Lakecia Benjamin and her band Phoenix blew the doors off the recently renovated Atrium of the Australian embassy to open the 20th Anniversary celebration of the DC Jazz Festival.
She was joined by an Aussie legend and the Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festivaland honorary inductee into the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame 2013 at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards. He is known for conducting the World’s Largest Orchestra in Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, consisting of 7,224 musicians.
They jammed and raised the roof in the Atrium as a standing-room-only crowd also honored DC JAZZ FESTIVAL Founder Charley Fishman, who legend has it along with his wife Stephanie Peters conceived the festival on the back of a napkin in an Adams Morgan bar.
But it was all about the Benjamin, as Lakecia dazzled the stylish crowd with her Gold Lame jumpsuit and Miles Davis aviator frames set the upbeat vibe on the birthday of Alice Coltrane and dedicated a suite to her Pursuance CD from her last appearance at the DC JAZZ FEST.
But the James Morrison collaboration was an unexpected bonus and made the Australian Embassy event a stylish 20Th Anniversary debut!
