Katisse Buckingham is the rare jazz musician whose credits include both Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” and the jazz flute scene in Will Ferrell’s “Anchorman.” On Sunday night, the Los Angeles-born virtuoso brings his Woodwinds Quartet to the Sierra Madre Playhouse for an intimate chamber set as part of the Playhouse’s ongoing Jazz @ the Playhouse series.
Buckingham trades in genre-blurring repertoire — a rich blend of jazz, funk, soul and classical sensibility — anchored by saxophones, flute and spoken word. A graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, he went on to the Grove School of Music, where he won a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Fellowship grant to study with woodwind master Bill Green. His performance and recording credits include Herbie Hancock, Prince, Lionel Richie, Andy Summers, Roy Ayers and Michael Bublé, and he has contributed to film scores including the Robert Redford vehicle “All Is Lost” and “La La Land.”
“There are two kinds of music,” Buckingham has cited as a guiding principle from Duke Ellington — “good music and the other kind.” Sunday’s Woodwinds Quartet performance is built around exactly that ecumenical spirit, drawing on the players’ classical training and their work in film, television and recording studios across Los Angeles.
The Sierra Madre Playhouse’s intimate music room makes for a closer-than-usual encounter with players of this caliber, an evening shaped as much by listening as by performance. Tickets are available through the Playhouse website.
Katisse Buckingham and his Woodwinds Quartet will perform Sunday, May 31 at 8 p.m. at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., in Sierra Madre. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org.
