music
The impetuous fire coming out of Lakecia Benjamin’s saxophone is the uncontrollable energy that can only come from the combustion of jazz, soul and funk. We’ve heard her alongside Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliot and Macy Gray, but it’s in her own name that the composer and saxophonist has stood out as one of the most dynamic figures in African-American music in recent years, honoured as much for her technical precision as for her magnetic sound. The vibrant funk of Retox (2012), the social and political commentary of Rise Up (2018), the powerful tribute to John and Alice Coltrane in Pursuance: The Coltranes (2020), all seem to follow a path that led to Phoenix (2023). Like the mythological bird that rises from the ashes, this fourth disc celebrates the resilience and transformation of music and the artist. Ideas of death and legacy supplant the narrative of this work, which opens with sirens and Angela Davis telling us: ‘Revolutionary hope lies in women who have been abandoned by history’. Flanked by talents such as multi-instrumentalist and rapper Georgia Anne Muldrow, vocalist Dianne Reeves, poet Sonia Sanchez and pianist Patrice Rushen, Phoenix was celebrated as one of the best jazz albums of 2023 and earned Lakecia Benjamin three Grammy nominations. Recently, the saxophonist released Phoenix Reimagined, an LP recorded live at the Bunker studio in Brooklyn (New York) and featuring John Scofield. Before the year is out, we’ll have the chance to see and hear Lakecia Benjamin’s music live, which has generated so much buzz.
support portuguese republic – culture / directorate-general for the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theatres and cinemas
