At the Destination Sistrunk Cultural Center on March 21, there were singalongs, callbacks and even original poetry written on the spot by audience members in response to “I’ve Known Rivers” by Gary Bartz, who himself was inspired by Langston Hughes.

This was part of the Jazz at The Circuit series presented by Broward Cultural Division, a free event for the community. Jazz at The Circuit kicked off last April in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month with tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland.

The fourth gathering of Jazz at The Circuit featured an eight-piece band from Jazz at Lincoln Center who entertained more than 100 eager jazz fans in the audience.

Jake Blasini, the senior manager of educational and community programs for Jazz at Lincoln Center, started off the show by informing the crowd he wasn’t going to introduce the band members individually, but he’d let them speak through their instruments.

One by one they made their way to the front: standup bass (Corcoran Holt), drums (Harvel Nakundi), piano and organ (Jim Gasior, associate professor of jazz and instrumental studies at New World School of the Arts, Miami, joining in), electric guitar (Justin Poindexter), and then, from the back came the trumpet (Alphonso Horne) and saxophone (Aurora Nealand). By the time the trombone (Waldron Dunkley) had completed the group, they were now in full swing of Charles Mingus’s “Better Get It In Your Soul,” with a recognizable hook melody — each player getting the chance for an improvisational showcase as the rest of the band kept the melody going underneath.

Up next, another surprise treat, vocalist Brianna Thomas, came to the front to take her place at the mic. Thomas is a jazz vocal powerhouse. In 2013, she was part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Ladies Sing the Blues” and “Ella Sang the Blues,” and has worked with jazz luminaries such as Wynton Marsalis and was featured on the soundtrack he created for the movie “Bolden,” Dan Pritzker’s 2019 film about cornetist Buddy Bolden.

Thomas’s lively spirit and soulful sound with vocal influences apparent from the likes of Sarah Vaughn and Dianne Reeves were front and center for her first tune, the African-American spiritual “Down By The Riverside,” which had the crowd clapping and singing along without even a prompt.

Next, guitarist Justin Poindexter got the chance to tribute guitar and music legend, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the patriarch of The Staple Singers, as Poindexter took the lead with the band for Pops’ “Freedom Highway.” The chorus of the song, which many in the audience cheered for, “made up my mind and I won’t turn around” helped catapult the song to an anthem of the civil rights movement. Now using “Freedom” as the throughline, Blasini put out the call for five volunteers to write a poem about “Freedom” as the band played Bartz’s “I’ve Known Rivers.”

When it was time for the five “poets” to join the band and read their on-the-spot creations, the musicians kept playing “Rivers” underneath as each read their works relating to freedom. Luckily for the crowd and the band, Darius V. Daughtry, Broward County-based poet and founder of Art Prevails Project, raised his hand and was one of the five to read. His was a poem that weaved in and out of metaphors of rivers and continents – the Euphrates and Africa. HIs reading was an extra bonus and a treat for an already memorable night.

For Nina Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” trumpet player Horne took to lead singing with Thomas dueting and each contributing scat near the end of the song – Thomas evoking another influence, Ella Fitzgerald.

And then it was time for everyone to get a real sense of what Thomas’s rich vocals and expressive song styling could do as she let loose for Billie Holiday’s “Fine and Mellow (My Man Don’t Love Me).” The basic 12-bar blues song found its perfect guest pianist with Phillip Dunlap, the director of Broward Cultural Division, called to sit in. He’s a master of jazz piano in his own right (a master’s degree, as a matter of fact, in jazz performance) and had hosted his own night of Jazz at The Circuit at Sistrunk along with the talented Nicole Yarling back in September.

Dunlap easily fit in with the top-notch band and, at one point took off on an improvisational solo where he filled the spaces of blues scales, easily moving from the bottom to (as they say and he really did) tickling the ivories at the top. It was another one of the serendipitous moments that trickled out spontaneously like the jazz notes filling the air.

This was a show you could easily pay to see at the Village Vanguard or a pro jazz club, but here it was free in what’s becoming a corridor for the arts in Fort Lauderdale. Keep an eye out for more Jazz at The Circuit and if you haven’t been to the Sistrunk neighborhood for a while, it’s time for a revisit.

Jazz at The Circuit featuring Jazz at Lincoln Center took place at the Destination Sistrunk Cultural Center at 1033 NW 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. Watch for future events at ArtsCalendar.com.

This story was produced by Broward Arts Journalism Alliance (BAJA), an independent journalism program of the Broward County Cultural Division.