The Pamoja Project concerts

About The Pamoja Project

The Pamoja Project is a Chicago jazz ensemble led by trumpeter Marques Carroll, with an electric-band approach that draws hip-hop, funk, and neo-soul into its writing and improvisation. The immediate reason to pay attention is the group’s stated model: Carroll built Pamoja around collaboration, taking inspiration from Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor and Terence Blanchard’s E-Collective while moving beyond the format of his traditional quintet. Its name comes from the Swahili word for “togetherness,” a useful clue to the ensemble’s collective focus.

A Chicago ensemble built around Carroll

The publicly documented lineup places Carroll on trumpet and effects, with Brent Griffin on alto saxophone, Frank Morrison on drums and cymbals, Julius Tucker on keyboards and synths, Sharay Reed and Micah Collier on electric bass, plus Josh Achiron on guitar. That instrumentation explains the project’s separate identity within Carroll’s work: acoustic jazz-band roles share the floor with synths, amplified bass, guitar, and trumpet processing. The documentation describes Pamoja as Carroll’s latest Chicago group, with a purpose of convening young musicians around collaborative work.

A catalog still taking shape

The source record for this profile emphasizes concerts and personnel, so a dated Pamoja Project album chronology, label history, and first-release credit remain outside the available verified material. That makes this a live-first recommendation: prospective listeners have a clearly defined band concept, a named core of Chicago players, and an official description of the musical ingredients, while the project’s recorded catalog awaits fuller public documentation.

The music is the release story for now

Carroll frames the project as a vehicle for a different writing and exploration process from his quintet, specifically one grounded in electric, hip-hop, funk, and neo-soul elements. In practical terms, the Pamoja Project enters the club with a palette wider than a conventional trumpet-and-sax front line: Tucker’s keyboards and synths, Reed or Collier’s electric bass, Achiron’s guitar, and Carroll’s effects create several routes for rhythm and texture. The available evidence supports that personnel-driven picture; future release documentation can fill in titles, dates, producers, and labels.

The live case: recurring, two-set Chicago nights

The strongest live evidence is concrete. Andy’s Jazz Club listed the Pamoja Project for two 75-minute performances, from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. and 8:15 to 9:30 p.m., with a $20 listed price for the July 2026 engagement. WDCB’s regional calendar independently carried the group at Andy’s on July 3 and July 4, 2026. Those listings establish a band designed for a full evening of club sets, with enough material and personnel to work across two performances in one night.

The project’s center of gravity is Chicago. The official Andy’s listing calls it a Chicago group, and the WDCB calendar identifies Andy’s as the venue for its July dates. A Jazz Institute of Chicago club listing also shows the surrounding scene in which Pamoja personnel work: Achiron held an August quartet date at Winter’s Jazz Club, while Carroll’s quintet appeared there in August. That context supports a useful expectation for ticket buyers: Pamoja belongs to an active local network of small-combo jazz and jazz-adjacent performance, anchored by familiar club rooms.

August brings four CrowdMate sets

As of Friday, August 7, 2026, the latest verified Pamoja-specific public material opened here remains its July 2026 Andy’s engagement. CrowdMate lists four upcoming sets at Andy’s Jazz Club in Chicago: 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. on Friday, August 28, followed by 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, August 29. The two-set structure aligns with Andy’s earlier official presentation of the project, making either seating a sensible entry point for listeners seeking Carroll’s electric ensemble format.

Start with the bandstand

Three entry points emerge from the available record: Carroll’s trumpet-and-effects role, for the project’s stated electric direction; Tucker’s keyboards and synths, for its harmonic color; and the Carroll-Griffin horn pairing, for the jazz core inside the groove-oriented ensemble. A live set at Andy’s remains the clearest starting place.

Sources

1. 1st Set With The Pamoja Project — Andy's Jazz Club
2. Events Calendar (all) — 90.9fm WDCB
3. Club Listings — Jazz Institute of Chicago