The Heritage Project: Juneteenth Juke Joint featuring Mustafa on Sax
The Arsht Center’s Heritage Committee is proud to present our second annual Juneteenth Juke Joint! The joint will start with a dope mix of Pan-African beats with DJ Shacia Päyne Marley. Back by popular demand, world-renowned saxophonist, producer and composer Melton Mustafa Jr. will be here with Mustafa on Sax. Arrive early to order a specially curated happy hour menu featuring delicious, soul food-inspired bites and libations.
Juneteenth Juke Joint pays homage to the rich history of Black music, culture and food in the American South. For generations, our country’s “second Independence Day” has been celebrated with gatherings, cookouts, music, laughter and pride in Black freedom. We seek to create a space for Black joy and maintain an ever present, always developing sense of community.
Location: Peacock Foundation Studio at the Arsht
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Marsalis has toured internationally with jazz legends such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Slide Hampton, as well as leading his own groups.
At the age of 17, Marsalis began his career as a producer and has to date produced over 120 recordings garnering one Grammy award and several nominations.
In 2008, he formed the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a highly entertaining ensemble that focuses on maintaining important jazz traditions such as riff playing, New Orleans polyphony and spontaneous arrangements.
Delfeayo also formed the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000. A non-profit organization that empowers youth through musical theatre training. He has written sixteen musicals to date based on historical and/or uniting the community. In addition, he has composed over 90 songs that help introduce kids to jazz through musical theatre and has reached over 5,000 students nationally with his Swinging with the Cool School soft introduction to jazz workshops.
Marsalis has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Music performance and Production from Berklee College of Music, and a Masters in Jazz Performance from the University of Louisville. A Doctorate has also been conferred from the New England College.
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Devin Phillips, Saxophones
Kiran Raphael, Piano
Eric Gruber, Bass
Tyson Stubelek, Drums
Born and reared in New Orleans, Devin Phillips’s intense affair with the saxophone began at the age of eight. At 14, he was accepted into the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, whose alumni include Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr. and Nicholas Payton. There, trained in music theory and multi-styles composition, he graduated in 2000 with top honors. He has also tutored under clarinetist and educator Alvin Batiste. Like many budding young horn players form the Big Easy, he put his time in playing with the local brass bands in a traditional process of initiation in the musical process. Devin Phillips has paid his dues performing, touring and recording with top jazz artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, The Headhunters, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, musician Lenny Kravitz, and Los Hombres Caliente, with whom he recorded two award-winning albums.
His reputation as a sax man with intricate and rhythmically innovative sounds made him a popular feature at jazz festivals: France’s Jazz de Vien Festival; Tokyo’s JVC Jazz Festival; Itanbul’s The Ruins; Spain’s Barcelona Jazz Festival; the Netherlands’ North Sea Jazz and the New Orleans Jazz Festival. In 2005, Phillips formed New Orleans Straight Ahead. But in August, Hurricane Katrina muted the music. With all gone, save his sax, and his family scattered throughout the U.S., Phillips evacuated to Portland and reformed New Orleans Straight Ahead with other musician evacuees. Phillips and took advantage of a program created by the PDXJazz Festival in partnership with Azumano Travel, which invited jazz musicians affected by the hurricane to come to Portland with their families, either for temporary shelter or for good. The invitation included free transportation to Portland, temporary housing, and access to an active jazz network with performance and workshop opportunities.
Over the course of six months, more than 50 New Orleans musicians traveled to Oregon, a dozen musicians, including Phillips, have decided to remain in Portland. Since arriving, Phillips has performed at a number of local clubs and appreciated the opportunity to be part of the Portland Jazz Festival. Phillips says that opening the festival with “Amazing Grace,” talking with McCoy Tyner and being asked to stand in for one of Eddie Palmieri’s frontline players were high points for him.
Showtimes: 7:00pm & 9:00pm
Fees Applied To All Ticket Purchases
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Lakecia Benjamin, Saxophone
Zaccai Curtis, Piano
Ivan Taylor, Bass
EJ Strickland, Drums
PHOENIX, released in January 2023 on Whirlwind Records and was masterfully produced by Terri Lyne Carrington alongside an incredible cast of soon-to-be-announced iconic special guests. The live tour will feature Benjamin’s quartet. The new album is a deeply personal outing for Lakecia and presents mostly all original compositions and arrangements, solidifying her standing as not just an amazing player but as a formidable composer and arranger. The record continues Lakecia’s legacy work with artists that she respects and has been mentored by and was heavily influenced by her experiences over the past two years, and all that she has learned since the release of Pursuance at the cusp of the pandemic.
Lakecia says: “This album is a bit of a rebirth for me; it continues the inter-generational legacy work I’ve been doing in the past by featuring guests that have inspired me musically, spiritually and as a human being. I am painting the picture of reinventing and recreating oneself from ‘the ashes’, so to speak, although this time using my own compositions as the vehicle. I am excited to be starting a new journey and partnering with Whirlwind Recordings to introduce this album to the world.” One of the most sought-after and revered saxophonists in the world, Lakecia was voted 2020 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Known for her charisma and dynamism as a player, as a composer she has an inimitable skill of fusing traditional conceptions of jazz, hiphop and soul. She’s performed alongside Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, The Roots, Macy Gray and many more.
Showtimes: 5:30pm & 7:30pm
Fees Applied To All Ticket Purchases
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