Mo Betta SHOUT! – Saturday, April 4 – 8 pm, Main Stage, First Ward Park

Charlotte trumpeter and rising bandleader Braxton Bateman grew up in the Queen City attending Northwest School of the Arts for both middle and high school, but his musical lineage and spirit trace back to Philadelphia. His grandfather, Edgar Bateman Jr., was a revered jazz drummer who performed and recorded with legends like Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, Walt Dickerson, and Booker Ervin. Bateman has traveled the world playing music with the B.B. King All-Stars and avant-garde jazz bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, who has taught him the art of free jazz. Recently, Tacuma brought Bateman and fellow Charlotte musician Malcolm Charles, also a Northwest and JazzArts Charlotte alum, to one of the country’s most prestigious experimental music festivals, Big Ears, alongside artists like Esperanza Spalding, Sun Ra, and Taj Mahal.