Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin has a line about how careers actually open, and it runs against what most musicians are told.
“Many times, we practice the art form and the music and think, as soon as we get talented enough, then comes the money and the ability to make a living,” she said. “I’m finding that’s what’s needed to keep you in a room, but it cannot help you find that room in the first place.”
What finds the room, she said, is the other work. “How to hustle and create opportunities,” she said. “Relationships, grit and grind force people to let you into doors that otherwise would have been locked. And inside those doors, you will have a chance to show your art and personality.”
Benjamin released her sixth album, We Dream, on June 5 on Artwork Records, and she is headlining the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Cultural Campus as part of Ensemble Arts Philly’s 2026 to 2027 Jazz Series. She has played the city before, at the 2022 Penn Live Arts Coltrane Festival and again at the Annenberg Centre in May 2025.
She is direct about why she keeps coming back. “To me, the Philly audience is more of a congregational experience,” she said. “They have such a soul and grit to them that it impacts the music and the artist-audience relationship. I love a crowd that isn’t afraid to speak out, for both the good and bad. It makes the show exciting and gives a true experience.”
Her Pursuance project was built on Alice Coltrane, and what she took from her was not a sound. “Alice’s work taught me how important it is to be free in your mind, to live the life you want to inspire others to live,” she said. “She honors both the good and challenging times. She is deeply invested in the discipline required to be a leader in music, spirituality and life.”
She does not wait to be invited. “I don’t ask for permission,” she said. “I show up with the same integrity and authenticity that Miles and Coltrane embodied.” The study, she said, is permanent. “I always do the work and study it takes to keep growing in the tradition. That work will probably be for the rest of my lifetime, while still authentically and boldly living in the present of my timeline.”
On the music itself she is plain about where it came from. “Jazz was invented and created by Black communities as an expression and direct result of the Black experience in America,” she said. “The soul in this music is connected to the people because it was invented by our people. We just have to get back to remembering the why and the who.”
