PAN M 360 AT THE FIJM 2024 | Lakecia Benjamin – Phoenix

No other media outlet in Montreal has so many people on hand to provide expert coverage of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Many of us are scouring the outdoor site and concert halls: Jacob Langlois-Pelletier, Frédéric Cardin, Stephan Boissonneault, Michel Labrecque, Varun Swarup, Vitta Morales and Alain Brunet bring you their album reviews and concert reports. Happy reading and listening!

Lakecia Benjamin will give a free concert on Monday, July 1st at the FIJM. You don’t want to miss this, in large part because of this album released last year : Phoenix. An album praised by numerous specialist magazines. 

For some context, the saxophonist has accompanied numerous pop and R&B musicians like Alicia Keys, Missy Elliott and Stevie Wonder. After two rather funky solo albums, Lakecia Benjamin invested more in more traditional jazz, paying homage to Alice and John Coltrane in 2020, with Pursuance: The Coltranes. 

With Phoenix, the composer continues her exploration of roots while remaining alert to current musical trends. Released in January 2023, the album remains all the more current as, on July 12, a new version recorded live in the studio entitled Phoenix Reimagined will be released, with new musicians. 

Phoenix is ​​an intense jazz album with numerous sound and musical collages. The album begins with police sirens, to which is added the voice of writer Angela Davis. We also hear poems by Sonia Sanchez, a civil rights activist from Alabama, now 89 years old. At the other end of the spectrum, Lakecia collaborates with Georgia Anne Muldrow, young rapper and soul singer; we also hear the voice of the great singer Dianne Reeves.

But above all, Phoenix remains a musically very solid album, with the participation of brilliant musicians like trumpeter Josh Evans, Victor Gould on piano, Ivan Taylor on bass and Enoch Strickland on drums. And Lakecia Benjamin may not yet be as good as her mentor, John Coltrane, but she does very, very well on the alto saxophone.

Beyond the notes and brilliant arrangements, we can detect that this record reflects a feminist commitment and for the rights of African-Americans. 

Very curious to see what form the July 1st concert at the Pub Molson on Esplanade Tranquille will take. Rest assured that being able to attend this concert for free is a huge privilege. Will Lakecia Benjamin be dressed in gold, like on the record cover? We’ll see.  

Certainly, Esplanade Tranquille will be anything but quiet.