Jazz: 2009-2010 Season

Upcoming Events

• KC Jazz Club: Stefon Harris and Blackout

  Nov 14, 2009 | Buy Now
  Grammy Award-nominated vibraphonist-composer Stefon Harris is heralded as "one of the most important young artists in jazz" (Los Angeles Times). He brings his band Blackout back to the KC Jazz Club.

• Lee Konitz Quartet

  Nov 21, 2009 | Buy Now
  Considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, American jazz composer and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz is "able to erase context and preconceptions, and more or less blow your mind" (The New York Times).

• NPR's A Jazz Piano Christmas

  Dec 11, 2009 | Buy Now
  Join the Kennedy Center and National Public Radio for this annual treat when jazz pianists Dr. Billy Taylor, Ramsey Lewis, Patricia Barber, Eldar, and Robert Glasper perform their favorite holiday songs.

• Christmas Time Is Here: Dianne Reeves

  Dec 18, 2009 | Buy Now
  Four-time Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves, "the only jazz singer with a voice big enough to rival Sarah Vaughan's" (The New York Times), returns to the Center for a special Christmas program.

• A Jazz New Year's Eve featuring John Pizzarelli: Dear Mr. Sinatra

  Dec 31, 2009 | Buy Now
  Ring in the New Year in style with a sizzling jazz performance by John Pizzarelli as he salutes Ol' Blue Eyes in Dear Mr. Sinatra.

• Grappelli & Reinhardt: Hot Jazz
  Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing & Dorado Schmitt's Django 100

  Jan 16, 2010 | Buy Now
  Inspired by the 1930s pairing of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, Hot Jazz finds fiddler extraordinaire Mark O'Connor and his band Hot Swing joining with popular Washington guitarist Dorado Schmitt of the Django Reinhardt Festival.

• Ella! featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Janis Siegel, Al Jarreau, & The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Slide Hampton, Music Director

  Jan 24, 2010 at 7:00 PM | Buy Now
  Grammy-winning vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Janis Siegel, and Al Jarreau are featured in this all-star celebration of the music of Ella Fitzgerald, with the Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band, Slide Hampton, music director.

• KC Jazz Club: Jonathan Batiste Quintet

  Feb 26, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  With his unique voice on piano and dapper sense of style, Jonathan Batiste "has already been turning heads as an up-and-coming pianist with an ebullient style" (The New York Times).

• KC Jazz Club: Carl Allen–Rodney Whitaker Project

  Feb 27, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  Drummer Carl Allen and bassist Rodney Whitaker "present straightahead jazz with a great deal of composure…sharp, snappy, and expressive jazz" (DownBeat).

• KC Jazz Club: An Evening with Delfeayo Marsalis

  Mar 12, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  A multiple Grammy Award winner as a producer, trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis "solos with authority, inserting musical quotes spontaneously as the mood takes him in different directions" (All About Jazz).

• KC Jazz Club: Alison Brown

  Mar 13, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  A musical pioneer, banjo player Alison Brown has pushed beyond bluegrass. "Like James Taylor's voice or B.B. King's guitar, Alison Brown's banjo is an instrument possessed of a unique sonic signature and an inescapable beauty" (Billboard).

• KC Jazz Club: Maurice Brown Effect

  Mar 19, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  When Maurice Brown, the first place winner in the 2001 National Miles Davis Trumpet Competition, "blows his trumpet, folks notice. His irrefutable energy, talent, and focus continually surprise audiences" (JazzTimes).

• KC Jazz Club: Shelly Berg

  Mar 20, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  The Los Angeles Times says pianist Shelly Berg "burns hard, his fingers flying over the keyboard while his body nearly levitates off the bench, [leaving the] crowd breathless!"

• KC Jazz Club: Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio

  Mar 27, 2010 | On Sale 12/9/09,
  Renowned for her bebop mastery and for infusing traditional Japanese music into bold, original arrangements, Toshiko Akiyoshi is a pianist, composer, and bandleader with "unmistakable lyrical gifts" (The New Yorker).

• George Benson

  Apr 11, 2010 at 7:00 PM | On Sale 2/10/10,
  Ten-time Grammy Award–winning guitarist and vocalist George Benson is "an extraordinary musician by any standard" (JazzTimes).

• Mavis Staples

  Apr 23, 2010 at 7:30 PM | On Sale 2/10/10,
  Soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples is one of the most recognizable and treasured voices in contemporary music. Part of Joyful Sounds: Gospel Across America.

• Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival - 15th Anniversary

  May 20 - 22, 2010 | On Sale 2/10/10,
  The 15th Annual Women in Jazz Festival marks the 100th anniversary year of Williams's birth with three evenings of star-studded performances featuring the world's top female jazz artists.

• Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Emerging Artist Showcase

  May 22, 2010 at 6:01 PM
  Witness the future of jazz in this concert featuring five exceptional pianists selected as the inaugural class of the "Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Emerging Artist Workshop."

• Matt Savage Trio

  Jun 8, 2010 at 7:30 PM | On Sale 4/7/10,
  Seventeen-year-old jazz pianist Matt Savage has been heralded by Dave Brubeck as "amazing" and "another Mozart," and by Chick Corea as "delightful and inspiring."

• Diane Schuur

  Jun 11, 2010 | On Sale 4/7/10,
  Last seen at the Center in 2006, two-time Grammy Award winner Diane Schuur brandishes the power to amaze with her supreme vocal versatility and sensational 3-1/2 octave range. Part of the 2010 VSA arts International Festival.