IT has become a standard on the Black History Month calendar. The annual concert organised by the US Embassy in Jamaica continues to draw in loyal following, from its early days on the East Lawns of Devon House, as well as the sprawling greens of Hope Gardens. In recent years, the event has found a home at Kingston’s Emancipation Park.

This year, for the first time the embassy has brought in a musician, as opposed to a vocalist to headline the event. Enter Brent Birckhead, the 25-year-old saxophonist, who promises to blow away his Jamaican audience with his brand of the blues.

Splash caught up with the young Baltimore-born musician a few hours after he landed in Jamaica, for his maiden performance. And what of his first impressions of the island, “It’s great, plus it’s 90-degree weather, where I’m coming from it’s freezing,” he says with a grateful smile.

Birckhead explains that he first took up the sax at 10 years old after his father told him, that he would become a sax’ player as they already had a trumpet player in the family in his older brother, so the saxophone it would be for the younger Birckhead.

Now 15 years later, the blues musician has added the flute and clarinet to his armoury, and explains that he is living his dream of playing music for people. “It’s all about being happy,” he says, “I can’t think of anything else I would rather do, this is my dream,” Birckhead states emphatically.

The word happy would punctuate his conversation, as it becomes clear how important his path is to him, and the fact that it makes him truly happy. “My father told me that if I was good enough at anything I could make a living from it. And thanks to some great people along the way I must say it has been smooth sailing,” he shares.

Birckhead is uncompromising when he speaks of the support of his parents, whom he says continue to support him, “even at this age, they are telling me how to do things and I know it will be right,” he adds.

He followed family tradition, enrolling in the celebrated Howard University in Washington DC, where he pursued both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music. There he would come into contact with a lecturer who would become a mentor. “Charlie Wilson has inspired me in so many areas of my life but most importantly as a communicatior and ultimately better musician. When I went to Howard as an 18-year-old kid, he made me realise that you don’t know anything, and there is a lot to learn. He made me realise that music is much too complex to master, as once you’ve done something there is more to do,” he explains.

Influenced by the likes of the greats — Cannonball Adderly, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald as well as contemporary act Kenny Garrett, Birckhead says the path these artistes have blazed comes out in his work, but when combined with his personal touch, reveals his soul — “you hear my soul in my music.”

At Emancipation Park this evening, the young sax player will be accompanied by the Maurice Gordon group, whom he was scheduled to meet and rehearse with yesterday. “That’s the beauty of the music, we can come together and just create a great sound.”