“When the time comes, Bernstein clicks an invisible switch and the band pops into semi-flawless unison. At that point, you might imagine yourself in Harlem in 1929,” says the Village Voice about trumpeter Steven Bernstein’s expansive Millennial Territory Orchestra, an ensemble inspired by the pre-swing era territory bands that crisscrossed the country in the 1920s and 1930s.



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Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra West

SFJAZZ Center

Our amazing High School All-Stars represent some of the most talented youth in the Bay Area, and we couldn’t be prouder of them! For their annual spring concert, the Combo and Big Band present an exciting program of classic to contemporary repertoire along with stunning original works by the band members themselves. Come witness the next generation of jazz ambassadors and support these amazing young musicians!

Spring Concert

The hard-hitting Bay-Area based funk and jazz trio plays the infectiously grooving compositions from Herbie Hancock’s 1973 fusion landmark Head Hunters.

Hancock was at a crossroads creatively in early 1973, having released a string of masterful but commercially disappointing albums with his Mwandishi-era band. In Herbie’s words, “I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.”

Nature of the Beast

Still in her early 20s, Samara Joy is already setting the music world ablaze. Her 2022 Verve Records debut Linger Awhile earned her two well-deserved GRAMMY wins, for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist — the first time a jazz musician has won the prestigious newcomer’s award since Esperanza Spalding over a decade ago.

Hailing from a family of musicians in the Bronx with roots in gospel, Joy began her journey with jazz at age 17, winning Best Vocalist honors at Lincoln Center’s “Essentially Ellington” competition. Within two years she was a star student of piano legend Barry Harris and bowled over a panel including Christian McBride, Jane Monheit, and Dee Dee Bridgewater to win the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

Samara Joy

"One of the West Coast's best kept secrets" (JazzPolice), the pianist, flutist and vocalist debuts in the Joe Henderson Lab with her working quartet and music from her latest Saphu Records release, In Your Own Sweet Way.  

Based in the Bay Area and hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, Schell had an early baptism in the Bay Area jazz scene at age six, taking recorder lessons from longtime Bobby Hutcherson drummer Eddie Marshall, a family neighbor.

Matriculation at Montreal’s McGill University and studies in New York with piano genius Richie Beirach solidified her technique, and dues paying with elders on the bandstand sharpened her instincts, leading to a rapid rise in her reputation along with grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and others.

Gaea Schell Quartet

The legendary pianist known for his six adventurous albums and collaborations with Bobby Hutcherson and Freddie Hubbard performs.

Todd Cochran

Join composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Berkman at the SFJAZZ Center as he discusses and demonstrates the technical wizardry behind live looping and creating spontaneous compositions live on stage. In Daniel's recorded work and performances, he builds looping compositions live using kora (African harp), guitars, analog synths and digital percussion. A fascinating process that yields beautiful musical results.

Live looping

Please join us as we celebrate the music and adventurousness of Mary Lou Williams and Tania Maria. They were—and are—maestras of BOTH HANDS at the piano, the left hand being just as agile and strong as the right. For jazz icon Mary Lou Williams, blues and Spirituals were the foundation, and for Brazilian pianist Tania Maria, mixing samba with just about anything provided new and inspired grooves. We will explore these styles and more as we acknowledge two piano powerhouses in our final family matinee of the season!

Tammy L. Hall

The prodigiously talented young Santa Cruz-based pianist and producer brings a delirious, kinetic artistry to his JHL debut, performing the groove-heavy, jazz-informed compositions he’s made his signature.

Born to an Indian mother and Mauritian father and raised in Sunnyvale, the largely self-taught keyboardist named himself for the Greek mythological character Telemachus and was inspired by jazz from an early age, counting Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Robert Glasper as primary influences.


Telemakus

Inspired interplay is a given as the bass legend begins his week in an intimate duo performance with the visionary pianist and composer Kris Davis.

Since her emergence on the New York scene in 2001, Davis has become one of the music’s singular talents—a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist whose music lives at the intersection of jazz improvisation and contemporary classical composition. The Vancouver-born Davis was named Pianist of the Year in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll and dubbed one of the music’s top up-and-comers by The New York Times. She’s led or co-led 24 albums and won a GRAMMY for her contributions to SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Terri Lyne Carrington’s landmark 2022 release New Standards Vol. 1.

Dave Holland & Kris Davis

Winner of the 2019 American Pianists Award and finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition, the rising young virtuoso is known widely as a member of bass great Christian McBride’s Tip City and music director with vocal phenom Veronica Swift, along with his stellar work as a bandleader.

The 32-year-old Cohen became a Suzuki method piano student at three and released his 2011 debut In the Element while still enrolled at University of Florida’s Frost School of Music. He has accumulated over 15 awards and honors over his career, and created the acclaimed Masters Legacy Series of recordings and interviews in 2016 featuring collaboration with Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Albert “Tootie” Heath, and George Coleman. Cohen has been a member of the bands led by drumming luminaries Herlin Riley and Ali Jackson and hosted the wildly popular YouTube series Live From Emmet’s Place with his trio including bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole and a procession of special guest vocalists and instrumentalists.
Cohen has led 10 albums including his 2021’s Mack Avenue debut Future Stride featuring Marquis Hill and Melissa Aldana, and his JHL engagement includes material from his new project, Uptown in Orbit with his masterful working band.

Emmet Cohen Trio

The iconic bassist’s second night of residency features the Bay Area premiere of his new quartet of masters, each an established bandleader and composer, including alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Nasheet Waits.

Known to SFJAZZ audiences through his standout 2022 performance with drummer Nate Smith’s KINFOLK, Philadelphia-born Shaw is the standard bearer for young altoists in the 21st century.

Davis was named Pianist of the Year in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll and has recorded 24 albums as leader or co-leader, winning a GRAMMY for her work on Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standard Vol. 1.

Dave Holland New Quartet

Throughout his career Dave Holland has established a history for making his bands a proving ground for promising young instrumentalists, but this trio is a true all-star assemblage of jazz heavyweights, each an established bandleader and composer who represents the world standard. The group performs the funk-informed material from Holland’s latest Edition Records album, 2019’s Another Land, which features the searing, soulful guitar work of Kevin Eubanks along with the percussive fire of former SFJAZZ Collective drummer Obed Calvaire. Rhythmic genius Eric Harland, a regular Holland collaborator since 2008’s Pass It On, stands in for Calvaire on this date.

Dave Holland Trio

First assembled for an SFJAZZ performance during the 2017-18 Season, this historic convergence of instrumental giants returns for night four of Dave Holland’s residency, showcasing the singular telepathy they’ve forged over the last seven years and memorialized on their 2019 Edition Records debut Good Hope.

“One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet,” (DownBeat) Chris Potter is a standard bearer of modern jazz, a restless bandleader, SFJAZZ Collective musical director, and collaborator with Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, and the Mingus Big Band.

Since arriving in the Bay Area as a celebrated teenage prodigy trained by his legendary father Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain has brought the rhythmic sophistication of North Indian classical music into a diverse array of settings from Shakti to Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, blazing a mind-boggling array of musical trails.

San Francisco Jazz

May 11, 2024

Spring Concert

May 16, 2024

Nature of the Beast

16 - 19 May, 2024

Samara Joy

May 17, 2024

Gaea Schell Quartet

May 18, 2024

Todd Cochran

San Francisco Jazz

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