Lakecia Benjamin (US)

In the high towers and hidden corners of New York City, there once grew a young girl named Lakecia Benjamin, who discovered early that breath could become fire and metal could sing. In the bustling kingdom of Washington Heights, she first played a humble recorder, but soon she found her true companion: a golden saxophone that answered her courage with a voice warm as summer dusk and bright as city stars.

Wise elders - Gary Bartz, Reggie Workman, and Clark Terry - taught her the ancient spells of jazz, passing down secrets once whispered by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Yet Lakecia did not walk only old paths. She ventured into lands of R&B and funk, playing beside queens and conjurers like Alicia Keys and Anita Baker, learning how rhythm could move both heart and crown.

With her first banner, Retox, she gathered a Soul Squad; with Rise Up, she summoned grooves for a new century. Then she climbed the sacred mountain of the Coltranes, honoring Alice and John in a bold invocation called Pursuance.

At last, from ashes and embers, she rose with Phoenix, surrounded by luminous allies, earning six Grammy nods as proof of her fire. And wherever she plays, her horn becomes a torch—lighting pathways where tradition and tomorrow dance as one