Newport Jazz Fest 2025 - Lakecia Benjamin in Conversation with Ayana Contreras
For the March 2023 cover of DownBeat Magazine I contributed the cover story, entitled “Finding Phoenix: Lakecia Benjamin Enters Her Next Phase”. In 2021, she had a major car accident that resulted in a broken jaw, collarbone and scapula, among other injuries. The road back had been difficult, but the critically-acclaimed resulting album, Phoenix (2023), celebrated her perseverance, as well as the folks who had poured into her. At the time she shared, “I’m trying to work with the elders while they are here and get what they have to offer and their blessing on how to proceed. I wanted to emphasize people who, along my journey, have really spoken to me and showed me what the world could be like.”
Since the time the article hit the newsstands, she has embarked on a richly rewarding new phase of her career. But seeing her perform on the mainstage of the historic Newport Jazz Festival reanimating lines from “My Favorite Things” and “Wade In The Water” with piercing freshness and verve, I felt like I was watching a gold-bedecked star being born all over again.
I caught up with Benjamin in the wake of that Sunday performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. We discussed her path to the mainstage, as well as how she holds the door open for others coming up behind her.
Ayana Contreras: Oh my God, I was just looking back on that article. That was 2023. You had had that car accident.
Lakecia Benjamin: Right.
Ayana Contreras: Phoenix came out. You were just on the brink of not main staging, but being the leader here [at Newport].
Lakecia Benjamin: Yeah, you're absolutely correct. I hadn't really done any main stages. I was just about to start doing real festivals. My other album [Pursuance: The Coltranes (2020)] had come out during the pandemic, so I was low-key. We interviewed in 2022 for [Phoenix], and January was the launch and it just took off.
Ayana Contreras: Incredible. And so now I'm watching you and I almost got emotional seeing you on the main stage. Just seeing you just taking over, you know what I'm saying?
Lakecia Benjamin: Yeah.
Ayana Contreras: You sounded amazing and you were giving props to all the people that you've honored not only through your project, but in your life. But you are that thing too. So I'm just going to gush a little bit. It was amazing to see. How did it feel?
Lakecia Benjamin: It felt amazing to come back to a place and accumulate a crowd and people who are a fan base that are there to see me. People telling me, "I bought tickets just to see you here." Just to get that love and just be able to engage with them… I like the roar of the crowd, so just to get around this crowd that's ready to go and ready to move, that's how I really thrive.
Ayana Contreras: Yeah, no, you could see it. At one point you were jumping up and down, which was really fabulous to see. And you also mentioned that the drummer, Terreon Gully], who played this set, you'd never played with him before.
Lakecia Benjamin: No. I’ve seen him all the time. I used to study with Steve Wilson and when I studied with him, I seen him play with Steve a bunch of times. I seen him with the queen, Dianne Reeves all the time, but he always said, "Yeah, one day we're going to play." He's like, "I remember when you first came around, coming up."
So we had him today. No rehearsal, no nothing. He just came out there and completely put me through it.
Ayana Contreras: So now tell me, now, the last one was in 2023, Phoenix. What's in the cooker right now for you?
Lakecia Benjamin: Right now, I got a big project coming up. We're not supposed to be too loud with it, but I'm trying to find a way to combine all the different sides of me. As I'm telling my story, there are parts of me that I've left over because people are getting to me a little later in the game. And I'm trying to honor all the artists, I feel like, that also play great music, but do a lot in other fields and other elements to make the behind the scenes stuff work for us.
Ayana Contreras: Tell me more about that. I mean you don't have to get super specific, but that's really interesting. So different artistic fields?
Lakecia Benjamin: Yeah. Let's say for Terence Blanchard, right? He's got a lot of things in his pocket. He's got his trumpet in his pocket, he's changing the game, allowing black artists to inspire opera and inspire different genres. He's working at SFJAZZ, he's finding ways to make things easier for different generations and still help his cause.
So I think things like that, people that are really impacting things and letting people know that I'm more than just a horn player, I'm more than just a pianist. The behind-the -scenes of the music, the behind-the-scenes of the politics, I'm looking forward to working with those kinds of artists.
Ayana Contreras: And that's one of the things I like about you as an artist. You are always trying to make sure to uplift the people that you see as being maybe not as uplifted, or that are doing something unique that you feel like should have a light shined on. So you're using your own light to shine that light.
I remember we were talking last and when we talked about the song "Coltrane", you said, "I want to make sure I'm always mentioning Alice when I'm mentioning John because I cannot mention John without Alice." Which Brandee Younger's been doing with Alice's legacy, I think, making sure that we're not rewriting history, but making sure that history is more complete than maybe it's always been.
Lakecia Benjamin: Absolutely. I think all artists, especially independent artists, realize what it takes to get to where you're trying to get to. So if you have any type of heart, you realize that now you have a door and an opening and a light on you, you can make it easier for so many people behind you to come.
As you're trying to get where you're trying to get, a little door crack can allow somebody to run through where you couldn't even get to the door. So I think it's always important for me to remember the people that are behind, my people that are my peers, and to shine a voice that they're here too.
Ayana Contreras: And one last thing that I never asked you, but I always was wondering, You are really into wearing [the color] gold.
Lakecia Benjamin: Oh, yeah.
Ayana Contreras: Is there a significance behind that or do you just love it?
Lakecia Benjamin: Yeah, I do love it, but there's a lot of people... When I used to play with Clark Terry, he used to tell me, "They see you before they hear you."
So I always believe you should dress how you feel inside, so that when the audience comes to experience your music, as soon as you come out, they get a vibe of what exactly is going on. They don't have to figure out who you are.
During the show, I'm telling my story and my music is telling it, but it's easier to correlate if you can see what's going on. And I always felt superpower-ish, women in jazz to get out here in a world that's male-dominated, in a world that doesn't want to see you. We're easily hidden and spend our time hiding behind things.
You're just trying to blend in with the boys just to get a job. And I feel like if you have a chance to really show who you are and shine a light, shine that thing so bright that the little girl in the back sees it and recognizes herself in you.
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