Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band

Date and Time

• Sunday, Apr 6, 2025  6pm

Location

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Details

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (JKIBB) is an ensemble of Native and Indigenous jazz musicians from across Indian Country. Performing pieces from their under-appreciated predecessors in jazz, like Mildred Bailey (Coeur d’Alene) and Jim Pepper (Kaw/Mvskoke) alongside works by contemporary Indigenous composers, the band spotlights a vibrant, long-standing tradition of Indigenous improvised music today.

Led by the celebrated vocalist and luminary Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), the ensemble brings charisma, passion, and purpose to every stage, leaving audiences both inspired and educated. Premiering at Washington Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, the band quickly gained a reputation for deepening and challenging our understanding of the “uniquely American” art form known as jazz. JKIBB features a “who’s who” of Indigenous bandleaders today, including Mali Obomsawin (Odanak Abenaki), Delbert Anderson (Diné), Chantil Dukart (Tsimshian), and Ed Littlefield (Tlingit) among others, and headlined the 2024 Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

This event is produced by an outside organization and is unaffiliated with the Downtown Development Authority. The DDA website serves as a marketing outlet for events and promotions occurring inside the Downtown boundary. For questions regarding the event, please contact the event producer.