Oby and Akenya/Packard (SL/P)

May 19th

joins forces with Comfort Music, Comfort Station’s weekly music series to curate musical performances every Thursday for the month of May. Improvisers from Chicago’s jazz scene split bills with R&B and hip hop artists in four unique evenings of music that highlight Homeroom’s ability to facilitate artistic dialogue between artists and performers across genres.

Akenya is a 23-year-old multi-genre singer, pianist, composer, and arranger who is pursuing her dream of becoming a world-renowned, professional musician. Her music places a strong emphasis on jazz and the culmination of hip-hop, funk, pop, classical, world music, and other loves of hers. In the jazz world she has worked with and performed for the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Fred Hersch, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Luciana Souza, and Dave Holland to name just a few. She is also well known in the Chicago hip-hop and soul scenes and has collaborated with some of the city’s leading artists including Chance the Rapper, Noname Gyspy, Mick Jenkins, Eryn Allen Kane, Donnie Trumpet, and the O'My’s. Akenya is currently working on a full LP, Moon in the 4th, as a follow up to her debut EP, Overcome, which was released in 2010. This new album will feature all originals, including her latest single “Disappear,” which premiered last November and can be streamed via soundcloud as well as purchased via bandcamp.

Oby