Brandon Woody And UPENDO At The Buffalo AKG Museum’s Art Of Jazz Series

Brandon Woody And UPENDO
Buffalo AKG Art Museum Auditorium
Art Of Jazz Series
Buffalo, NY
February 1, 2026 

The afternoon sun was fading on a cold Buffalo Sunday as a sold-out crowd made its way into the Buffalo AKG Art Museum's Auditorium for the first of four concerts in the 2026 Art Of Jazz series. The space emitted a relaxed, treehouse vibe as a group of rising young Baltimore musicians took the stage.

On May 9, 2025 Blue Note Records released Brandon Woody and UPENDO's debut album, For The Love Of It All. On Sunday they brought the recording's sharp, muscular sound to the AKG Auditorium. Their six-song set featured Woody's virtuoso horn and a heavy rhythm section that brought the crowd to its feet.

The performance began with "Never Gonna Run Away" the first cut from their album. Like the concert as a whole, the song focused on Woody's acrobatic trumpet runs. The lightning-fast, angular melodies were accompanied by Troy Long's chiming piano. Michael Saunders (bass) and Kweku Sumbry (drums) exchanged mischievous grins as they steadily increased the tempo before a thunderous finale.

The room throbbed with their dynamic, complex rhythms, giving the feeling of a rock or hip-hop concert. My ears were ringing as the high-angled, emotional shadows of dusk mixed with a raucous standing ovation. 

"Upendo" means "communal love" in Swahili, and Woody describes his music as a safe place for people to connect and communicate. This vision of jazz as social catalyst is shared with one of his mentors, trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire, with whom Woody studied at the Brubeck Institute of the University of Pacific's Conservatory of Music. Akinsumire is one of contemporary jazz's most important artists who released two of 2025's best jazz recordings, Honey From A Winter Stone (Nonesuch Records, 2025) and Strange Heavens (Biophilia Records, 2025). 

The idea that jazz has a unique, social power echoes Langston Hughes' jazz poetry and Miles Davis, who preferred the term "social music" to "jazz." Hughes called jazz "a great big sea. It washes up all kinds of fish and shells and spume and waves with a steady old beat." 

That power was present Sunday. The 2026 Art Of Jazz season is Buffalo musician and producer Walter Kemp 3's first as curator. Brandon Woody and UPENDO kicked it off with a thunderous performance.

Setlist:

Never Gonna Run Away; Untitled; Winter; Beyond The Reach Of Our Eyes; Untitled; The Beat.

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