Pasquale & Benjamin: An Unusual Pairing
SFJAZZ’s latest UpSwing double bill paired Pasquale Grasso’s chamber-scale swing with Lakecia Benjamin’s high-voltage funk-jazz, and the second set made clear where the evening’s dramatic focus was.
Lakecia at Miner Auditorium. Photo: Steve Roby
Lakecia Benjamin Lit the Fuse
Near the end of her brisk 55-minute set last Saturday at Miner Auditorium, the alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin looked out at a crowd she had fully engaged and made her case with a grin. “They may have to drag me off the stage, but I only have minutes left to get funky and tear the roof off,” she told the audience after a wailing version of “My Favorite Things.”
She kept going. “If it were up to me, I would’ve programmed myself for 120 [minutes].” Then she pantomimed a phone call to Terence Blanchard, SFJAZZ’s executive artistic director and the curator of the monthly UpSwing double-bill series. “You gotta call Dr. Blanchard up and say, ‘Hey, Blanch, don’t do that to me again, you gotta give me my fix!’”
The room laughed. The larger point landed, too. Benjamin had the crowd in her hands, and the set carried the sweep, urgency, and release of a headlining performance.
That made the pairing with Pasquale Grasso feel especially curious. Both artists operated at a high level, but they drew from sharply different emotional and stylistic vocabularies. Benjamin came in blazing, folding jazz, funk, and R&B into a set built for lift-off. Grasso, by contrast, worked in a more intimate, inward scale. Each artist held to a coherent vision. Together, they made for a bill whose logic felt loose.
Benjamin arrived in her silver lamé jacket and gold lamé pants, immediately setting the tone with music from her forthcoming album, We Dream, due June 5 on Artwork Records. She framed the project as a celebration of women in jazz and told the audience that San Francisco would be the first to hear this material live. Benjamin also noted the album’s guest list, which includes Terence Blanchard, Hiromi, Chris Potter, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, among others.
Her between-song remarks carried warmth and purpose. She welcomed new listeners, spoke about peace, compassion, and love, and offered a message about keeping faith with one’s dreams at any age. The talk never dragged. It fit the spirit of the set, which moved with conviction and showmanship.
“San Francisco, you are my people!” Lakecia Benjamin. Photo: Steve Roby
Several passages turned into a two-person surge between Benjamin and drummer Jonathan Barber, with pianist Oscar Perez and bassist Elias Bailey dropping out long enough to give the frontline exchange more room. Those moments felt like a test of stamina as much as a musical conversation, and both players met the challenge. The audience responded with repeated standing ovations.
The clear peak came with “My Favorite Things.” Benjamin announced it like a dare. “We’re about ready to blow the roof off this place,” she said. What followed was a concentrated burst of force and momentum, ten minutes of hard-driving soloing and crowd-directed energy that pushed the hall into full participation.
She still had one more card to play. On “Flamekeeper,” Perez moved to keyboards and dialed up a Hammond-style gospel sound that expanded the band’s palette and gave the finale a communal lift. Some people danced, while others stayed rooted and shouted their approval. Benjamin and her quartet turned a limited slot into a genuine event.
One concertgoer later described the set as “chakra-opening!” That may sound grandiose, but in the room, it felt like a fair report.
Pasquale Grasso Kept It Refined
Pasquale Grasso Trio. Photo: Steve Roby
Opening the evening was the Italian guitarist Pasquale Grasso, whose trio initiated a very different atmosphere in Miner Auditorium. A single spotlight, a quieter dynamic range, and an emphasis on line, touch, and swing gave his 52-minute set the feeling of a late-night jazz club scaled up for a concert hall.
Grasso’s playing remained the central attraction. His technique has long been the first thing listeners notice, and it still astonished here, but what registered more strongly over the length of the set was his control. He shaped standards and bebop material with patience, precision, and a deep feeling for the form.
Early in the set, he shared some background from his childhood in Ariano Irpino near Naples, describing a family culture in which jazz lived close to home even when access to recordings remained scarce. He recalled finding bootleg albums in the back of a hardware store, hand-labeled CDs. That scarcity turned listening into discipline. “I could buy one album at a time,” he said, “but only on the condition that I learn the songs in a month and perform them for my parents and grandmother.”
That anecdote provided the set with an engaging context. You could sense the seriousness of that apprenticeship in the way he handled pieces by Duke Ellington and Bud Powell, along with standards like “Ornithology,” “Once in a While,” and “Sid’s Delight.” He concluded with a medley of “Elegy” and “Glass Enclosure,” ending on a note that encouraged focus rather than immediate applause.
Grasso’s trio delivered exactly what it meant to deliver. The set had elegance, discipline, and authentic swing. It simply occupied a very different dramatic world from the one Benjamin would later ignite in the second set.
Two Strong Sets, One Uneasy Fit
“I only have minutes left to get funky and tear the roof off.” Lakecia Benjamin
The evening presented two artists of real distinction. Benjamin brought heat, physicality, and a strong sense of occasion. Grasso answered with poise, craft, and beautifully ordered playing. Each set stood on its own terms.
As a piece of programming, though, the double bill never found a convincing arc. Benjamin’s performance had the strength and hunger of the main event, while Grasso’s opening set offered a cooler, more self-contained pleasure. Both artists served their music well. The audience, in turn, had to do the connective work that the curation left unresolved.
Program Notes
Event: Terence Blanchard’s UpSwing Series
Artists: Lakecia Benjamin Quartet / Pasquale Grasso Trio
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Showtime: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Miner Auditorium, SFJAZZ Center
Personnel
Lakecia Benjamin Quartet
Lakecia Benjamin — alto saxophone
Oscar Perez — piano, keyboards
Elias Bailey — double bass
Jonathan Barber — drums
Pasquale Grasso Trio
Pasquale Grasso — guitar
Sam Edwards — bass
James Gallagher — drums
Setlists
Pasquale Grasso Trio: “Ornithology,” “Once in a While,” “Sid’s Delight,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Just One of Those Things,” medley: “Elegy”/“Glass Enclosure”
Lakecia Benjamin Quartet: “Beyond the Dawn,” “My Only,” “Mi Gente (My People),” “My Favorite Things,” “Flamekeeper”
