The New York jazz scene has polarized for quite some time. When Tonic was still in business (closed in 2007 due to soring rent), progressive / avant garde music was easily accessible. This scene now scatters all over the other boroughs outside of LES. On the other hand, traditional jazz lives on, there is no lack of "bop" in the West Village neighborhood. This is what most people, especially the tourists, would relate to when it comes down to jazz.
 
This has also led to the perception that jazz from New York has become conservative or is not as progressive as what one could hear from Chicago or Los Angeles.  One likely reason owes to the pathways these New York jazz cats follow. For one thing, most of them went to renowned universities for music education. George Burton went to Temple, Marquis Hill studied under Mark Ponzo in Northern Illnois University and Sly5thAve is a University of North Texas alumni. While jazz was at one point rebel music, today's jazz education is institutionalized. Another reason is the apprenticeship model that many of them get nurtured under.
 
Lakecia Benjammin is no exception. She went to New School for tertiary education. Gary Bartz mentored her early years. Some of her lines are reminiscent of the poetic phrases from Billy Harper who also taught at the New School. Rashied Ali, the last of John Coltrane lineage, invited her to play in his band. This led to her 2020 album Pursance: The Coltranes.
 
But have all these influences become hurdles to new dialogue? In "Phoenix", an album she made post car accident, keeps most of the song structures that one would expect from a hard bop modal jazz album. Being a pandemic album, "Phoenix" is full of personal narratives. Losses in family, the politics that kept her awake, women's right on the line, etc...traditionally jazz records did not allow too much of an individual storytelling given it has always been a collaboration amongst all the musicians. In "Phoenix" Lakecia let loose her thoughts in these 13 tracks, rightfully putting to use all her training and influences, and at the same time revealing her very own journals, ruminating as much as Gregory Alan Isakov did on his 2013 "The Weatherman". In 2024, jazz music is as rebellious as introspective.