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Fri 09.24 @
8:00 p.m. An Evening with Gregory Porter
Gregory Porter (vocals)
Grammy Award-winning vocalist Gregory Porter returns! Hot on the heels
of his revelatory 2020 album, All
Rise, he’s helping NJPAC welcome jazz back with his
distinctive bone-deep baritone. If you’ve missed live music, this is
one earth-rumbling, bone-shaking performance you absolutely can’t miss.
Gregory Porter swings with all the earthy warmth of Nat King Cole, the
soulful spirit of Stevie Wonder, and the poet’s truth of Bill Withers.
Come experience “one of the most amazing singing voices you’ll hear on
planet earth” (The
Guardian). Tickets: $53.75-$103.75
Sat 09.25 @
8:00 p.m. “Salsa Meets Jazz”
Tito Nieves (vocals)
Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra
In the best tradition of the venerated “Salsa Meets Jazz,” this
all-star lineup features three of the greatest attractions in all of
contemporary Afro-Latin music: 10-time Grammy Award-winning,
hard-swinging virtuoso pianist Eddie Palmieri and his Salsa Orchestra,
Puerto Rico’s celebrated son and “Pavarotti of Salsa” singer Tito
Nieves best known for his version of Pete Rodriguez’s 1967 classic “I
Like It Like That,” and storied bandleader and keyboardist Arturo
O’Farrill (son of legendary Cuban musician Chico O’Farrill and heir to
a great musical legacy) and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra who are fresh
off of a 2021 Grammy win for Best Latin Jazz Album for Four Questions (Zoho
Music). Tickets: $29-$89
Thu 10.14 @
7:30 p.m. Boney James
Boney James (saxophone)
It’s smooth. It’s sultry. It’s got just the right amount of swagger.
That’s the music of four-time Grammy nominee and multi-platinum
saxophonist Boney James. In June 2020, he released his 17th
album, Solid. Over the years, his soul- and R&B-infused style of
jazz has earned Boney James four RIAA gold albums, a Soul Train Award
and two NAACP Image Award nominations. Billboard named him one of the
Top Three Contemporary Jazz Artists Of The Decade along with Kenny G
and Norah Jones. Tickets:
$59-$99
Fri 10.15 @
7:30 p.m. Tierney Sutton & Ann Hampton Callaway – In Technicolor
Tierney Sutton (vocals)
Ann Hampton Callaway (vocals)
Jazz queens Tierney Sutton and Ann Hampton Callaway join forces for the
first time with a tribute to famous film music. Tierney (“a serious
jazz artist who takes the whole enterprise to another level” – The New York Times)
and Callaway (“one of the best equipped jazz vocalists swinging today”
– Chicago
Tribune) will perform solos, duets and exciting new
arrangements of songs you’re sure to remember from movies both classic
and contemporary including, but not limited to: “Come Rain or Come
Shine,” “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” “Blue Skies,” “As Time Goes
By,” and “Windmills of Your Mind.” Tickets: $59-$69
Fri 11.05 @
6:00 p.m. + 8:30 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Django Festival
Allstars
Samson Schmitt (guitar)
Ludovic Beier (accordion)
Pierre Blanchard (violin)
DouDou Cuillerier (guitar)
Antonio Licusati (bass)
Hailed by The
Wall Street Journal as “the greatest jazz show in
town,” the Django Festival Allstars brings their unique, high-energy
performance to NJPAC. This internationally renowned group brings the music
of one of the greatest guitar players of all time, the legendary Gypsy
Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Reinhardt’s driving, swinging style
became known as “hot jazz” and it continues to grow in popularity
throughout the world…in great part to the success of the Django
Festival Allstars, who honor the traditions of this “gypsy jazz” adding
their own interpretations, arrangements and original compositions with
stunning virtuosity. Tickets: $49
Sat 11.06 @ 6:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Bethany Baptist Church Jazz
Vespers: Buster Williams
Buster Williams (bass)
Co-presented by the Bethany Baptist Church Jazz Vespers, NJPAC welcomes
back master musician Buster Williams. At age 17, he was playing bass for the Gene Ammons/Sonny
Stiff band; the long, long list
of jazz giants with whom he’s performed and recorded since then
includes Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Sonny
Rollins, and Sarah Vaughan, just to name a few. His deep,
resilient and inventive playing has made him the bassist of choice
throughout the jazz world. “After working almost continuously for 30
years as a sideman,” says Buster Williams, “I decided it was time to
take the plunge, step up to the front, play my music, and express my
concept of a cohesive musical unit. I’ve served my apprenticeship under
many great masters and feel that it’s my honor and privilege to carry
on the lineage that makes this music such an artistically rich art
form.” Tickets: FREE
Sat 11.06 @
7:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Pedro Giraudo + Nimbus Dance
Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet:
Pedro Giraudo (bass, bandleader)
Nick Danielson (violin)
Rodolfo Zanetti (bandoneon)
Ahmed Alom (piano)
Based in Jersey City, N.J., the boundary-pushing, community-driven
modern dance ensemble performs a special program as part of the TD
James Moody Jazz Festival—including the world premiere of Raucous Caucus Tango,
a collaboration with Latin Grammy Award-winning tango virtuoso Pedro
Giraudo and his Tango Quartet. Giraudo is regarded as one of
the most compelling tango artists today— an active cultural ambassador
for the beautiful and passionate music of his native
Argentina. This creative mash-up of bawdy storytelling, slapstick
humor, and exquisite choreography pokes fun at our electoral process,
set to the passionate, dramatic rhythms of Argentine tango. Tickets:
$59
Sat. 11.06 @
8:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Chaka Khan with Special Guest
Leela James
Chaka Khan (vocals)
Leela James (vocals)
The reigning Queen of funk, soul, and R&B—and 10-time Grammy Award
winner—Chaka Khan returns to NJPAC for what’s sure to be a classic
concert, featuring such iconic hits as “I Feel for You,” “Through the
Fire,” “I’m Every Woman,” “Ain’t Nobody” and others. Leela
James first burst onto the scene with her 2006 debut album A Change is Gonna Come, introducing
audiences to her considerable vocal chops and garnering nominations for
Outstanding New Artist at the NAACP Image Awards and Best R&B/Soul
or Rap New Artist of 2008 at the Soul Train Music Awards. Along
with Chaka Khan and Al Green, she counts Etta James among her vocal
heroes and paid homage in 2012 by recording her album Loving You More…In the
Spirit of Etta James. Leela’s influences run the gamut
of vocalists from soul to funk, and jazz, and her interpretation of
music touches on synesthetic. Tickets: $49-$119
Sun 11.07 @
2:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: WBGO Children’s Concert: Don Braden
Septet
Don Braden (tenor sax, flute)
Septet (Line-up TBA)
Don Braden is known around the world as an exciting and interactive
jazz soloist, a creative and prolific composer, a passionate and
energetic educator and as a specialist at arranging and performing
classic popular songs in the modern jazz style. According to All About Jazz, he “creates
accessible music built atop the pillars of wit, honesty, swing, and
heart, and delivers music that alternately cooks, calms, struts, and
soars." No stranger to NJPAC, Braden served 15 years as the
Music Director of its Wells Fargo Jazz for Teens program. Tickets: FREE
Thu 11.11 @
7:30 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: New Jersey Premiere of
Christian McBride’s The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four
Icons
Christian McBride (bass, bandleader)
Sonia Sanchez (orator)
Willie Perdomo (orator)
John Murillo (orator)
Dion Graham (orator)
Christian McBride Big Band (line-up TBA)
Gospel choir (TBA)
NJPAC Jazz Advisor, bassist, composer, bandleader and Grammy Award
winner Christian McBride has played everything from Monk to
Funk. But this latest project is his most ambitious yet: The Movement Revisited,
a full-length work for jazz orchestra, vocalists and orators,
celebrating the great leaders of The Civil Rights Movement. The
words—and the praises—of Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad
Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack
Obama will be spoken and sung in this inspiring performance.
Celebrating its New Jersey premiere, this all-encompassing work
transcends the topical and the political and crosses into the realm of
the spiritual, celebrating not just what it means to be Black in
America but what it means to be human on this earth. Orators Sonia
Sanchez, Willie Perdomo, John Murillo and Dion
Graham will accompany the 18-piece Christian McBride Big
Band, reading excerpts from The
Movement Revisited. Tickets: $29
Fri 11.12 @
7:30 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Lillias White
Lillias White (vocals)
Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical, The Life) and
Daytime Emmy Award winner (Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series, Sesame Street)
Lillias White is world-renowned for her glorious voice and
extraordinary ability to communicate the heart of a song.
Her first solo studio album, Get Yourself Some Happy!, was
released this past summer via Old Mill Recording. It is the
culmination of a 30-year friendship and professional collaboration
between White and her musical director-accompanist, Timothy Grephenreed
(The Wiz),
who passed away in 2020. “This recording, Get Yourself Some Happy!, was a joy to
create. The songs were handpicked and heartfelt—and we hope the album
brings smiles to your faces. I want people to see you (with your earbuds
in) smiling—and wonder what you’re listening to. I hope you go out and
get yourself some happy!” Tickets: $50-$70
Fri 11.12 @
8:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Chris Botti
Chris Botti (trumpet)
Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD When I Fall In Love,
Chris Botti has become the largest-selling American instrumental
artist. His success has crossed over to audiences usually reserved
for pop music and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four #1
jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy
Awards. Most recently, his latest album Impressions won
the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Performing worldwide and
selling more than four million albums, he has found a form of creative
expression that begins in jazz and expands beyond the limits of any
single genre. Tickets:
$29-$79
Sat 11.13 @
2:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: The WBGO Story: Bright Moments
From Newark to the World
The WBGO Story: Bright Moments From Newark to the World is a
55-minute award-winning documentary that tells the story of how WBGO
88.3 FM came to become a powerful cultural force that now reaches
millions of Jazz listeners around the world. Released earlier this
year, the film focuses on WBGO’s creation and features interviews and
stories from people who helped launch the station, including its
founder, Bob Ottenhoff, and its longtime special events and community
relations coordinator Mrs. Dorthaan Kirk, an NEA Jazz master recipient
and widow of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Broadcasting for more than 40 years,
WBGO is New Jersey’s first public radio station and a global
cornerstone in the field of jazz. “It’s more than just music to
jazz listeners,” says producer Chris Daniel, who grew up in Jamesburg,
in Middlesex County. “I really just wanted to tell a good story about
how people love the music and how they worked together to promote
it.” Tickets: FREE
Sat 11.13 @
8:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Dianne Reeves and Artemis
Dianne Reeves (vocals)
Artemis:
Renee Rosnes (piano)
Anat Cohen (clarinet)
Ingrid Jensen (trumpet)
Nicole Glover (saxophone)
Noriko Ueda (bass)
Allison Miller (drums)
Five-time Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves is the
pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world, known for her breathtaking
virtuosity, improvisational prowess and unique jazz and R&B
stylings. Among her many honors, she has received honorary doctorates
from Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School, and the NEA
designated her a Jazz Master—the highest honor the United States
bestows on jazz artists. Hailing from America, Canada, Israel, Chile
and Japan, Artemis is an international, multi-generational
all-star group featuring jazz musicians Renee Rosnes (lives in West
Orange, NJ), Anat Cohen, Ingrid Jensen, Nicole Glover, Noriko Ueda &
Allison Miller. It recently won Best New Artist by Jazz Times 2020
Reader’s Poll and Mid-Size Ensemble of the Year 2020 by Jazz
Journalists Association. With passion, power and sensitivity, they create unforgettable
performances of high-wire interplay and pure joy. Tickets: $29-$79
Sun 11.14 @
11:00 a.m. + 1:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Dorthaan’s Place:
Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut (piano)
NJPAC continues Dorthaan’s
Place, its popular Sunday jazz brunch series curated by
Newark’s First Lady of Jazz, Dorthaan Kirk. The series made its debut
during NJPAC’s 2012-13 season and has grown ever since. “The
finest in jazz is on the menu…anticipation runs high at Dorthaan’s
Place, whether you’re there for the music, the food, the scene,
Dorthaan, or all of the above.” (All About Jazz) This edition
presents the piano stylings of Cyrus Chestnut, “the best jazz pianist
of his generation” (Time).
Taking a break from touring the world’s clubs, concert halls, and jazz
festivals, he’ll stop by NICO Kitchen + Bar for a musical brunch that’s
not to be missed. Learn why The
New York Times calls Cyrus “a wildly imaginative
improviser whose solos are free-associative delights, full of
dark and swinging riffs, rumbling low notes, and splatters of
upper register tickles.” There are two brunch seatings: 11:00 a.m.
(music begins at 11:30a.m.) and 1:00 p.m. (music begins at 1:30 p.m.).
Tickets: $45
Sun 11.14 @
3:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: 10th Annual
Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition
Christian McBride (host, special guest performer, bass)
Dianne Reeves (special guest performer, vocals
Renee Rosnes (judge)
Steve Williams (judge)
Jazzmeia Horn (judge)
John Pizzarelli (judge)
Sheila Jordan (judge)
The divine Sarah Vaughan—Newark’s greatest musical gift to the
world—got her start as the winner of a talent contest. Now, NJPAC
honors her legacy every year with the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz
Vocal Competition. For this special 10th anniversary of
“The SASSY Awards,” NJPAC’s Jazz Advisor Christian McBride will
both co-host and perform as a guest artist alongside guest performer
Dianne Reeves. This event offers outstanding jazz singers a one-of-a-kind
platform for embarking on a career in the music business—and offers
audience members a chance to discover the jazz stars of tomorrow. Gifted young contestants from around the world are evaluated on vocal
quality, musicality, technique, performance, individuality, artistic
interpretation, and ability to swing. The winner receives a $5,000 cash
prize. Past winners include Cyrille Aimée, Jazzmeia Horn, Quiana
Lynell, Laurin Talese, and more. Deadline for singers to enter is September 7,
2021, at 5:00 p.m. EST. For more information or to
enter the competition, visit SarahVaughanCompetition.com. Tickets:
$39
Sat 11.20 @
7:30 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Swingin’ at 96: Anat Cohen and
the Newport All-Stars Salute George Wein
Anat Cohen (saxophone, clarinet)
Christian McBride (bass)
Kenny Barron (piano)
Randy Brecker (trumpet)
Lewis Nash (drums)
Lew Tabackin (flute, tenor sax)
Peter Washington (bass)
This year’s TD Moody Jazz Festival will end with a stellar musical
line-up honoring pianist and bandleader George Wein, who founded the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. He went on to found the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970 and was honored in 2015 with a
Grammy Trustees Award for his festival-production work. Wein will
be lauded with an all-star celebration led by musical
director/contemporary swing saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen. The
Newport Jazz All-Star lineup will pay tribute to Wein’s 65+ years of
great jazz concerts and 96 years of living. This evening is sure to be
one of the most memorable nights in Wein’s long and storied career and
the history of jazz at NJPAC. Wein, universally is regarded as the
single most significant producer and impresario jazz has ever
known. Tickets: $59
Sun 11.21 @
3:00 + 7:00 p.m. TD James Moody Jazz Festival: Maria
Schneider Orchestra
The last time the Maria Schneider Orchestra performed in the tri-state
was in November 2019 at New York City’s now defunct Jazz Standard.
NJPAC is thrilled to welcome the ensemble back to the area which will
surely be THE highlight of the jazz season. For the past
quarter–century, beginning with her orchestra’s debut album Evanescence (1994),
composer/conductor Maria Schneider has developed a deeply personal way
of writing for her 17–member collective; like Duke Ellington, she has
tailored her compositions to highlight the individually expressive
voices of her soloists. In July 2018, Maria Schneider was awarded the
highest honor in jazz, as a recipient of the 2019 Jazz Masters
Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Maria and her
orchestra are fresh off of winning two Grammy Awards, “Album of the
Year” award from Grand Prix de L’Academie du Jazz, Jazz Journalists
Association, and NPR Jazz Critics Poll, as well as a nomination for a
Pulitzer Prize for their latest album, Data Lords. Tickets: $59
Thu 12.09 @
7:30 p.m. Jane Lynch: A Swingin’ Little Christmas Live in Concert
Jane Lynch (host, vocals)
Kate Flannery (vocals)
Tim Davis (vocals)
The Tony Guerrero Quintet
Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actress Jane Lynch (Glee, Hollywood
Game Night, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) is getting into the holiday
spirit. Joined by her friends Kate Flannery (best known for her
portrayal of “Meredith the Drunk” on NBC’s The Office) and Tim Davis
(vocal producer for Glee), this festive concert includes fresh takes on
classic Christmas carols and new nostalgia-inspired tunes. The bandleader,
Tony Guerrero, fuses clever jazz arrangements with tight vocal
harmonies performed by the jazz group, The Tony Guerrero Quintet. The
show’s eponymous album A
Swingin’ Little Christmas hit Billboard's Top 10 Adult
Contemporary chart. Tickets: $69
About NJPAC
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in downtown
Newark, N.J., is America’s most diverse performing arts center, and the
artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey – where
great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day.
NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and
showcasing the state’s and the world’s best artists while acting as a
leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through its
extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation
of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted nearly 10 million
visitors (including over 1.7 million children) since opening its doors
in 1997, and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of
its constituents.
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