Juno Award-winning Vocalist and Trumpet Master Bria Skonberg Issues Indigo via Cellar, Her Vocal-driven Sequel to Brass on July 3, 2026

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Juno Award-winning artist Bria Skonberg shares the breadth of her vocal expression with the release of Indigo on July 3, 2026 via Cellar Music Group. The anticipated partner to Brass, her 2026 trumpet-centered meditation, Indigo is a celebration of song, singing, and orchestrating for all the colors of her vocal artistry. Co-produced by Skonberg and her longtime collaborator Matt Pierson, these albums excavate both wholes of her creative identity. “After decades of figuring out where the trumpet and the voice come together,” she says, “I thought it would be interesting and challenging to explore them both, and that was it.” Asked frequently whether she’s a singer who plays trumpet or a trumpet player who sings, in recording Indigo and Brass, Skonberg realized she’s partly neither, and both entirely — a revelation to the artist whom The New York Times calls “the shining hope of hot jazz.”

“I had to work on them both, individually,” says Skonberg. “It’s always good to come back and sharpen the saw.” Indigo features the foundation of her Brass quartet, Eric Wheeler on bass and Darrian Douglas on drums, plus orchestration from her 2017 With a Twist collaborator, multi-Grammy Award winner Gil Goldstein, who also serves as the album’s pianist, complementing Skonberg’s intimate vocal — and its emotional resonances — with subtleties of tone and color. “What I love about Gil is he has such a huge imagination,” she says. “There was never any doubt he would be the person to arrange the album.”

The artists assemble a small but mighty orchestra, including Antoine Silverman and Entcho Todorov on violin, Yuko Naito-Gotay on viola, and Emily Brausa on cello, adding a distinct textural warmth from Kathleen Nester on alto flute and Charles Pillow on bass clarinet. “Gil and I settled on some really amazing sound combinations,” says Skonberg, “but once you pull together cello, alto flute, bass clarinet and where my voice sits, it’s just gorgeous.”

Where Brass captures Skonberg’s range as a technician and a style master, Indigo presents a level of vulnerability Skonberg is able to access vocally because she’s lived through the complexities and absurdities of life. “Indigo is an exploration in nuances: conversations, chemistry, fragility, and sense of self,” she says. “Many of these songs require a certain amount of life experience to be able to understand and interpret them, and at this point I feel like I’ve lived them all.”

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Christopher Allen, Indigo opens on Michel Legrand’s “Watch What Happens.” Adding a pedal to a partido alto feel, Skonberg bonds sophisticated with steadfast while Douglas’ brushwork creates a buoyancy around the hushed intensity of her vocal. “This song is my current love letter to humanity,” says Skonberg. “I’m hoping that we will see into each other’s hearts and make authentic connections.”

In back-to-back homage, “I’m Glad There is You” and “Mood Indigo” pay tribute to Sarah Vaughan & Clifford Brown and Miles Davis, respectively. The former transmits a plush, symphonic verse before Skonberg brings the tune into time, spotlighting a mastery over her vocal range: “It’s a beast, vocally, but it’s just a song about gratitude and being grateful for the people we love whether or not they’re with us.” The latter enters the iconic groove from “All Blues,” maintaining that reverence across the tune, including through Skonberg’s muted trumpet. “I like to put little Easter eggs in my albums,” says Skonberg, “for myself and the other jazz listeners.”

One of two songs appearing on both Brass and Indigo, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” serves as something of a metaphor for the dual-album project. “It’s the feeling I have when I’m asked if I’m a singer who plays trumpet or a trumpet player who sings,” says Skonberg. “It sums it up: you’re stuck between two equally difficult decisions [laughs]. Also, the trumpet is the fiery part and the vocal is more the deep blue sea.” Alongside her nimble vocal, she delivers a swinging trumpet solo before joining Goldstein for a drum interlude that spotlights Douglas’ relaxed spontaneity.

Featuring Goldstein’s accordion and a beautiful solo gesture from Brausa, “If You Go Away” signals an emotional shift on Indigo. Through a lyrical whisper at once conversational and resonant, Skonberg sings directly into the listener’s ear. “It’s a little bit of a manouche French vibe,” she says. Originally recorded in French by the legendary singer Jacques Brel, the song has “just two parts, but it’s such a moment. There’s hope and despair — the fragility, the vulnerability — but there’s also strength in that, too.”

Indigo continues with a gripping arrangement of Sting’s “Fragile,” showcasing Skonberg’s muted trumpet. “Welcome to my party,” she says. “There’s always something old, there’s always something new, and then there’s always something in the middle that’s been kind of manipulated.” Her original song “So It Goes” emerged as an instrumental, which appears on Brass. Written in the style of a standard from the American Songbook, which Skonberg admits is “deceptively hard” to do, she soon realized the tune wasn’t finished. “I thought, ‘There’s a lyric here.” So she called her friend, the cabaret legend Ann Hampton Callaway to help her articulate the story. “It’s a love story that fell apart and then got put back together and then fell apart again [laughs].”

One of the record’s more complicated stories, “Tell Him I Said Hello” presents music & lyrics primed for Goldstein’s sensitive orchestration and Skonberg’s interpretive subtleties. “It’s a conversation with a friend who may or may not take what you’re saying to the person that you were in love with,” she says. “It’s so specific. And I’m realizing that great songwriting is taking a specific moment and making it universal. Gil wrote a beautiful arrangement that embodies the melancholy of lingering hope turning into reluctant acceptance.”

Indigo ends on a note of undying optimism, a hallmark of Skonberg’s expression as an artist and as a person navigating a troubled world. “We’ll Be Together Again” features cat-paw clarinet lines and blossoming orchestration. Skonberg approaches the song’s interval leaps with both technical poise and wonderment. But the meaning behind the tune informs her treatment of its components. “The sentiment of togetherness is important to me,” she says. “The way the album’s book-ended, ‘Watch What Happens’ is like, ’Let someone speak to your heart, stay open,’ and then the end thought is, ‘Remain in this space together.’”

Across Brass and Indigo, Skonberg’s message is clear: “I try to bring people together as much as possible. If I can get people having a shared experience, in live concerts, whatever their opinions or views are, to me that’s meaningful.”

 Bria Skonberg. Courtesy of Cellar Music Group

Thank you to Lydia Liebman Promotions for sharing with us

Rachel Ashley’s call to sisterhood effortlessly blends Middle Eastern grooves and jazz on new single ‘Dreams of Peace’

Released on the 29th June, Dreams of Peace is the latest single from experienced singer songwriter and voiceover artist Rachel Ashley. After spending many years on the road gigging and working as a studio session singer, Cheshire based Rachel has now returned to her first love - songwriting.

“Dreams of Peace is one of those songs that simply flowed out of me. It is an exploration of female power. Of cooperation and creativity and most of all love. It’s about reclaiming our light in a very dark world right now.”

Dreams of Peace showcases the rich, emotive quality of Rachel’s voice and her love of vocal harmonies. The driving female energy is augmented by Helena Summerfield’s soprano saxophone - at first answering the call of Rachel’s vocals and then taking flight to enhance the song’s mystical atmosphere. “The heavy heartbeat drum, slightly panned to the left, and the strings provide a solid foundation for the weaving vocals and melodic soprano sax.” Acclaimed composer and producer for television and radio Maurice Cheetham added additional percussion, produced the final mix and mastered the track.

Helena Summerfield: A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Helena Summerfield is an accomplished saxophonist known for her versatile tone and expressive phrasing. Helena’s contribution to music education has been recognised at the 2021‘Will Michael Jazz Education Awards’ and 2022 ‘Parliamentary Jazz Awards.’

Rachel's photo is courtesy of Tom Read

Helena photo by MiHi-Music Event Visuals

Rachel website click here

Helena links click here

Vivienne Aerts Presents Current. Release 26th June 2026

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The story of Current: In the summer of 2025, vocalist and composer Vivienne Aerts set sail across the Dutch waterways aboard her 1951 mahogany sailboat De Vouw. Over two weeks she transformed the tiny boat into a floating studio, recording new songs and soundscapes that blur the lines between jazz, improvisation, and environmental art. Current captures the sounds of creaking wood, rippling waves, passing locks, and birds in flight, weaving them with voice, electronics, and acoustic instruments. The project explores how humans and water coexist - reflecting both the Netherlands’ heritage of “living with water” and the fluidity of creative life itself.

What began as an experiment in site-specific recording soon became a collective voyage. Aerts invited fellow Dutch musicians: Hermine Deurloo (harmonica), Susanne Alt (saxophone), and Adinda Meertins (double bass) to join her on different lakes and canals, each session shaped by the elements. Ted Steinebach documented the journey for a short film that will accompany the album’s release with help of NYC based Producer Art Jones. The resulting work blends documentary realism and sonic poetry, balancing spontaneity with deep listening, a continuation of Aerts’s long-term dialogue between mindfulness, sound, and community.

Set for release on 26th June 2026, Current invites audiences to reflect on the movement of water as both metaphor and environment. The album will launch with floating concerts in the Netherlands and the United States, alongside workshops and talks on creativity and sustainability. Building on Aerts’s acclaimed collaborative album Typuhthâng, Current marks her most intimate project yet, one that flows between continents, generations, and disciplines, reminding us that music, like water, is always in motion.

Biography:

The staggeringly versatile skill-set of NYC-based Dutch Singer, Educator, Psychologist and Artist-preneur Vivienne Aerts busts myths around the ‘Jill of all trades’ paradigm with a nonchalance that leaves even the most skeptical purist taking a bow. A Fulbright scholar and Suma Cum Laude Berklee alumna, she’s collaborated with jazz icons like Lee Konitz, Kenny Werner, Dave Liebman, and Chris Potter. Her third award-winning album, Typhthâng (2023), features 100 female musicians and comes with a bar of chocolate supporting Congolese female cacao farmers through a partnership with Original Beans. Known for her eclectic "Vervool" experience events with her husband, renowned pastry chef Ted Steinebach, Aerts’ interdisciplinary approach bridges music, psychology, and social impact. Since 2015, she has worked at Berklee College of Music, where she teaches a new wave of artists focused on mental well-being, addressing core issues that affect the arts ecosystem. Her innovative work spans mental health, education, and entrepreneurial artistry, challenging the status quo for creators and audiences alike. Up next is a new album, 'Current' that she produced on a tinysailboat, blending jazz, electronics, and vocal loops with water-inspired soundscapes.

Vivienne Aerts - Sounds, Synths, Effects, Voices Susanne Alt - Saxophone Hermine Deurloo - Harmonica Adinda Meerins - Bass Jeremy Loucas - Mixing Maria Triana - Mastering Ted Steinebach - Documentary

NEW AMSTERDAM SOUNDS - JUNE 28th A floating concert presenting a floating project

This June, join us aboard a historic sailing vessel for a sunset performance unlike any other in the New York Harbor. On June 28, 7:30 to 9:30 PM, we present NEW AMSTERDAM SOUNDS. Cruise the harbor at golden hour while you enjoy sweeping skyline views and striking visuals projected onto the sails, all set to live music performed by Dutch-New York artist Vivienne Aerts. This floating concert features songs from Aerts’s new album Current, a project recorded aboard Aerts’s own 1951 Dutch mahogany sailboat, De Vouw, while traveling through the waterways of the Netherlands. Blending vocals, keys, electronics, and field recordings of creaking wood, rippling water, passing locks, wind, and birds, creating a sound world that is intimate, cinematic, and deeply alive. Moving between atmospheric song, improvisational texture, and subtle electronics, Vivienne’s music resonates with listeners of artists like Norah Jones and James Blake, while remaining unique on its own. For this special floating performance, these songs return to the water. As the sun sets over Manhattan, audiences will experience an immersive live performance featuring songs from her new album, atmospheric electronics, and projected visuals on the sails. Vivienne Aerts is known for creating interdisciplinary work that bridges music, mindfulness, community, and environment. Grammy member, a Fulbright scholar, Berklee faculty, and award-winning Dutch artist based in New York City, she brings together intimacy and imagination in performances that feel both personal and expansive. Whether you already know Vivienne’s work or are simply looking for an unforgettable New York summer night on the water, NEW AMSTERDAM SOUNDS offers a rare chance to hear a project born on Dutch waterways come to life against the skyline of Manhattan.

Vivienne Aerts website

Thank you to Dynamic Agency for sharing with us

GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science released a powerful pair of new singles that tackle systemic change in honor of Juneteenth, which has been celebrated since the 1800s by African Americans across the country to commemorate the end of slavery. From the forthcoming album Trip the Night Fantastic (out July 31 via Candid Records), “Abolition Song” and “Solidarity Song” are out now

Featuring renowned civil rights activist Angela Y. Davis, emcee Kassa Overall, and vocalist Debo Ray, “Abolition Song” draws on Fannie Lou Hamer’s wisdom to advocate for transformative justice and her potent phrase: “Nobody’s free until everybody is free.” It is paired with “Solidarity Song,” a satirical, country blues track featuring legendary R&B singer Miki Howard, who plays the Black woman who “Ain’t takin’ no mess” from the white guy – GRAMMY-nominated jazz musician Larry Goldings – who’s "protecting” what’s “his.” Together, these tracks explore the prison-industrial complex and partisan division, using provocative lyrics and sophisticated grooves to champion collective liberation.

The moodier “Solidarity Song” is a brilliant parody of the “left” and “right” of America, who in the end come together, ultimately realizing that they have a shared enemy. “They realize that their differences can be exploited to keep them fighting against each other and distracted from the common forces of oppression,” shares Carrington. “The song, which also features guitarist Marc Ribot, seeks to enlighten both “sides” to the fact that we’re stronger together.”

In an exclusive with FLOOD, Carrington explains, “Both ‘Solidarity Song’ and ‘Abolition Song‘ speak to the spirit of Juneteenth and the struggle for justice in America. ‘Solidarity Song,’ written by Matthew Stevens and myself, is a parody that sketches the interaction between two people of opposing views that starts off rocky, but ends well with an understanding that they have more in common than they thought and that ‘the system’ doesn’t really care about either of them. This is where we are now in our current political landscape. Understanding the struggle of others requires empathy, courage, and curiosity. Forces of division and distraction will always be present for fear of a solid unification of the working class.”

“And ‘Abolition Song,’” she continues, “is like an intro to the idea of rejecting the punitive justice system and replacing it with ideas of how to care for everyone so that this system becomes obsolete. The U.S. holds a disproportionate percentage of the world's prison population, disproportionately impacting low-income communities and people of color. The song asks, ‘Where is the love?’ When America decides to take care of all of its people, and rejects greed and hatred, the for-profit prison system will fall, allowing the focus to be on human dignity, transformative justice and systemic change.”

Miki Howard adds, “What a great pleasure it was to work with the legendary Terri Lyne Carrington in the studio on ‘Solidarity Song.’ Terri creates purposeful music. Music that not only inspires but documents the times. Music that will last forever. I’m impressed with the endless passion Terri brings to each song, the respect for the songs’ needs, abandoning the complaints of ‘critics’ or conventional restraints or commercialism. To serve the song is the goal. I know ‘Solidarity Song’ will be a timely offering and will inspire more love. Thank you Terri for sharing your love.”

More info on Trip The Night Fantastic here

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Elsa Nilsson’s Band of Pulses Channels Change on New Album Liminal, out June 12 via Adhyâropa Records

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Flutist and composer Elsa Nilsson explores the "in-between" on Liminal, her new album with Band of Pulses, releasing on June 12 via Adhyâropa Records. Nilsson's 15th release as a leader and fourth with Band of Pulses, Liminal features adventurous and singular flutist Nilsson alongside pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Rodrigo Recabarren for an eight-part exploration that examines decision-making through the internal processes and actions that shape life-altering choices, both personal and collective.

"Liminality has been at the front of my mind recently," Nilsson states. "I've become fascinated with the in-betweens." The in-betweens — those transitional or initial stages of a process — serve as the inspiration behind the Brooklyn-based musician's most personal album yet. Composed entirely by Nilsson, each piece reflects a distinct phase within the cognitive process of navigating a significant turning point. Central to Liminal is Nilsson's observation that the mechanisms behind major life decisions operate the same way at both the personal and societal level: "I find it interesting how the mechanisms of making big, life-changing decisions are the same on both the micro and macro level of the human experience." Just as the Fibonacci sequence appears across nature, the internal processes Nilsson observed in herself mirror those she sees in the broader currents of social and political life.

Nilsson looked inward on Liminal, creating it during an eventful time personally, including the dissolution of a long-term relationship. The music reaches outward from that experience, connecting personal upheaval to the collective disillusionment of the times. "Music captures what it feels like to be alive in the moment when it is created, both on the personal and the societal level," she explains. The resulting eight tracks form an artful exploration of complex emotional terrain that is at once intimate and universal.

Across Liminal, each composition represents a distinct stage within a broader process of transformation. The album opens with "Andetag" (Swedish for "breath"), a meditation on gathering strength before confronting something difficult. Whether that hard thing is a personal truth or a larger social reality, Nilsson frames the breath as an act of preparation, the inhale of spirit required before any meaningful change can begin. Drawing from chemistry, "‡ Transition State" captures the suspended, high-energy moment before irreversible change, where doubt and momentum coexist. As Nilsson notes, these transition states exist in political and social life too: the interval between an election and an inauguration, or the time between a decision and its execution, are spaces where something significant is clearly happening, but its meaning only becomes legible in hindsight.

"Not Said, Not Heard" reflects the internal pressure of attempting to normalize the unlivable, tracing the psychological strain of cognitive dissonance as it accumulates and reshapes one's inner and outer world. Like a wave hitting a rocky beach, the flashpoints that expose this tension cover everything momentarily before sinking into consciousness, eventually forcing a reckoning with a new reality. That tension gives way to "Capacity," which oscillates between periods of perceived calm and explosion, illustrating the breaking point once cognitive dissonance has reached its limit. The piece also speaks to the uneven way this pressure is distributed: some are shielded from uncomfortable realities by circumstance or privilege, while for others, the personal and societal collide in ways that cannot be ignored.

On "Yesterday's Promise," shifting perspectives are embodied through a flexible bass line, mirroring the fragile negotiation between holding one's ground and losing oneself in compromise. The bass represents a shared reality, while everything around it bends, illustrating how the same set of facts can be interpreted in entirely different directions when certain truths go unaddressed. Nilsson shifts gears on the next composition: "1 year, 10 months, 3 days for Ahmaud Arbery." A flashpoint in both her personal and social reckoning, the piece was written on November 24th, exactly 1 year, 10 months and 3 days after Ahmaud Arbery was shot while going for a run. The compositional structure reflects that date, with the first part comprising 24 bars and the second 11 bars (24/11). "There is a point, a moment, a switch in every liminal state that creates an understanding," Nilsson explains. "These are the points from which we can imagine a different reality, where we step into the next version of our existence. Rage can be the fire that burns through illusions." She adds plainly: "I went for a run today without getting shot. That should be true for everyone. I don't find this to be a political or inflammatory statement, just a statement of fact."

"Mourning For Two," based on the call of the mourning dove woven into the melody, considers grief as an active, necessary process: the work of accepting the world as it is rather than as one wishes it to be. As Azita Ardakani Walton said: "Grief is a digestive enzyme." There is discomfort, Nilsson suggests, in honestly viewing one's own agency, or lack thereof, in a world one wishes were different. But that acceptance is a precondition for change. The album closes with "Stepping Away," a quiet but resolute emergence into selfhood, leaving behind systems, beliefs, and structures that no longer hold. "Allowing grief to peel away layers of identity and leave us standing with who we really are," she says, "...stepping into our own strength and moving toward an unknown life ahead."

On Liminal, most striking is the musical interplay between Nilsson, Leibson, Recabarren and Kenney, perfected by years of collaboration. Leibson, who hails from Argentina, most recently worked with Nilsson in duet on Quila Quina -40°17'38.21"S, -71°45'68.48"W, the second volume of her expansive Atlas of Sound series, while Chilean drummer Recabarren has been a long-standing member in many of Nilsson's ensembles since 2020. With the addition of wide-ranging bassist Kenney, Band of Pulses showcases four major creative forces on the New York jazz and improvised music scene at their peak. Their debut album as an ensemble, Pulses, was praised as "original, heartfelt and reaching" by Allen Michie of The Arts Fuse.

Liminal adds to Nilsson's growing discography, which reflects her astute perspective informed by deep research and immersion. Her eclectic recorded history includes the aforementioned Atlas of Sound series, which brings listeners into specific geographic locations through a multimedia approach; several albums with the Esthesis Quartet, of which she is a co-leader; and her social justice-tinged Hindsight, inspired by protests following the 2016 election. Like her previous projects, for Liminal she consulted various texts including Clarissa Pinkola Estés' The Women Who Run With The Wolves and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.

"At times, things move as slow as molasses and simultaneously too fast to be noticed," Elsa says. "I believe one of the magical aspects of music is its ability to hold each gradient of a moment for long enough that we can fully experience and observe it." With Liminal, Nilsson gives shape to the in-between, translating lived experience into a clear and deeply human musical statement.

Elsa Nilsson website click here

Thank you to Lydia Liebman for sharing with us

We Dream is the new studio album by New York–based alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin. Conceived as a deeply band-driven project, her sixth album and Artwork Records debut, out June 5, centers on Benjamin’s frequent collaborators in pianists Oscar Pérez and Miki Hayama and bassist Elias Bailey — along with new associates in trumpeter Sean Jones, and drummer Jonathan Barber — alongside an expansive cast of guest collaborators drawn from across jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and experimental music.

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“It does, as usual, have some of my guest flair,” Benjamin explains. “But this time, it’s for a different purpose.” Following the arc of 2023’s Phoenix and 2025’s Grammy-nominated, standalone single “Noble Rise,” We Dream reflects what Benjamin describes as a shift in perspective — a response to the present moment and the world around her. “It felt like that story couldn’t go all the way, given the state of the world,” she says. “So I started thinking about the idea of being a bright light in a dark space. Things feel really dark right now — everywhere — and we’re trying to be that light.”

Rather than assembling guests for ornamentation, Benjamin approached the project as a collective statement, bringing together artists she admires for their capacity to evolve, innovate, and reshape musical language. Her self-described team of “Avengers” includes trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah; saxophonist Chris Potter; drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts; pianist Hiromi; the Roots’ Black Thought; vocalists Bilal and Tiaranna “Tank” Ball of Tank and the Bangas; and drummer and producer Kassa Overall.

When describing her collaborators, Benjamin emphasizes that they are not bound by genre, pointing instead to artists who have reshaped music through sound, presentation, and the spaces in which it can exist.

We Dream arrives after a period of heightened visibility for Benjamin. After years working with artists including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Prince, Missy Elliott, Anita Baker, Gregory Porter, Kool & the Gang, and The Roots, she redefined her artistic direction with 2020’s Pursuance: The Coltranes, a guest-driven project honoring John and Alice Coltrane as parallel creative forces. Released during the pandemic, the album marked a turning point — reconnecting Benjamin’s work to lineage, spirituality, and personal responsibility during a moment of global pause.

She followed Pursuance with Phoenix, recorded after surviving a near-fatal car accident. The album proved a breakthrough, earning multiple Grammy nominations — including Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Best Instrumental Composition (“Amerikkan Skin”), and Best Jazz Performance (“Basquiat”) — and expanding both the scale and audience for her work.

Phoenix’s sister album, Phoenix Reimagined (Live) — announced on national TV by Stephen Colbert while she sat in with the Late Show Band — was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Jazz Performance. At the forthcoming 2026 ceremony, Benjamin is nominated for Best Jazz Performance for the standalone single “Noble Rise,” featuring fellow alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.

Musically, We Dream unfolds as a cinematic, poem-driven journey. The album opens with the mesmerizing, tenacious spoken word piece “First Light.” This segues into  “Beyond the Dawn,” featuring Terence Blanchard alongside Sean Jones, Barber’s mallet work, and a spoken-word invocation by Benjamin that sets the album’s tone — part meditation, part reckoning. The music then surges forward, channeling intensity, propulsion, and forward motion.

Throughout the record, Benjamin blends spoken word, groove-based writing, and high-energy improvisation. “My Only,” featuring Jones, explores isolation and endurance. “Mi Gente,” with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, centers community and cultural exchange, grounded in rhythm and collective movement.

“Dream Breaker,” featuring Watts, Potter, and Jones, pushes the music into a more combustible space, while “Flamekeeper,” with Hiromi and Potter, accelerates through force, volume, and extended exchange — reflecting Benjamin’s admiration for artists “who are not standing still, who are pushing forward, who are innovating.”

The album’s title track, “We Dream,” features spoken word and vocals by Tiaranna “Tank” Ball, whose narrative presence shapes the composition’s emotional arc. Later, “Right Now” brings together Bilal and Kassa Overall in what Benjamin describes as the record’s dramatic peak, where lyric, rhythm, and improvisation converge. The closing track, “New World,” offers a quieter resolution — a glimpse of the light Benjamin set out to find.

Across We Dream, Benjamin situates jazz within a broader cultural landscape, reflecting her growing presence at festivals where jazz shares the stage with DJs, reggae acts, and genre-defying artists. But genre aside, it stands as a bold, intentional artistic statement — one that insists on forward motion, collective imagination, and the power of sound to illuminate even the darkest spaces.

 Lakecia Benjamin website

Thank you to Lydia Liebman for sharing with us