Cindy Blackman Santana
Blue Note131 West 3rd Street, New York 10012
Cindy Blackman Santana brings her own five-piece band to Blue Note for a set led from the drums. Guitarist Aurélien Budynek, keyboardist Marc Cary, bassist Benny Rietveld and saxophonist Emilio Modeste join her for this December 4 performance. The billed lineup places Blackman Santana's compositions and bandleading at the center, with guitar, keys, bass and saxophone extending the rhythmic and melodic range of her music.
Blackman Santana began as a street performer in New York City in the 1980s and has built a career across jazz, rock and funk. Her bio highlights both the “nuances and colors” of her beats and fills and “the sheer power of her soulful playing.” She has worked with Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, Bill Laswell, Joss Stone, Joe Henderson, Don Pullen, Hugh Masekela and Angela Bofill, while pop audiences may know her from her tenure with Lenny Kravitz and collaborations with Carlos Santana. JazzTimes called Works on Canvas “an amazing portrait of one of this generation’s most colorful drummers,” praising her as “a magnificent colorist.”
Blue Note Jazz Club is a dedicated listening room in the heart of Manhattan's jazz district, where the music is the focus and the space is designed to let the sound fill the room. The club features a stage with a small audience area, and the atmosphere is one of quiet concentration on the music. Shows typically begin at 8:00 PM with a second set at 10:30 PM, and the audience sits on chairs close to the stage. The club has a bar, and drinks are available. The experience is primarily about listening to live jazz, with occasional gospel and soul performances, and the audience often stays to talk and enjoy the music after the sets.