the will boyd project

Queens-born, Orangeburg-raised, Asheville-dwelling Will Boyd doesn't just play saxophone—he channels the entire lineage of soul sax prophets like Eddie Harris, Hank Crawford, David "Fat Head" Newman, King Curtis, and Johnny Hodges, transforming every reed into a vessel for what one critic called "mad sax man" playing that sends up a "joyful noise." This is the kind of musician who was gigging professionally with R&B groups before he turned 18, who studied with South African free jazz maverick Zim Ngqawana and Art Blakey Jazz Messengers alumni Donald Brown, who's shared stages with Fred Wesley in unchanged dive bars that looked like 1975 never left and Leslie Odom Jr. in theaters where Hamilton still echoes. The Will Boyd Project embodies Boyd's mission to recreate the joy and intensity of church music while moving the movement forward—from his albums "Live at the Red Piano Lounge," "Freedom Soul Jazz" (a Juneteenth celebration that reimagines spirituals, hymns, and freedom songs), to "Soulful Noise." His baritone sax takes you to Memphis houses of worship, his bass clarinet becomes a balm in Gilead, his alto shuffles down church pews with gospel beats that make even the most secular spaces feel sanctified. This is a musician who's toured Japan multiple times, played with everyone from Doc Severinsen to Jeff Coffin to the Four Tops, appeared on PBS documentaries about painter Beauford Delaney, premiered operas celebrating Black artistic heritage, and received the MLK Award for the Arts. Now faculty at UNC Asheville and Warren Wilson College, Boyd performs weekly at Little Jumbo with the Jay Sanders Quartet and directs the Contemporary Jazz Ensemble of Asheville, proving that teaching and preaching through a saxophone are really the same sacred act. With wife and vocalist Kelle Jolly by his side (WUOT jazz radio host and founder of the Knoxville Women in Jazz Jam Festival), The Will Boyd Project transforms every performance into a revival meeting where bebop meets the Black church, where freedom songs get reborn with extra spiritual muscle, where decades of soul tradition collide with right-now urgency. Expect an evening where every note carries the weight of history and the lightness of joy, where technical mastery serves something bigger than virtuosity, where a multi-reed master who's played everywhere from Tokyo jazz festivals to cruise ships to "Ain't Misbehavin'" productions proves that the deepest jazz has always been about liberation—musical, spiritual, and otherwise. This isn't just a performance. It's a sermon delivered through saxophone, a celebration that honors those who came before while insisting that the future sounds like freedom.