Taking its name from the final line of Common’s acclaimed 2005 album, Be Eternal explores black male mortality, particularly of musicians, and the normalization of this in modern society. Led by local saxophonist Jackson Fairfax-Perry, this ensemble brings together 5 local improvising musicians with roots connecting to the African diaspora. Exploring both spontaneous and written compositions, Be Eternal asks how can we move past this mindset that black men die young? That this is just how it is? How can we honour the artists who came before us, while also giving flowers to the ones who are still with us? This music is raw and mournful, but it is also filled with joy and hope, brimming with the power of our ancestors. This is a celebration of our black musical lineage.

Personnel

Jackson Fairfax-Perry - Saxophones

Andrew Jackson - Trombone

Lance Sampson - Voice

Shuvanjan Karmakar - Bass

Joshua Awe - Drums

Bio’s

Jackson Fairfax-Perry is an award-winning African Nova Scotian composer, sound designer, musician, and musical director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A graduate of Dalhousie University (Bachelor of Music in Composition, 2014), Jackson has built a multidisciplinary career that bridges contemporary composition, popular music, improvisation, and theatrical sound design.  For the decade following his graduation, he recorded and toured nationally and internationally with Hillsburn, an award-winning indie-pop band. Since 2023, Jackson has collaborated closely with Lance Sampson, AKA Aquakultre. As musical director for Sampson’s live performances, he has co-written, arranged, and performed on several of Aquakultre’s recordings, most notably on the critically acclaimed album 1783. As a saxophonist and keyboardist, Jackson is an active member of Halifax’s jazz and creative music scene performing regularly with several ensembles including Many Worlds, as well as his own group TYNES plus III. Jackson also collaborates frequently with theatre and dance artists, having contributed music and sound design to numerous local and national productions. Jackson is the most recent recipient of the Paul Cram Creation Award, and is in the process of writing his first composition for orchestra, to be premiered by Symphony Nova Scotia at Open Waters Festival in January, 2027.

Andrew Jackson is a Juno award winning trombonist and composer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His versatility and unique sound have made him one of Eastern Canada’s first-call players. Jackson keeps a busy playing schedule with many of the premiere artists in the region, spanning a variety of styles, and was selected as a member of the National Canadian Jazz Orchestra. Andrew is a multiple time Music Nova Scotia award winner, including accolades such as "Musician of the Year" and "Jazz Recording of The Year" amongst others. Since 2017 Andrew has been the musical curator for the TD Halifax Jazz Festival, which has won multiple "Event of The Year" Awards under his tenure.

Aquakultre is the artistic voice of Lance Sampson — an uncommonly versatile singer, rapper, composer and storyteller from Halifax, NS. Since winning the 2018 CBC Searchlight competition, Aquakultre has released two Polaris-nominated albums and a multitude of genre-diverse, multi-media collaborations, establishing him as a significant musical and cultural presence. The live show is a warm-hearted party where all are welcomed by Aquakultre’s big voice and bigger stage presence. Through all his works, via poetic lyrics and straight-up jams, Aquakultre is on a mission to share his love for his unique and beautiful corner of the culture.

Joshua Awe is an instinctive drummer who enjoys playing a wide range of musical genres. He often plays with jazz musicians in Halifax, however, Joshua has recently been performing with musicians in the folk and oldtime scenes where he usually plays djembe and percussion. Joshua has his roots in Nigeria where he started playing in the church. This is where he learned that music can be used for a spiritual transcendence. His resume includes an extensive list of public and private gigs including the Halifax Jazz Festival, Every Seeker and Deep Roots Festival.

Shuvanjan Karmaker is a bassist, curator, and sound artist whose work approaches music as a shared atmosphere people move through together, rather than a fixed composition. Moving between environmental listening, diasporic memory, improvisation, and spatial dramaturgy, they create sound worlds where groove, texture, and abstraction continually dissolve into one another. With a practice attentive to resonance, silence, and friction, Karmaker treats the bass not merely as accompaniment but as a site of inquiry, allowing repetition, instability, and deep listening to shape the experience of sound. Their curatorial work laid the foundation for many of the ideas that continue to inform their music. Through collaborations with award-winning artists across disciplines, Karmaker developed projects exploring temporality, audience perception, and the choreography of bodies in space. This sensitivity extends into their exploration of microtonality and just intonation, challenging inherited sonic hierarchies while embracing tension between improvisation and structure, intimacy and scale. Karmaker has presented original music at Halifax Jazz Festival, Open Waters Festival, Mayworks Festival, Evolve Festival, Nocturne: Art at Night, Inspire Festival, and other festivals across Atlantic Canada. They have opened for Mdou Moctar and supported artists including Aquakultre, Lindsay Misiner, Kxng Wooz, and Taichichi. A member of the first wave of punk bands in early-2000s Dhaka, Bangladesh, Karmaker continues to bring a deeply DIY ethos to their work. They curated Nocturne 2024: Microcosm; Contained and currently serve as Co-Director of Everyseeker Festival.