Lakecia Bemjamin is one of the most talented new names in overseas jazz, as a saxophonist but also as a musician, composer and, more generally, band leader. “I grew up with hip-hop and radio playlists. Living in a Latino community, I also played merengue, salsa and bachata. Because in the African American community you are encouraged to play all forms of black music,” she says. Her mentor, saxophonist Gary Bartz, introduced her to the art of the great masters of sax such as Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean and Coltrane. She then served her apprenticeship playing with Clark Terry, Anita Baker, Count Basie Orchestra, Kool and The Gang, Macy Gray, The Roots, Stevie Wonder and many others. She made international headlines in 2020 with the album Pursuance: The Coltranes, a heartfelt tribute to John and Alice Coltrane. Now she has a newly released album to propose live, Phoenix, produced by drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and recorded with her usual partners and special guests such as Dianne Reeves, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Patrice Rushen and Sonia Sanchez.

Bergamo Jazz audiences have already had the opportunity on various occasions to appreciate the qualities that have made Hamid Drake one of the most sought-after jazz drummers of African American origin. This time, however, they will be offered the chance to appreciate his creative skills in a project dedicated to one of the symbols of music without borders: Alice Coltrane. And, attaching importance to his tribute, the drummer from Chicago has created a superband that on this special occasion features British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, great charismatic personality to whom we owe explosive bands like Sons of Kemet, A Comet Is Coming and Shabaka and The Ancestors. The rest of the cast is the top of the top, with the electronic alchemist Jan Bang, a leading light on the Scandinavian music scene, the Americans Jamie Saft, well known for his collaboration with John Zorn, and Joshua Abrams, a bass player with wide-ranging experience and the Italian Pasquale Mirra who has a long artistic partnership with Hamid Drake himself. In the foreground there is the dancer Ngoho Ange, whose movements make the musical content visually explicit.