BRIC JazzFest

Adrian Younge is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, composer, and orchestrator who has produced for entertainment greats such as Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Wu-Tang Clan.

In 2007, Younge left his position as a professor of law to become part of the Black Dynamite phenomenon, serving as the film’s editor and composer. Hailed as a modern blaxploitation masterpiece, the soundtrack was named one of the top 10 best soundtracks of the year by the Los Angeles Times.

In 2011, Younge released the album Something About April, which showcased a dark mix of psychedelic soul and cinematic instrumentals. In 2013, the project was sampled twice by Timbaland for Jay-Z’s Magna Carta... Holy Grail, solidifying Younge’s status as a new and distinct voice in hip-hop. His work has also been sampled by artists including No I.D., DJ Premier, Schoolboy Q, and others.

Younge owns and operates Linear Labs, a recording studio and label that reflects his dedication to analog recording. The label uses analog tape and live instrumentation exclusively. Under Linear Labs, he has produced projects for artists such as Ghostface Killah, Souls of Mischief, and The Delfonics.

In 2017, Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest formed the band The Midnight Hour. In addition to releasing music and touring, they have collaborated to score numerous television and film projects. These include Marvel’s Luke Cage (Netflix), Raising Kanan (Starz), The Equalizer (CBS), Reasonable Doubt (Hulu), Run This Town (2019), Washington Black (2023), Boogie (2021), and Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James (2021). Younge has also scored Black Dynamite (2009), the Black Dynamite animated series (2012), California King (2023), The Big Payback (2023), Queens (ABC), All Rise (OWN), and Human Footprint (PBS).

In 2019, Younge, Muhammad, Andrew Lojero, and Adam Block founded Jazz Is Dead (JID), a multimedia company specializing in live concerts, studio albums, and film and television production. JID has built a loyal fanbase through national and international tours. Under the label, Younge and Muhammad have produced albums with their musical heroes, including Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gary Bartz, Jean Carne, Marcos Valle, and Tony Allen.

In February 2021, Younge released The American Negro, a seminal project and his most important work to date. Paired with his Amazon Original podcast Invisible Blackness and his short film TAN, the project offers an unapologetic critique of the evolution of racism in America. The podcast features conversations with guests such as Chuck D, Roy Choi, Dr. Melina Abdullah, Wayne Brady, and Mahershala Ali. For Younge, the message is more important than the music.

Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott) is a two-time Edison Award winner, six-time Grammy Award nominee, and recipient of the Doris Duke Award in the Arts. He is a sonic architect, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and designer of innovative technologies and musical instruments. These include the Stretch Music App, the Adjuah Trumpet, the Siren and Sirenette, Chief Adjuah’s Bow, and Chief Adjuah’s N’Goni. He is also the founder and CEO of the Stretch Music App and Recording Company.

Adjuah is Chieftain and Oba of the Xodokan Nation and currently serves as the Grand Griot of New Orleans. He is the grandson of Louisiana luminary and legend, the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., and Guardians Institute founder and Grand Griot Herreast Harrison. He is also the nephew of jazz innovator and NEA Jazz Master saxophonist-composer Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. In 1989, at the age of five, Adjuah and his twin brother Kiel joined their grandfather’s Guardians of the Flame banner.

Since 2001, Adjuah has released thirteen critically acclaimed studio albums, four live recordings, and one greatest hits collection. He is widely recognized as the creator of the “Stretch Music” style, a 21st-century approach that embraces genre fluidity and an ethnomusicological method of limitless fusion. NPR described him as "ushering in a new era of jazz," while JazzTimes called him “jazz’s young style god” and “the architect of a commercially viable fusion.”

Adjuah has collaborated with artists such as Prince, Thom Yorke, McCoy Tyner, Marcus Miller, Flea, Eddie Palmieri, Robert Glasper, Mos Def (Yasiin Bey), Talib Kweli, and poet-musician Saul Williams. He also scores music for the filmic works of his identical twin brother, writer-director and visual artist Kiel Adrian Scott. Scott is a Directors Guild of America Award recipient whose work has earned honors from The Peabody Awards and the NAACP Image Awards.

Recent projects for Adjuah include a film and brand partnership with PBS American Masters for the short film The New Chief, JAZZFM’s Innovator/Innovation of the Year Award, the Jazz Journalists Association Trumpeter of the Year Award, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Paul Ackett Award, and Echo: Deutscher Musikpreis. He has also received numerous DownBeat Magazine Critics and Readers Poll honors for Best Composer, Best Trumpet, and Best Electric Jazz-Rock Contemporary Group. His multiple Grammy nominations span categories including Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

In 2017, Adjuah starred in GAP’s Skate Meet Horn campaign. The following year, he led 1800 Tequila & Billboard Present: The Refined Players. He made a cameo appearance in Bill and Ted Face the Music, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, where he played a member of The Future Council and contributed the music for the Louis Armstrong character. He is also featured in both film and sound in the romantic drama The Photograph, starring Issa Rae.

Adjuah was inducted into the inaugural constituency of the Black Genius Brain Trust, received the Changing Worlds Peacemaker Award, and was honored with the Doris Duke Award in the Arts. In 2023, he became the youngest person and only Chieftain to hold the position of Grand Griot of New Orleans. He also became the face of the first-ever BMW XM, starring in BMW’s #fortheXminded campaign that celebrated the launch of the vehicle.

Dedicated to community causes, Adjuah gives his time and talents to numerous organizations, which earned him recognition in Ebony Magazine’s "30 Young Leaders Under 30" nearly a decade ago. His ongoing support includes work with Each One Save One, NO/AIDS Task Force, Girls First, The Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, Good Work Network, Black Lives Matter, Changing Worlds, the Acres of Ancestry Initiative, and many more.

He regularly offers master classes, serves on discussion panels, creates content, and purchases instruments for youth music programs and individual young musicians. Adjuah has worked with the Guardians Institute in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, an organization focused on reading and financial literacy, cultural preservation, and community empowerment through the participation of elders and artists. He currently sits on the board of The NOCCA Institute.

Since his emergence, Adjuah has been a passionate advocate for human rights and a vocal critic of injustice around the world.

Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics.

A multi-hyphenate polymath and fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, and throughout the 70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie. After a foray into the pop world during the 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to Jazz.

Bridgewater began self-producing with her 1993 album Keeping Tradition (Polydor/Verve) and created DDB Records in 2006 when she signed with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces all of her own CDs). Releasing a series of critically-acclaimed CD's, all but one, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella - have received Grammy nominations. Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz in 1975. Having recently completed a run as the lead role of Billie Holiday in the off-Broadway production of Lady Day, her other theatrical credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret and the Off-Broadway and West End Productions of Lady Day, for which Bridgewater received the British Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She also served as the namesake host of the long-running syndicated NPR radio program JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater, produced by Becca Puliiam for WBGO.

As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. In April 2017, she was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In December 2017, Bridgewater was presented with the ASCAP Foundation Champions award acknowledging her charitable contributions.

In 2018, Bridgewater received the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award. 2019 brought her induction in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in recognition of her contributions to music and in celebration of her latest CD, Memphis, Yes...I'm Ready. That same year, Bridgewater launched The Woodshed Network, a non-profit partnership with 651 Arts created to mentor, connect, support, and educate women in Jazz. Bridgewater serves as Artistic Director with lead support by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

2020 found Dee Dee hosting the first virtual NEA Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert. Following the success of the event, in 2021, she again hosted the 2021 Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert, this time alongside venerable actor Delroy Lindo. In 2022, Lindo again joined Bridgewater to host the inaugural Jazz Music Awards. In 2023, Bridgewater oversaw the 4th year of The Woodshed Network program and can be found touring worldwide with her Dee Dee Bridgewater Big Band, Quartet, and in duo with Grammy-winning pianist Bill Charlap.

Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist, composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear broader creativity shining through: It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t fit. 

Garcia’s sophomore album Odyssey, out in September 2024 via Concord Jazz, is a majestic feat on which she blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz, broken beat and dub, resulting in a grand, nuanced record that feels airy and celestial without sacrificing the groove. It’s a deeply personal offering about her trek to falling back in love with musical composition over the past four years. 

Source, her 2020 debut album, was released via Concord Jazz to massive critical acclaim, an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, a Pitchfork “Best New Music” review and a Rolling Stone “Album of the Month” mention. In a profile, The New York Times called Source “a sweeping set of jazz with Afro-Caribbean influences that funnels a life’s worth of experiences into an hourlong listen.” Alsoupon release, the album entered the UK charts in the Top 30, and she was just one of three artistsselected to perform live at Glastonbury’s 2020 Experience, which aired on the BBC to thousands ofviewers. Source was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, a prestigious award given to the best albums from the UK or Ireland. 

In 2022, Garcia toured the US in support of Khruangbin, performing in sold-out venues includingRadio City Music Hall in New York, the Ryman in Nashville and the Met in Philadelphia. She thenheadlined her own tour in the UK and US, performing at various festivals including Glastonbury,Love Supreme, Pickathon and Newport Jazz. 

Garcia continues to tour worldwide while also collaborating with major brands like Lululemon, Paul Smith, Labrum, Nicholas Daley and Burberry. She was one of three creatives selected for Fossil’s “Moment In Time” campaign, which was published globally in VOGUE, GQ, and GLAMOUR magazines. Elsewhere, Garcia has been featured in numerous print publications, including Mojo,Vogue and Ebony. 

As a composer, Garcia’s original music has been placed with Apple TV (Ted Lasso); OWN Network (Cherish The Day); FX TV (Atlanta); EPIC GAMES (Fortnite); and on multiple podcasts (including the theme tune for Anika Noni Rose’s Clio award-winning podcast Being Seen).

In this highly-anticipated collaboration, South African vocalist Vuyo Sotashe and American pianist/composer Chris Pattishall come together for an intimate and soulful evening of duets. Mainstays of the NYC music scene over the last decade, Sotashe and Pattishall have each contributed to a wide range of projects spanning jazz, gospel, theater, and film.

Since moving to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, Sotashe has performed with celebrated jazz legends including Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Barry Harris, and Winard Harper. He has appeared at Montreux Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Fest, Joy of Jazz, and Arcevia Jazz Festival. Described as “a bright tenor that can easily spring from sonorous depths to the full-bodied top of his impressive range” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Sotashe made his off-Broadway debut in the Public Theater's production of Black Light.

Chris has established himself as “an expert at using the jazz tradition as a jumping off-point for experimentation” (JazzTimes) and his debut album Zodiac was called “a startling achievement” (The New York Times) and “a hell of a debut album” (Stereogum). He is a featured performer on a wide range of recordings, from the GRAMMY-nominated debut album of Jamison Ross to the film scores of Knives Out, Nightmare Alley, and the indie sensation Everything Everywhere All At Once. He co-composed the score to the Emmy-winning documentary Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project with Samora Pinderhughes.

Together, Sotashe and Pattishall make music with a hushed vulnerability, a quiet invocation of community in the midst of turbulent times. In a program that will range from the American masters of Duke Ellington and Nina Simone to South African Xhosa hymns and Stevie Wonder, Sotashe and Pattishall bring the healing power of music to the forefront.

Known as one of Jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists, Endea Owens is a Detroit-raised Recording Artist, Bassist, and Composer. She has been mentored by Jazz Icons the likes of  Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter. She has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross, Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jon Batiste, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Cyrus Chestnut to name a few.

In 2018, Endea graduated from The Juilliard School, and joined the Late Show with Stephen Colbertas a member of the house band, Stay Human. Since then, Endea has won an Emmy, Grammy Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Endea’s 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.

Endea has a true passion for philanthropy and teaching. She has taught students across the United States, South America, and Europe. In 2020, Endea founded The Community Cookout, a non-profit organization birthed out of the Covid-19 pandemic that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods worldwide. To date, Endea’s organization has helped feed over 6,000 people.

In 2022, Endea composed an original piece about the life of Ida B. Wells entitled “Ida’s Crusade” for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and was also performed by the NYO Carnegie Hall Orchestra. Endea has written for brands such as Pyer Moss and Glossier. Endea also premiered a newly commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the2023 MAC Music Innovator with the organization. In addition to her work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Endea is the curator for the National Arts Club and also a fellow for “Jazzis Now!” with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, where she presents original compositions,curates series, and headlines performances for the 2022-2023 season. Endea’s debut album“Feel Good Music” has recently been released this past September.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Karriem Riggins found sanctuary in music from an early age. His father, Emmanuel Riggins, played with the renowned Grant Green Band; he introduced Karriem to many jazz greats and their shared passion for creativity and precision. With a foundation of work ethic, and a flair for the playful, Karriem developed his art into an industrious career as a drummer, record producer, rapper, and DJ.

Karriem’s depth of sound, ranging from the pioneering to the nostalgic, can only come from a deep understanding of the human experience. He feels that the blessing of music is found in the sincere care put into its creation, and its ability to touch people and inspire. Whether he’s working with his hip hop supergroup collective, August Greene (alongside Common and Robert Glasper), or as Jahari Massamba Unit (his jazz duo with Madlib), Riggins is sure to show his far-reaching range. Among his prolific list of collaborations and accolades, Riggins holds an Emmy award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, was nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy for his production with H.E.R., and has also lent his talent to Paul McCartney, Ray Brown, Stevie Wonder, J. Dilla, The Roots, Norah Jones, and Erykah Badu. His work with these cultural giants places Riggins among the few producers with the balance of vision, style, and technical prowess to steer effortlessly between the most revered players in jazz, hip-hop, and R&B.

SAHA GNAWA brings North African futurism to the United States, uniting the founders of Innov Gnawa with leading figures from New York City's jazz and contemporary music scenes to reimagine modern Gnawa music.

Often referred to as “Sufi Blues,” Gnawa is rooted in Morocco’s ancient history. Over centuries, infectious rhythms and polytheistic spiritual beliefs originating from West African slaves merged with Islam and indigenous Moroccan culture, giving rise to a hybrid spiritual sect and musical tradition. The lyrics of Gnawa songs are prayers that invoke saints and spirits, seeking freedom and liberation. Throughout Morocco, Gnawa music is deeply revered for its soulfulness and healing power.

The ensemble is co-led by Maâlem Hassan Ben Jaâfer, a master musician continuing a legacy passed down through generations. He is the son of the esteemed Maâlem Abdullah Benjaafar of Fes. Trained in his father’s officially recognized Gnawa school and by master musicians across Morocco, Ben Jaâfer earned the title of Maâlem as a teenager, a distinction granted only with the consensus of other masters. He performs on vocals and guembri, a three-stringed bass lute, and has collaborated with artists such as Randy Weston. He also leads the Grammy-nominated group Innov Gnawa.

Co-leader Daniel Freedman, a drummer and composer, brings decades of experience working with artists including David Byrne and Angélique Kidjo, along with a deep knowledge of musical traditions from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. The ensemble also features Amino Belyamani (Innov Gnawa, Dawn of Midi) and David Lizmi (Innov Gnawa, Bombino) on qraqebs and backing vocals, Jason Lindner (David Bowie, Now vs Now) on keys and synths, and Guilherme Monteiro (Gal Costa, Forró in the Dark) and Gilad Hekselman on guitars.

Refined through late-night sessions at LunÀtico in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, SAHA GNAWA explores trance-like states through intuitive interplay. Ancestral rhythms and melodies are allowed to stretch and transform, drifting into uncharted sonic territory. The result is both a faithful expression of centuries-old Gnawa tradition and a bold expansion into new musical dimensions, where traditional song forms flow into ecstatic dance tracks infused with subtle electronics.

Their self-titled debut album features guest appearances by Nels Cline's textural brilliance on "Hamudah," Abraham Rodriguez's Yoruba invocations on "Tbal," and Donny McCaslin's interstellar saxophone layered over Roman Diaz's congas on "Negshah."

SAHA GNAWA’s self-titled album will be released on Pique-Nique in spring 2025.

Meklit is an Ethiopian-American vocalist, songwriter, and composer known for her electric stage presence, innovative Ethio-Jazz sound, and vibrant cultural strategy.

Her performances have taken her to stages around the world and to the top of world music charts across the United States, Europe, and Ethiopia. She is a visiting artist and lecturer at Stanford University, a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, a Taproot Fellow, and the winner of the globalFEST Artist Award. Meklit is also the co-founder, host, and co-producer of Movement, a podcast, radio series, and live show that tells stories of music and migration. The show broadcasts monthly on PRX’s The World to 2.5 million listeners.

Meklit has collaborated with renowned artists including Wangechi Mutu, Kronos Quartet, Andrew Bird, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the late musical legend Pee Wee Ellis, and NASA’s Jon Jenkins. She has received commissions to create new works from Lincoln Center, MAP Fund, Creative Work Fund, and many others. She is also the former Chief of Program at YBCA.

She has been an artist-in-residence at Harvard, a featured voice in UN Women’s theme song, and the co-founder of the Nile Project. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, CNN, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Sunday Times UK, Wired Magazine, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vibe Magazine, Boston Globe, and many more.

Fusing Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk, and global rhythms in songs about immigration, resistance, and love, OKAN takes its name from the word for "heart" in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería. With vocals in Spanish, Yoruba, and Spanglish, OKAN is led by Cuban-born violinist and vocalist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist and vocalist Magdelys Savigne, both Grammy and Latin Grammy nominees.

Having performed and recorded with artists such as Bomba Estéreo, Lido Pimienta, the Halifax Symphony Orchestra, Hilario Durán, and Daymé Arocena, OKAN’s recent release Okantomi received the 2024 Juno Award, marking the band’s second Juno recognition. The album was also included in NPR Alt.Latino, Le Monde, and CBC Music’s “Best of 2023” lists and garnered critical praise from Songlines (UK), Billboard, PopMatters, and JAZZIZ.

New Jazz Underground, an American trio known for their innovative blend of traditional jazz and modern influences, rose to prominence through viral videos showcasing their fresh sound and tight-knit chemistry. Comprised of Abdias Armenteros, Sebastian Rios, and TJ Reddick, the trio met at The Juilliard School and quickly built a devoted following on YouTube, amassing over 90,000 subscribers. Their music reflects a deep reverence for jazz icons while fearlessly pushing genre boundaries.

Winners of the 2023 DCJazzPrix and recipients of individual accolades such as Rios’ 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, the trio continues to define a bold new voice in jazz. Armenteros is the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Reddick and Rios have performed alongside luminaries like Jon Batiste, Wynton Marsalis, and Emmet Cohen. Their growing demand speaks to their captivating talent. Rios, in particular, stands out for his compositional vision, crafting pieces that elevate the trio’s collective musical identity.

Beyond their live performances, New Jazz Underground is redefining how jazz is experienced through independently produced online videos. Often attracting millions of viewers, these performances blend authenticity, tradition, and modern aesthetics. The trio’s commitment to mentorship and education is reflected in initiatives like Rios’ program Creative Video in Modern Music, which supports the next generation of jazz artists. With dynamic performances and multifaceted artistry, New Jazz Underground stands at the forefront of a new generation, revitalizing the contemporary jazz landscape.