Acute Inflections is NYC’s Jazzy R&B duo: vocalist Elasea Douglas and upright bassist Sadiki Pierre, a couple on and offstage. The duo performs a program of reimagined standards, original songs, and spontaneous audience dialogue, a blend All About Jazz described as “a velvety mix of Erykah Badu and Billie Holiday paired with the cool grooves of a 007 on bass.”

Douglas is a vocalist, songwriter, and actress who made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning production FELA!. Pierre is a classically trained upright bassist whose playing crosses jazz, Latin, reggae, and R&B. The two met in Brooklyn in 2012 and have performed together as Acute Inflections since 2013.

The duo has released five studio albums: The Brave (2017), In December (2018), Electric Psychology (2019), 400 (2021), and Let Go (2022). They opened the “Sound of Soul Food” episode of The Great Soul Food Cook-Off (HBO Max and Amazon Prime, 2021) with an original song they wrote for the show, and have been featured on NPR Live Sessions.

Acute Inflections has appeared at Birdland, Sony Hall, City Winery, the Cotton Club, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Their work has been covered by Axios, the Dallas Observer, Valley Breeze, El Paso Inc., the Bronx Times, and the Post Independent, among others.

The duo’s current touring project, Soulful Sounds, is an intimate candlelit concert format that travels to venues across the United States, pairing Harlem Renaissance-era styling with contemporary soul, comedy, and storytelling. More than 50,000 fans have attended their sold-out shows, which hold a 4.9-star rating across 1,058 reviews. A portion of every ticket supports the Renaissance Youth Center, a South Bronx charity that empowers inner-city youth through music education.