![]() My early upbringings were just me learning how to keep people on the dance floor. We were playing at the Port Authority station, the bus stations, the parks, all the Dominican parades. So, like my first time I got a saxophone, the first time I started playing, I was in an after school program and we were charged with playing block parties on the block. I think the best way to answer the question that’s kind of not a question is I did start off playing a lot of merengue music and salsa music. So I’d love to hear your thoughts about all of those different threads that have played into your creative musical life and thinking and, what you think about that, what I said about that trajectory. I kind of hear an album like Phoenix as maybe something that a marketer would more squarely be able to put in the jazz bin, if you know what I’m saying. And there’s been this trajectory for, what is it, 11 years to to last year’s release of Phoenix, where while all of these different elements are still present, I kind of hear this is me as a listener. And to me as a listener, it sounds like so many different musical threads are kind of in musical balance with each other. ![]() And if memory serves, your first album Retox came out in 2012, is that right? Obviously you’re immersed in funk, hip hop, R&B, all kinds of things. As I understand it, you have some deep roots with, you know, Dominican and other Afro-Latin musics from Washington Heights and New York. So I wanted to, kind of jump in and have you talk a little bit about your musical pathway, and I just wanted to set it up with my own observations as I’ve gotten to know your recorded output and your biography. Just to kind of help everyone coming into your show on January 19th get that much more out of it. Judd: So, we’re going to put together some conversation here, and I’m going to share some of your music along the way. Lakecia Benjamin: Oh, thanks for having me. We are so thrilled to be welcoming here to Purdue Convocations and to our concurrent jazz festival alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin.
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