Unsung Giants featuring The Brandon Meeks Quintet

The Brandon Meeks Quintet brings Unsung Giants to the Arts for Lawrence Theater at the Fort on Sunday, November 8, for an afternoon that's as much about the city's jazz history as it is about the music. It's not just a concert—it's a workshop and a conversation, too, so you'll want to arrive early if you're into the storytelling side of things.

The afternoon starts with a workshop on Indiana Avenue jazz history led by Kay Hawthorne and Jared Thompson, followed by Brandon Meeks in conversation with Indy jazz legend Clifford Ratliff. The concert by the Brandon Meeks Quintet comes after that, so the music is framed by the history it's drawing from. The whole thing runs from 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM.

Unsung Giants is a touring project Meeks built around a specific idea: taking conversations with under-recognized jazz artists and turning them into new music, live performance, and storytelling. He's focusing on musicians whose work shaped regional jazz traditions but who never got fully documented or recognized outside their own communities. This show draws on Midwest jazz legacy stories, weaving new compositions and multimedia into the live set. It's a celebration of Indianapolis jazz history and the people who helped build it.

Meeks is a jazz bassist, composer, and cultural advocate, and he's the one behind the project. The Indianapolis date is presented by Brandon Meeks Music together with Black Humanities in the Midwest, an initiative of Indiana University. The venue is the Arts for Lawrence Theater at the Fort, 8920 Otis Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46216. Admission is free and open to the public.