During her studies at New York's New School of Music, Lakecia Benjamin was taught the eternal values of the jazz tradition by her mentors: Billy Harper, Buster Williams, Gary Bartz and Reggie Workman. Not long afterwards, she began performing alongside Missy Elliott and Alicia Keys, experiences that added many colours to her palette. Her debut album, Retox, came out in 2012. Even then, she showed huge promise, especially because of the weighty material she was producing as a composer. In addition to collaborating with younger singers like Gregory Porter and Theo Croker, she has also joined Stevie Wonder and DJ Spinna in a production by Robert Glasper. All throughout, she has preserved in her music the energies from both the heroic era of jazz and its present, which included creating material that pays tribute to the work of John and Alice Coltrane couple: this was 2020's Pursuance. Her 2023 album Phoenix embodies the present state of jazz itself, one in which music and poetry, expression through blues and words, statements both determined and gentle in the struggle for gender and racial equality, all have a place. Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, the album has its significance further enhanced by the musical contributions of Dianne Reeves and Wayne Shorter and the words of Angela Davis.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest