Nasheet Waits / Nasheet Waits and We Up First Wave

About the Project

WeUpReUp (Waits, Eric Revis and JD Allen) is a manifesto/forum to promote Black music to Black students/young adults. Project director Maya Cunningham of DuBois Black Music Project at UMass-Amherst and artists will partner in the South with North Carolina Central University, Jazz Studies Department; Visit Jackson Mississsippi Tourism; Godbolt Consultant; Tougalou College; Jackson State University. Offerings include masterclasses and two Black Music Symposiums on African-American identity in jazz and the music/activism of master Max Roach.  The band will perform at the Jackson Visitors Center and the Mississippi Museum of Art. 

Residency Location

Jackson, MS

About the Artist

Nasheet Waits is a renowned jazz drummer/music educator. He was inspired by his father, legendary percussionist, Frederick Waits. Waits graduated with honors from Long Island University, where he studied with legendary percussionist Michael Carvin. He was also mentored by Fred King and Max Roach, who spotlighted Wait’s formidable talent by hiring him as a member of the famed percussion ensemble M’BOOM. Waits has a tremendous recording and performance career, and has toured the world. He has worked with jazz notables like Jackie McLean, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney, Jacky Terrason, David Murray, Dave Douglas, and Geri Allen.
His career launched with reedman Antonio Hart, who asked Waits to originate the percussion chair of his first quintet. Waits remained a standing member of Hart’s various ensembles until 1998, recording three albums and touring internationally in noted venues, jazz festivals, in addition to appearances on live television and radio.

After Hart, Waits worked with Andrew Hill through 2005, and with Fred Hersch for 10 years. His recording and tour with New Directions, a band of young Blue Note recording artists, led to his long-term collaboration with Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, that includes bassist Tarus Mateen. The group has been deemed, “the most exciting rhythm section in jazz” by JazzTimes Magazine. The group has recorded seven projects together and recently culminated twenty years together with a performance series at the Whitney museum.

Waits is also a prolific band leader. He led Equality, a quartet featuring Logan Richardson, Jason Moran and Tarus Mateen, that toured Italy in spring 2007 and recorded “Alive At MPI” in 2009. Equality’s most recent recording “Between Nothingness And Infinity” was released in 2017. Waits also co-leads Tarbaby with bassist Eric Revis and pianist Orrin Evans. Tarbaby has made acclaimed recordings including Tarbaby, The End Of Fear and The Ballad of Sam Langford. The group has featured such greats as JD Allen, Oliver Lake, Nicholas Payton, and Ambrose Akinmusire. The most recent release, “Fanon,”supported by the Mid-Atlantic Arts foundation, was inspired by the work of philosopher, revolutionary, psychiatrist, and author, Frantz Fanon. Waits also co-leads, 3rd EYE, an unconventional trio with Abraham Burton on tenor saxophone and Erc Mcpherson, also on drums. Waits is also a professor at New England Conservatory (NEC) and is dedicated to exploring his role and creative path in music.