For the month of May, Sistas’ Place celebrates the exciting Kujichagulia/Sankofa Festival. On May 16, master drummer Andrew Cyrille (who spent 15 years with the innovative Cecil Taylor) leads a celebration in honor of the inventive cornetist and composer Olu Dara. On Saturday, May 23, the venue will premiere a new collective ensemble featuring Pheeroan akLaff, Jay Rodriguez, Stomu Takeishi, and Ricardo Gallo. On May 30, Mike Monford and AfroFuturistic Ether, featuring Kenyatta Beasley, Willerm Delisfort, Alex Blake and Warren Trae Crudup, celebrate African Liberation Day; and on June 13, Mejedi Owusu comes through with the Sharp Radway Trio.
This year, for May, African Liberation Month will pay tribute to one of the Kwanzaa principles of the Nguzo Saba created by Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga in 1966 — the principle of Self-Determination, known in Swahili as Kujichagulia. Tribute will also be paid to the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa looking back to the Wildflowers Recordings, an event that happened 50 years ago. The recordings were made at Studio RivBea from May 14 through May 23 in 1976 on the Lower East Side during the Loft creative music scene.
The Loft Jazz scene was a response to avant-garde and Black artists’ exclusion from mainstream festivals like Newport Jazz. Musicians organized their own spaces and festivals, emphasizing self-determination, community control, and cultural autonomy, as exemplified by the New York Musicians Association and the principles of Kujichagulia and Sankofa.
“Also, specifically, we want to acknowledge Sam Rivers and Bea Rivers, Patricia Ali and Rashied Ali for creating venues [Studio RivBea and Ali’s Alley, respectively] that allowed musicians opportunities to perform and develop their careers when there was nowhere else for them to hone their crafts,” said trumpeter and composer Ahmed Abdullah, the curator of the month-long festival. “We must remain proactive and continue to build our institutions. The trumpeter with his Diaspora ensemble featuring poet/vocalist Monique Ngozi Nri opened the festival last week with a rousing performance to a sold-out audience. For reservations call 718-398-1766. Two shows at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
If you consider the silly notion that Jazz is dead or is losing its potency, take a ride to Washington Heights and have a chat with Eli Yamin, co-founder, as well as managing and artistic director of Jazz Power Initiative (JPI). I was so impressed some years ago by his program that I became a supporter, checking out an array of aspiring youngsters performing in jazz, theater and the arts. Yamin is like a roaring comet, who constantly inspires me.
For the past 22 years, JPI’s unique approach to jazz education has combined jazz, theater, and performance to engage young people and expand access to arts education, particularly in the uptown African American and Latin American communities central to jazz’s origins.
This year, JPI’s annual fundraiser, Syncopated Celebration on May 14, will be hosted by multi-Grammy winner bassist Christian McBride. The honorees this year represent those who create, present, curate and support the arts and jazz in particular, they are: Grammy-nominated saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, WBGO President & CEO Steve Williams, and Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa. The event will take place at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, 250 West 95th Street, Manhattan at 6 p.m.
Jazz Power is also celebrating the recently announced partnership with WBGO Radio, the global leader in Jazz. The two organizations have a shared commitment to “curate, preserve, present, and teach jazz as a living force for personal growth, community connection, and cultural understanding.” The Jazz Journalists Association will present Yamin with the 2026 Jazz Heroes Award for his many years of community service and perseverance in spreading this music called jazz from active participation to classroom studies; being a bandleader and pianist with his quartet blues band; and as cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State in Russia, Guatemala, Montenegro, and Mali. For tickets visit jazzpower.org.
Trombonist and composer Clifton Anderson’s jaunting tones swing beyond the simplicity of just listening. As a student of metaphysics, his performance goal is to have music energy just flow through him. “I try to be organic and just let it flow. I want my music to be devoid of external things and rely on my creative expression, we have an infinite reservoir to draw from,” said Anderson.
The trombonist says his uncle, saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins, is one of those rare artists who played in a metaphysical state, very spontaneous, consistently playing in every moment. These were magical moments he enjoyed as a constant member of Sonny’s band over a 20-year period and appearing on over a dozen of his albums.
For Anderson’s upcoming May 15 set at Iridium (1650 Broadway) 8:30 p.m., he will be joined by such artistic heavyweights as saxophonist Antoine Roney, bassist Belden Bullock, pianist Hector Martignon, drummer Steve Johns, and percussionist Victor See Yuen. Although he hasn’t played a major NYC jazz club in five years or more, the consummate composer assures me he has more than enough material. He will be ready with new compositions, new originals, and material from his previous four albums, flowing distinctive trombone nuances that intensify on high romping tunes and ballads that become whispering shouts in the dark. For reservations visit theiridium.com.