WPFW 50th Year Benefit Concert: An Afternoon of Jazz and Justice

About

WPFW Radio Station celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special benefit concert, featuring two regulars on the D.C. jazz scene. Amy K. Bormet grew up in D.C. learning from Davey Yarborough at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and further honed her voice at Howard University’s music program. Her chops, rooted in the tradition, are evident, but her voice as a composer draws on a range of influences from sparse Nordic jazz to lyrical, grooving, Afro-Cuban pianistics. She’s a versatile pianist and vocalist — and the founder of the Washington Women in Jazz Festival. Saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed was born and raised in Silver Spring and is a consummate student of the D.C. music scene: He’s equally comfortable blowing some burnished, buoyant hard-bop as he is grooving in the pocket of a go-go band. He can often be found leading groups of some of the other younger statesman of D.C. jazz through originals and standards that swing just right.