The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, which was named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. The album also introduced his remarkable quartet with Micah Thomas on piano, Daryl Johns on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums, a tight-knit unit that Wilkins features once again on his stunning sophomore album The 7th Hand.

The 7th Hand explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite comprised of seven movements. “I wanted to write a preparatory piece for my quartet to become vessels by the end of the piece, fully,” says the Brooklyn-based, Philadelphia-raised artist who Pitchfork said “composes ocean-deep jazz epics.”

Conceptually, the record evolves what Wilkins begins exploring on Omega, which included a four-part suite within the album. On The 7th Hand, all his compositions represent movements, played in succession. “They deal with cells and source material like a suite would,” says Wilkins, “but they function as songs, as well.”

 While writing, Wilkins began viewing each movement as a gesture bringing his quartet closer to complete vesselhood, where the music would be entirely improvised, channeled collectively. “It’s the idea of being a conduit for the music as a higher power that actually influences what we’re playing,” he says. The 7th Hand derives its title from a question steeped in Biblical symbolism: If the number 6 represents the extent of human possibility, Wilkins wondered what it would mean — how it would sound — to invoke divine intervention and allow that seventh element to possess his quartet.  

Wilkins often draws inspiration from critical thought. Even the striking album artwork challenges convention: “I wanted to remix the Southern Black baptism, and also provide critique on what is considered sanctified and who can be baptized.”

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Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter, composer, and guitarist whose powerful voice and musical talent transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. She is a creative musical artist with a vocal range that allows her to paint seamlessly with her original material, an intersection of Mexican Tradicional, rock, pop and other genres. Edna’s passion for music and performance grew from her bicultural roots and, with songs deeply rooted in universal human emotion, she has traveled far and wide spreading her message of light, love and cultural healing.

Vazquez has grown as a musical artist and collaborator over the last years, touring all over the world since 2017 with the acclaimed “little orchestra” Pink Martini, while still performing as a solo artist as well. In the past, she led her own band projects, the Edna Vazquez Quartet, the rock band No Passengers, and the latest, the Edna Vazquez Band. Vazquez also participated in the Latin Grammys with the all-female mariachi fusion band from New York City, Latin Grammy 2017 winners, Flor de Toloache and accompanying Natalia Lafourcade that night.

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Justin Copeland is a trumpet play, pianist, educator and composer based out of the central valley city of Fresno, CA. He has been performing extensively as a professional musician for the past 10+ years all over the United States, and currently resides in the Chicago area.

Justin completed a B.A in Music Performance at California State University, Fresno in 2011, and subsequently an M.M in Jazz Studies at Northwestern University in June of 2013. Throughout the recent years he has had the privilege of performing with and learning from many world-class musicians, like saxophonist, composer, and educator, Victor Goines, trumpeter, educator and counselor, Dr. Michael Caldwell, trumpeter and educator, Brad Mason, saxophonist, composer/arranger, and educator Christopher Madsen, saxophonist and educator, Sherman Irby, trombonist Elliot Mason, drummer, composer/arranger and educator, Rich Derosa, legendary bassist and educator, Rufus Reid, legendary trombonist, Curtis Fuller, world renown jazz educator David Baker, and legendary saxophonist and educator, Nathan Davis. Currently Justin is pursuing a D.M.A in Jazz Studies at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Tickets available here.