Jazz at Drew

Avery*Sunshine

On February 2, 2025, Chester, Pennsylvania native AverySunshine — born Denise White — made GRAMMY® history, winning Best Progressive R &B; Album at the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards® for So Glad to Know You. The win was the first-ever tie in the category’s history, shared with NxWorries’ Why Lawd?, and marked Avery’s first career GRAMMY® nomination and win.

A Spelman College alumna and church-rooted pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer, Avery is best known for her #1 Billboard chart hit “Call My Name” from The Sunroom — the single that earned her and husband and creative partner Dana “BigDane” Johnson the ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Song of the Year Award. Her GRAMMY®-winning album So Glad to Know You was produced by Jamison Ross and released on her own independent imprint, BigShine Recordings.

A Yamaha Entertainment-endorsed artist who has performed on 6 continents across more than 35 countries, Avery currently serves as a Trustee of the Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter (2025 to 2029). She is also the founder of LouMack Beauty and co-founder of BigShine Recordings — an independent force who is, in every sense, making everyone shine

Poncho Sanchez

For more than three decades, conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of Latin Jazz.

Sanchez’s influences are numerous, and his catalogue is rich with his homages to several of his mentors — Santamaria, Puente and Tjader among them. But alongside those Latin pioneers, among the more prominent figures that inform his music is the iconic saxophonist John Coltrane. On his latest album Trane’s Delight, Sanchez pays tribute to the late jazz legend with Latin-tinged reimaginings of Coltrane classics as well as new pieces composed in honor of the tenor titan.

After more than two decades in music, Sanchez’s efforts paid off when his album Latin Soul received a Grammy award as Best Latin Album of 1999. Throughout the next decade, Sanchez continued to record, releasing such albums as 2000’s Soul of the Conga, 2001’s Latin Spirits, 2003’s Out of Sight!, 2005’s Do It!, 2007’s Raise Your Hand, and 2009’s hard bop-influenced Psychedelic Blues. In 2011, he paid tribute to the innovative Afro-Cuban recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo by teaming up with trumpeter Terence Blanchard for Chano y Dizzy! Sanchez followed that up with a vibrant concert set with his Latin Jazz Band entitled Live in Hollywood.

The Original Lakeside

The Lakeside journey began when a group of high school students from Ohio formed a band made up of talented musicians and a ferocious stamina that has sustained them for more than 27-years. Formerly known as the Ohio Lakeside Express, their travel has taken throughout the world opening for legends like Redd Foxx, Eddie Kendricks and many others.

Recording moguls Motown, ABC and Solars have felt the Lakeside vibe producing many of the “Fantastic Voyage” mega hits that took the music industry by storm. The sound of funk hits such as “All The Way Live“, “Raid” and “Outrageous“, are known to draw people to the dance floor like a magnet to metal. The signature sound of the lead guitar on the hit “Something About That Women“, alarm your funk sensors to take immediate notice!

Lakeside’s soulful ballads demonstrate their versatility, style and perfect mix of vocals and band as recorded on the remake of the Beatle’s classic hit “I Wanna Hold Your Hand“. And of course, there is the Lakeside anthem that sets the band apart from all the rest. Brought back by Coolio, “Fantastic Voyage” boast to be the only song to knock Michael Jackson’s “Heartbreak Hotel” from the number one position on the Billboard Charts in 1980. The hit single “Fantastic Voyage“, continues to entertain new and seasoned fans on Lakeside’s latest LIVE CD featuring all of the great Lakeside hits that have made them a household name.

Jarrod Lawson

For singer/songwriter/keyboard player Lawson, who had previously worked as a stone mason and piano tuner, the appreciation of his music in his native US was particularly gratifying, since his breakthrough in 2014 had been primarily in Europe, where in a whirlwind couple of years he played festival, club and concert dates in 15 countries, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival and the world renowned Ronnie Scott’s Club, as well as powering his way into the Dutch Top 40 Albums chart.

He has since performed around the world in Tokyo, Beijing, Melbourne and at Indonesia’s Java Jazz festival. In the US he has played many of the leading jazz venues from New York to Seattle.

His sophomore album, “Be The Change,” made its mark immediately with entries at #1 on Amazon’s Jazz Albums chart and at #2 on Billboard magazine’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. He was honored to be included in radio station Jazz FM’s Top 100 Artists of All Time, chosen by listeners, in the company of many of the jazz and soul legends he has admired since childhood.

Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits & Gravy Live is a get on your feet, wave your hands in the air, Old School Funk and R&B band. Band members include David Wills (Drummer), Gene Durham (Bass), Emery Beckles, Kenny Harris (Lead, Background Vocals, & Percussion).