Rising to New Heights, Lakecia Benjamin Charges Up UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall

As an auspicious opening sensation, much-praised alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin put on the first world-class jazz show of the year in Santa Barbara, and it was a win-winning situation. With her accomplished quartet at Campbell Hall, hosted by UCSB Arts & Lectures, Benjamin literally blew through town with her powerful blend of traditional jazz authenticity and R&B/funk fervor and won over the mixed crowd of die-hard jazzbos and newcomers to the music.

And she had a commanding presence, social and spiritual awareness, and sartorial panache, to boot. What was not to love?

Compared to the more cerebral airs of the Blue Note Records touring ensemble a year ago, and the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour road show two years back — featuring Benjamin in the company of other well-known and emergent names — the recent Campbell Hall blowout clearly energized the room.

Her band — the young firebrand drummer Dorian Phelps, anchoring pianist Oscar Perez and bassist Elias Bailey — is primed and tuned into the still-evolving ethos of Benjamin’s group identity — called Phoenix, after her albums Phoenix (2023) and last year’s Phoenix Reimagined (Live). The “phoenix” motif and metaphor represent deeper meaning to her, after a 2021 car accident posed peril in her life. She told the audience that, post-accident, her motto has been “Keep going, keep striving.” She also stressed her mission as one of being “all about spreading love, joy, and peace without fear.”  

In concert, the shimmering and sleekly dressed Benjamin kicked off the show demonstrating her strong Coltrane influence and the “sheets of sound” instrumental prowess of John Coltrane’s style. She has gone public with her love of things Coltrane, both in terms of John and his pianist/harpist wife/widow, Alice, with the breakout 2020 album Pursuance: The Coltranes. That Coltrane stamp filtered throughout the set in different ways, as in her funk-fortified version of “Central Park West,” and a sinewy rethink of the Coltrane rethink of “My Favorite Things.”

She touched on social-racial conscience when calling on her tune “Amerikkan Skin,” including a spoken word testimonial by Angela Davis (who appeared on the original recording), touched on Patrice Rushen’s “Jubilation” and Benjamin’s own soulful lilt-grooving “Mercy.”

On the whole, Benjamin’s set was a smartly paced song set showcasing the range of her stylistic inclinations and aptitudes. In a way, though, in Benjamin’s drive to impress and involve the house, some subtlety was lost. The most tasteful solo of the night came through bassist Bailey’s less-is-more, patiently structured solo, compared to the sometimes oversold solos elsewhere in the show.

On the evidence of her ascending life in jazz and in this Campbell Hall show, it’s fair to say that Benjamin’s level of visceral engagement onstage and with the crowd serves an important evangelistic function. We’re not talking about holy ghost business, although a gospel strain feeds into her spirit and made for an easy segue into her juiced-up rendition of “Amazing Grace.” She brings an infectious energy to a crowd, not necessarily preaching to the converted jazz aficionados, but to those interested in joining “the church” of jazz appreciation. And she has chops and deep musicality to back up her message.