Ray Angry directs Revive Music’s tribute to Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown on Saturday at the Kennedy Center.

Revive Music launched in 2006 as a boutique music agency dedicated to presenting genre-blending tours and one-off productions. The company has since expanded to a hub for a burgeoning jazz community interested in marrying classic and contemporary sounds that draw from all aspects of African-American music and culture. Revive has since become a part of the Okayplayer‘s influential online network.

“Our goal as an organization has always been rooted in presenting unique live performances that re-introduce and further ignite enthusiasm for jazz music,” said Revive president and co-founder Meghan Stabile in a recent interview with DCist.

The live experience remains at the core of its mission, so Revive has assembled an outstanding group of musicians to put a modern spin on a jazz classic. Revive Music: Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown Reimagined takes place tomorrow night at the Kennedy Center‘s Crossroads Club

Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown is a 1954 recording that paired the legendary vocalist and trumpeter in a talented septet. The result is considered among the most important albums in jazz history. Stabile wanted to give this music the Revive treatment to pay homage to two extraordinary improvisational voices, and to show the LP’s legacy by getting some of today’s most dynamic young artists to reinterpret the material.

To that end, Stabile tapped pianist Ray Angry to serve as musical director for the project. Angry currently performs with some of the biggest names in R&B and hip-hop, including The Roots, Queen Latifah, Lauryn Hill and Talib Kweli. However, Angry’s roots lie in the jazz scene, and D.C.’s jazz scene in particular. In the late ’90s and early Aughts, Angry was a familiar face around area clubs while he was pursuing his undergraduate degree in jazz and classical piano at Howard University.

“To me, jazz in the basic foundation of black music and hip-hop is just another extension of jazz,” Angry told DCist. “My jazz training at Howard University and various jazz clubs like [the now defuct] Twins Lounge has allowed me to be able to harmonically and rhythmically bring a new experience to hip-hop.”

Angry assembled a stellar band for this project. Trumpeters Russell Gunn and Keyon Harrold, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Burniss Earl Travis II will serve as the instrumentalists for the night. The District’s own Christie Dashiell, who was just named as a semi-finalist to the prestigious Monk Competition, will be on vocals with Kennedy.

“Working with great vocalists like Kennedy and Christie Dashiell, who really have the talent and capacity to bring these arrangements to life, makes it easy for me to have an abundance of ideas,” Angry said. “Having a great cast of musicians and singers is the best way to balance staying true to the spirit of the music of Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown while propelling it to the future.”

In addition to paying tribute to Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown, Angry hopes that the audience will connect with these classic songs in a new way by looking at them through an updated lens. He noted that Revive’s Supreme Sonacy compilation album, in which Angry’s Celebration of Life Suite is a centerpiece, was designed as a spotlight for this approach to music and the vibrant community behind it.

“The Celebration of Life Suite is a musical example of what my life was like in D.C.,” Angry said. “I am so grateful for the many people that have been touched by it.”

Revive Music: Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown Reimagined takes place on Saturday at the Kennedy Center‘s Crossroads Club. 8 p.m. Tickets $30. Musicians from the ensemble will lead a listening session of the original album at 3 p.m. Tickets $12.