them the prodigious jazz chops
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Lakecia Benjamin will be the resident sax faculty Feb 23- April 9th 2019
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Growing up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, Lakecia Benjamin first picked up the saxophone at age 11—and that was always the only instrument for her.
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A bonafide funk, jazz and R&B star, Lakecia Benjamin is happy to share her latest Ropeadope effort, Rise Up, with the masses who love good tunes.
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“I see we've got some romantics in the house,” Benjamin told the rapt crowd after performing her swooning 2012 song “Dreams” with help from gut-wrenching vocalist Nicole Phifer. With her collection of original compositions, the alto player brought undeniable energy and feeling to the stage that recalled the spirit of soul jazz. It was slow, but played with the kind of investment that’s rare on a festival stage — emotional without ever feeling overwrought.
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For someone who exhibits striking presence and showmanship onstage, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin’s path to being a professional musician seems surprisingly—almost unbelievably—incidental.
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Lakecia Benjamin profile featured on JazzTimes.
Lakecia Benjamin in New York Times’ The Arts section.
Lakecia Benjamin featured in Allegro.
