By Ayana Contreras, DownBeat
Lakecia Benjamin’s approach to jazz is influenced by the belief that Black music of all genres has a shared lineage.The bandleader said she first picked up a saxophone at the age of 11, but “it wasn’t until I got to high school that I started getting into jazz.” She grew up in a primarily Dominican section of Manhattan, initially playing “a lot of merengue and salsa music,” but also was exposed to soul artists like James Brown and Sly Stone. Read the full feature here.