Soweto Kinch All-Stars

Due to scheduling conflicts with Soweto Kinch’s White Juju ensemble, Saturday, May 21st concert programming is changing to Soweto Kinch All-Stars.

The London-born saxophonist and rapper is seamlessly aligned with jazz and hip-hop. A progenitor and leader of the burgeoning British jazz scene, he is equal parts John Coltrane and Public Enemy. Kinch has “a commanding way of looking at jazz, at hip-hop, and at the whole performance situation” (The New York Times).

For this special night, Kinch and the all-star quintet from his Black Peril project make their debut as an independent combo, performing a wide-ranging repertoire of classics and originals. New Orleans native Nicholas Payton is a GRAMMY-winning trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist who was a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective and has released over 20 albums. Eric Lewis, known as ELEW, is a singular keyboardist and composer known for work with Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargove, Sting, and Esperanza Spalding. Bassist and composer Marcus Shelby is a former SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director and is one of the primary figures on the Bay Area jazz scene. Gregory Hutchinson is among the most influential drummers in jazz, known widely for his work with Joshua Redman, Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Eric Reed, and Ray Brown.