NOV

Melvis Santa is an Afro-Cuban jazz vocalist, pianist, percussionist, and actress that has been wowing crowds at the biggest theaters in Havana since age seven. At 14, Santa put together a vocal ensemble that the great Chucho Valdés called “the best Cuban vocal quartet of the past 30 years.” She comes to Cafe Erzulie for a Soundoff Sessions performance with the JGI. Sets at 8 and 9:30, Soundoff Sessions until late. Creatives, bring your axe — whatever it is — and your energy.

Saxophonist Irwin Hall and his band perform a tribute to John Coltrane. Sets at 8 and 9:30, Soundoff Sessions until late. Creatives, bring your axe whatever it is.

Part of the JGI's Black Music Month series.

Emcee donSMITH performs with an ensemble featuring Zacchae'us Paul on keyboard and Yunie Mojica on saxophone and EWI. Sets at 8 and 9:30, Soundoff Sessions until late. Creatives, bring your axe whatever it is.

Part of the JGI's Black Music Month series.

Bassists, composers and longtime friends Devon Gates and Liany Mateo meet as co-bandleaders for the first time at this special presentation. Sets at 8 and 9:30, Soundoff Sessions until late. Creatives, bring your axe — whatever it is — and your energy.

Part of the JGI's Black Music Month series.

Harlem-raised, LA-based emcee and multidisciplinary artist donSMITH screens short film "BETWEEN GIGS" and offers a Q&A alongside collaborators.

The accompanying soundtrack, "OVERWORKED, UNDERPAID!", will be performed by donSMITH and his jazz-rap trio at Cafe Erzulie on June 18 as part of the Soundoff Sessions.

Experience The World Within: The Global Sounds of John Coltrane as saxophonist, flutist, and bandleader Irwin Hall offers a lecture, listening, and performance demonstration exploring the international influences that shaped Coltrane’s music and artistic vision. Through live demonstration, recorded examples, and conversation, Hall traces connections to Africa, Brazil, Spain, India, and the spiritual search at the center of Coltrane’s later work. This program offers a pathway into Hall and his band’s June 11 performance of The World Within.

Hall and his band will perform his four-part live suite, “The World Within: The Global Sounds of John Coltrane,” on June 11 at Cafe Erzulie as part of the Soundoff Sessions.

Percussionist and bandleader Kofi Hunter presents a group listening session and panel on the music of Hugh Masekela (1939-2018), South African trumpet icon and a leader in the international anti-apartheid movement. The panel will include pianist Zoe Molelekwa, scholar Sean Jacobs and trumpeter Akili Bradley, moderated by Kofi Hunter.

Kofi Hunter and his ensemble perform a live tribute to Masekela at Cafe Erzulie on June 4 as part of the Soundoff Sessions.

What is the sound of perception colliding with reality? In the experience of Black women, especially Black-women artists, what does it look like to safeguard one’s own relationship to multidimensionality? To “define myself for myself,” in the words of Audre Lorde? Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin will join Devon Gates and Liany Mateo, two young bassists, bandleaders and scholars, and vocalist-flutist Melanie Charles and vocalist and curator Faith Quashie, to discuss in an open-ended format these questions of creativity and self-preservation. The conversation will find multiple jumping-off points within the works of Dr. Griffin, on such figures in the music as Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln and Geri Allen.

Gates and Mateo also perform with their ensemble on June 25 at Cafe Erzulie as part of the JGI's Soundoff Sessions.

Jazzmobile Summerfest

Jazzmobile Summerfest

Jazzmobile Summerfest

Blue Note Jazz Festival

Riddim & Jazz Festival

Harlem Jazz Series

Harlem Jazz Series

Queens Jazz Trail

Queens Jazz Trail

Carnegie Hall Citywide

Hosted by Joy Brown and featuring Rodney Jones and saxophonist Jason Marshall

Live From Harlem — JFA Presents

West Harlem Summer Jazz Festival

West Harlem Summer Jazz Festival

Hosted by Emily Springer

Saxophone trios always promise some degree of high-wire excitement, and this one seems poised to soar. It’s fronted by Jaleel Shaw, the alto veteran who held down the saxophone chair in Roy Haynes’s band for years, and anchored by the bassist Dezron Douglas and the drummer E.J. Strickland.