Red Hook Records marks its fifth anniversary with two evenings showcasing artists from its roster and collaborators across its orbit.

SET 1
Amina Claudine Myers piano

SET 2
Andrew Cyrille drums
Wadada Leo Smith trumpet
Qasim Naqvi modular synthesizer

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.

Amina Claudine Myers is an American pianist, organist, vocalist, and composer whose work bridges jazz, blues, gospel, and avant-garde music. A pioneering member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, she has spent more than five decades developing a deeply personal musical language rooted in African American traditions while embracing fearless improvisation and innovation. Her collaborations span generations of creative musicians, and in 2024 she was named an NEA Jazz Master in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to American music. In 2025, she released Solace of the Mind on Red Hook Records, a profoundly lyrical solo album that has been widely praised for its intimacy, spiritual depth, and masterful artistry, reaffirming her place as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary creative music.

Andrew Cyrille is an American drummer, composer, and educator whose career has helped shape the course of modern jazz for more than six decades. Renowned for his extraordinary sensitivity, rhythmic imagination, and masterful use of space, he first gained international recognition through his groundbreaking work with Cecil Taylor before collaborating with artists including Wadada Leo Smith, Bill Frisell, Marilyn Crispell, and David Murray. A leading figure in creative improvised music, Cyrille continues to expand the expressive possibilities of the drum set through performances and recordings that combine technical brilliance with profound musical insight. In 2024, he released Breaking the Shell on Red Hook Records, a striking collaboration with Bill Frisell and Kit Downes that explores the unique sonic possibilities of guitar, pipe organ, and drums.

Wadada Leo Smith Composer, trumpeter and author Wadada Leo Smith is one of the creative music world’s most heralded artists. He grew up steeped in the musical traditions of the South, performing in Delta Blues and other traditional bands before moving to Chicago, where he joined the legendary AACM collective. Smith defines his work as “Creative Music,” and his diverse discography reveals a recorded history of music centered in the idea of spiritual harmony and the unification of social and cultural issues of his world. A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Smith has received numerous other awards and honors including a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement, the UCLA Medal, and the 2022 Vision Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, among many others. In 2023 he was selected for induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. An esteemed educator, he most recently served as the Spring 2024 Fromm Foundation Visiting Lecturer on Music at Harvard University.

Qasim Naqvi is a percussionist, composer, and synthesist. In addition to being the drummer of the lauded cult minimalist trio Dawn of Midi, Naqvi is an accomplished solo artist whose passion for multidisciplinary work has led him into the worlds of film, dance, installation art, and orchestral and chamber music. His collaborators include Wadada Leo Smith, Andrew Cyrille, and the BBC Concert Orchestra, reflecting a practice that seamlessly bridges improvisation and composition. In 2022, he released Two Centuries on Red Hook Records with Wadada Leo Smith and Andrew Cyrille, an acclaimed collaboration that explores the intersection of modular synthesis, trumpet, and percussion with remarkable lyricism and restraint. The album was awarded the 2023 German Jazz Prize for International Instrumental Album of the Year.