Name: Najee
Start: 2024-07-19T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Knight Theater at Levine Center for the Arts

Recipient of the United States Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Grammy and NAACP award-winning, Multi-Platinum selling Saxophonist/Flautist Najee celebrates the art of elegance on Anticipated new recording Savoir Faire.
“My life has been a series of pivotal events and circumstances that have gotten me to where I am,” reflects the fearless chart-topping Contemporary Jazz pioneer Najee. In a business where trends and artists come and go, the genre-bending saxophonist’s staying power is a rare blessing. The Grammy and NAACP award-winning musician’s genuine love for connecting with people, coupled with his consummate musicianship and sheer passion for music, has made him one of the brightest stars in Contemporary Jazz for close to four decades. “I heard this beautiful saying once,” explains the Zen saxophonist who has collaborated with Prince, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, and Herbie Hancock, among others. “It said that some people meet their destiny while traveling on a road trying to avoid it. I recall as a young man contemplating the idea of changing directions and going into banking. Here I am still doing what I am doing because it’s what I am meant to do! Every day I wake up and I am grateful for my life and career.” Najee’s gratitude permeates every note on Savoir Faire, his newest recording out on Shanachie Entertainment on May 13, 2022. Recorded during the pandemic, Savoir Faire, a Pan-American excursion, found Najee enlisting friends from New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Connecticut, Florida, Sao Paulo, and Rio, to honor a melting pot of influences. “I gave up worrying about disputes between genres a long time ago,” states Najee. “Duke Ellington said there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music. So based on that I do not worry. People seem to forget that in the early days of jazz, the music was designed to make people dance. All of your experiences live inside you and they come out in your music. I just want to make good music and make it accessible for people to enjoy.” Fait Accompli on Savoir Faire!