Can’t wait for Saturday’s Wine & Jazz festivities? Start your fun early in our beautiful Open Air Theatre with a special nighttime Wine & Jazz All Stars performance featuring bandleaders from past and present Wine & Jazz Festivals.
Performers
Lakecia Benjamin
Voted the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, charismatic and dynamic saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin fuses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip hop, and soul. With her electric presence and fiery sax work, Benjamin has shared stages with several legendary artists, including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, and The Roots.
Harold López-Nussa
Recognized as “the future of Latin jazz” by The Times (UK), pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa begins an exciting new chapter with his Blue Note Records debut, Timba a la Americana. Inspired by his recent decision to leave his Cuban homeland and start a new life in France, this vibrant album brims with both joy and pathos.
Endea Owens
Emmy, Grammy, and George Foster Peabody Award winner Endea Owens is a Detroit-raised recording artist, bassist, and composer, and a member of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert house band, led by Louis Cato. Owens’ work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy Award-winning album We Are, Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, and H.E.R.’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance. In 2020, Owens founded The Community Cookout, a nonprofit organization that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods worldwide. The 2023 Mac Music Innovator with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Owens is also the curator for the National Arts Club and fellow for “Jazzis Now!” with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
Justin Faulkner
Philadelphia native, drummer, educator, and philanthropist Justin Faulkner has cultivated a sound that invites, entertains, informs, and heals. Throughout his career, Faulkner has shared the stage with musical luminaries like Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Peter Nero, Jimmy Heath, Bootsy Collins, Robert Glasper, Orrin Evans, Ornette Coleman, Sean Jones, Tim Warfield, Bernard Purdie, Pharoah Saunders, Terence Blanchard, Mingus Big Band/Dynasty/Orchestra, Bootsie Barnes, Jacky Terrasson, Terrence Howard, Bilal, and Christian McBride and continues to be the drummer of choice for numerous others.
Etienne Charles
Known for his lush trumpet sound, Trinidad-born Etienne Charles is a performer, composer, and storyteller, who is constantly searching for untold tales and sounds with which to tell them. Charles has been a featured bandleader at the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals and Carnegie Hall; as a sideman he has performed with and/or arranged for Roberta Flack, Chucho Valdes, Marcus Roberts, Marcus Miller, Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Big Band, Monty Alexander, Gregory Porter, Terri Lyne Carrington, René Marie, Paulette McWilliams, and many others. He has been commissioned as a composer and arranger by Lincoln Center for the New York Philharmonic (2021), Savannah Music Festival (2017), Chamber Music America (2015 & 2021), the Charleston Jazz Orchestra (2012), and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (2011). He currently serves as Associate Professor of Studio Music and Jazz at University of Miami Frost School of Music.