BALTIMORE — Meet Ebban and Ephriam Dorsey. Two young saxophonists paving their way through the jazz scene,"Our music journey has always been like Baltimore, we started here and we're still here."
Jazz in Baltimore is not as uncommon as some people may think. Their inspiration came from the community and from inside their home, right here in Baltimore.
"Our parents were always playing music in the house," said Ephriam Dorsey. "They would always play some gospel, R&B. And now that I look back at the stuff they were playing, they had some really deep music that they were playing. And everything was like really harmonically complex. So it was kind of conditioning our ears to be ready to be able to do this."
They would both go on to the Baltimore School of the Arts.
Ebban found her love with the alto sax.
Ephriam plays the tenor.
After the BSA they went on to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, taking their music and education to a higher level.
"I feel like BSA was kind of like a college in itself," Ebban said. "Like we were doing a lot of singing, like a lot of theory, a lot of classical and jazz. It definitely prepared me for just like the workload and a constant like sticking to a schedule and being persistent."
The jazz artists have performed at festivals, clubs, and even Carnegie Hall, and they are always drawing inspiration from other artists.
"Terrace Martin, Kamasi, Kenny Garrett, seeing all their shows, like at different times, you always look at them, and what they're doing and it's just like, oh my gosh, I want to do that. I say that about Kamasi. I say that about Kenny Garrett, even though all of them are very different, in the same breath, that I think that's one thing that I got from them, that stuck with me in terms of how I wanted to approach this music is that they are you know, the top of their league, but it's also because they haven't, they have a unique aspect to what they bring to the music," Ephraim said.
We caught up with the siblings at Keystone Korner Baltimore, a historic jazz club known for drawing in the soulfully inclined.
Todd Barkan, the club's owner, established Keystone Korner back in 2022, drawing in the masses and talent from all over Baltimore.
He said from the first time he heard Ebban and Ephraim, he knew he had to get them to perform in his club.
"Part of my mission in life is to pass this music along to generations coming up," said Barkan. "And they already had that spirit in them. I just wanted to give them the opportunity. A big part of what we do is just create an environment to allow people to do what they want to do, to create the most loving environment, the most giving, welcoming environment we can for this music."
"This venue has definitely done a lot for Baltimore. Before this venue we had, you know, we still had venues and it was great. But when this venue opened up here, it was magical," Ephraim said "This venue was important for Baltimore. And it's been especially important to us. It feels like a second home every time. We walk up on that stage. And it feels like the audience is our family. It's a nice vibe."
Ebban and Ephraim hope to inspire the next generation and make people aware that no matter how you want to display your talent, you must take the leap of faith.
"When we dove into the music scene, we found that there's a lot of people that look like us," Ebban said. "For me being like a woman who plays music, like a black woman that plays music, there's not as many and so you know, finding the people around you that support you, find the people that will put everything into your dreams, definitely will keep you going."
"The worst thing that you can ever do is doubt yourself and your path," said Ephraim. "If you have a unique voice in this music, there are going to be people that say things about that, they might not understand your path, they might not think this music is for you. And it's just not true."
For more information on their performance, or any performances coming up soon at Keystone Korner, click here.