Chris Dave

There’s a good chance you’ve heard Chris Dave play drums, even if you didn’t know it was him. Over the last 20 years, the Houston-born percussionist, bandleader, and producer has played with some of the most revered names in jazz and R&B, offering his unique drumming style to songs by D’Angelo, Justin Bieber,The Robert Glasper Experiment, and Adele. The Roots’s bandleader Ahmir Questlove Thompson once called Dave “the most dangerous drummer alive,” a characterization that Dave playfully dismisses. “I don’t believe that at all,” he deadpanned during a recent interview. Maybe that’s why he endures: He lets the work speak for itself. And his music is so resonant that it does just that.

Meshell Ndegeocello has survived the best and worst of what a career in music has to offer. She eschewed genre for originality, celebrity for longevity, and musical trends for musical truths. Fans have come to expect the unexpected and follow her on sojourns into soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, rock, all bound by the search for love, justice, respect, and resolution. Those sonic investigations have defied and redefined the expectations for women, for queer artists, and for black music for over 30 years and she remains one of few women who write the music, sing the songs, and lead the band.

A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. She has earned a Grammy award along with numerous nominations, and has played alongside the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Alanis Morrisette, James Blood Ulmer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tony Allen, John Medeski, Billy Preston, and Chaka Khan. As for her own bass-playing influences, she credits Sting, Jaco Pastorius, Family Man Barrett, and Stevie Wonder. Meshell is always grateful for the opportunity to share the stage and believes music is a fellowship. She looks to spread that gospel with every creation and collaboration.

Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 18 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting.