JoVia Armstrong Joins Up with the Jazz Messenger
By WTJU
Date: 06/26/2026
Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Versatile percussionist, sound artist, composer, and educator, Dr. JoVia Armstrong, will join Brian Keena on The Jazz Messenger show this Friday to discuss her upcoming July 1 show at Reveler in Richmond. The discussion will focus on her signature hybrid percussion kit as well as her upcoming tours and recording projects.
The special monthly residency at Reveler in Richmond, VA, explores the frontiers of jazz improvisation. With a band of all-star players, Armstrong invites the audience into the creative process through a unique, participatory format where everyone and anyone in the room can help shape the music performed. The band receives creative input from the room, conjuring sounds and rhythms inspired by the people present. The audience can participate without any special musical knowledge or skills. These spontaneous works are recorded and released with a portion of the publishing supporting local school arts programs.
The ensemble includes Mike Hawkins (bass); Calvin Brown (keys); Jackson Shurlds (guitar); Karl Tietze (drums); and JoVia Armstrong (percussion). Armstrong is an endorsed artist with QSC, Sabian, Icon Pro Audio, and Gon Bops and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia. Her music has been praised by The New York Times, DownBeat Magazine, JazzTimes, and more, with JazzTimes noting, “Comparisons to Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band from the 1970s are purposeful and warranted.”
JoVia Armstrong’s genre-blending work fuses experimental music, Black musical traditions, and immersive technology, creating transformative sonic experiences that take audiences into Afrofuturistic worlds. Born in Detroit, she was named 2014 Best Black Female Percussionist of the Year by the Black Women in Jazz Awards, became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 2015, and served on its executive board. Her extensive performance history includes collaborations with El DeBarge, Omar, Les Nubians, Res, Rahsaan Patterson, Joe Vasconcellos, Eric Roberson, Frank McComb, The Impressions, Isaiah Sharkey, and many others. As a bandleader, her project Eunoia Society explores immersive technology and therapeutic soundscapes, while her work with Detroit-based Musique Noire has garnered multiple Detroit Music Awards nominations.
