{"id":29838,"date":"2025-08-13T05:30:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T09:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29838"},"modified":"2025-07-28T12:09:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:09:23","slug":"san-jose-jazz-summer-fest-highlight-reel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/san-jose-jazz-summer-fest-highlight-reel\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Jazz Summer Fest Highlight Reel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This roundup refers to an event that took place last weekend, Aug. 8-10.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Celebrating its 35th<\/sup> year, the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest is an institution. When the festival was launched in 1990, the one-day event presented acts on a single performance stage. Today more than 100 artists are featured across nine stages, and the music fills three days. While jazz remains the centerpiece of the festival, organizers have cast a wide net to bring some of the finest artists representing a variety of musical styles. Local, regional, national and international acts will grace the stages; there\u2019s something for most every musical taste. What follows is a sampling of featured performances, offering a mix of genres, stages, free and ticketed events. Performances marked with an asterisk (*) require All Stages and Higher Ticket.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

FRIDAY<\/b><\/p>\n

Andre Cruz and Chris Lujan<\/b>
\n6pm \/ PG&E Latin Tropical Stage
\nThis Bay Area duo exemplifies a faithful current-day take on the classic \u201cbrown-eyed soul\u201d genre. In keeping with their traditionally-minded approach, the duo \u2013 vocalist Cruz and bandleader Lujan \u2013 release their passionate, soulful music on 45 r.p.m. records. More on Raza del Soul, the duo\u2019s label, is in my 2021 feature in Metro<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ghost-Note<\/b>
\n7:30pm \/ Jay Paul Company Main Stage
\nRobert \u201cSput\u201d Seawright and Nate Werth (Snarky Puppy) lead a thrilling supergroup featuring Sylvester Onyejiaka, Dominique Xavier Taplin, Dwayne \u201cMonoNeon\u201d Thomas, Jonathan Mones, Mike Jelani Brooks and a rotating cast of guests. Notwithstanding members\u2019 backgrounds in funk and soul, Ghost-Note plays jazz with a boundary-pushing, playful attitude.<\/p>\n

Melodious<\/b>
\n8pm \/ SJZ Break Room Stage
\nThe members of Oakland music trio MeloDious are all under 20 years of age. Siblings from the musical Dempsey family, MeloDious combines superb musicianship and a warm and accessible jazz-informed sound. The group made its high-profile debut gig at Yoshi\u2019s, and has followed that up with concert and festival dates showcasing their mix of originals and standards.<\/p>\n

Malo<\/b>
\n9:30pm \/ PG&E Latin Tropical Stage
\nComing out of the Bay Area in 1971, Malo was at the forefront of the era\u2019s pioneering Latin rock movement. Originally co-led by the late Jorge Santana (Carlos\u2019 brother), Malo released four influential albums in the early \u201870s, all of which charted on the Billboard<\/i> 200. The band\u2019s signature track \u201cSuavecito\u201d soared to the Top 20 on national singles charts in \u201872.<\/p>\n

SATURDAY<\/b><\/p>\n

Kishi Bashi<\/b>
\n2:30pm \/ California Theatre Stage*
\nFormerly a member of Athens alt-pop band Of Montreal, multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi has since blazed his own trail, combining his brand of indie-pop with classical textures (violin is one of his primary instruments), psychedelia and more to conjure a musical world all his own. Bashi\u2019s music is often used in film and other media, a testament to his accessibility and appeal.<\/p>\n

Preservation Hall Jazz Band<\/b>
\n4pm
\nJay Paul Company Main Stage
\nSynonymous with New Orleans jazz, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band began in the early 1960s, and has been a popular fixture in the Crescent City\u2019s French Quarter ever since. Dozens of notable players have passed through the band\u2019s storied ranks. The band has been the recipient of countless honors (including the NEA\u2019s National Medal of Arts) and the subject of multiple documentaries.<\/p>\n

Tyreek McDole<\/b>
\n5pm \/ Montgomery Theater Stage*
\nTyreek McDole is a Haitian-American singer and a rising star in the jazz community. In 2018 he won Jazz at Lincoln Center\u2019s Outstanding Vocalist Award at that year\u2019s Essentially Ellington competition. In 2022 McDole\u2019s rich baritone vocals won him the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition; he was the first male vocalist to do so in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Lalah Hathaway<\/b>
\n6pm \/ Jay Paul Company Main Stage
\nDaughter of soul legend Donny Hathaway, Lalah Hathaway debuted in 1990 with the r&b hit \u201cHeaven Knows.\u201d In 2017, her live album Lalah Hathaway Live<\/i> earned her three Grammy Awards on top of the two she won in previous years. In the years since, Hathaway has been nominated for five more Grammys.<\/p>\n

Tom Scott & the L.A. Express<\/b>
\n6:30pm
\nCalifornia Theatre Stage*
\nJazz saxophonist Tom Scott launched his L.A. Express in the 1970s, working both as a jazz fusion outfit and a backing\/collaborative unit with artists like George Harrison, Carole King, Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra and more. Grammy-winner Scott has played on more than 2000 recordings, and now revisits his groundbreaking work of five decades ago with a new lineup of the L.A. Express.<\/p>\n

SUNDAY<\/b><\/p>\n

Theo Croker<\/b>
\n12:30pm \/ California Theatre Stage*
\nGrammy-nominated trumpeter Croker is a boundary-pushing artist whose work is nonetheless informed by what has come before. A leading figure in jazz, pop and hip hop, Croker makes wholly original music that echoes everything from Miles Davis\u2019 Bitches Brew<\/i> to Stevie Wonder to classical music to reggae to punk. Croker is that rare artist whose work simply cannot be defined by genre.<\/p>\n

All Things Swamp<\/b>
\n4pm \/ Big Easy & Beyond Stage
\nThough this nine-man outfit is based in the Bay Area, their sound is firmly rooted in the swamps surrounding New Orleans and beyond. The group displays an authentic approach to their material, secured in large part through use of tuba (courtesy of the band\u2019s musical director Luke Kirley) and bass trombone rather than doghouse fiddle or bass guitar. Their music effortlessly transports listeners to the Crescent City.<\/p>\n

Something Else! ft. Vincent Herring<\/b>
\n4:30pm \/ California Theatre Stage*
\nCelebrating the soul jazz tradition \u2013 a style that featured leading lights like Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson and the like \u2013 this septet proudly carries that \u201850s and \u201860s aesthetic into modern times. The band delivers what it takes to impress, showcasing classics from Horace Silver, Eddie Harris, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock and more.<\/p>\n

Terry Hanck Band<\/b>
\n5:45pm \/ Big Easy & Beyond Stage
\nBlues Music Award winner, sax player and singer Terry Hanck is a leader in soul-inflected electric blues. A Bay Area fixture since 1969, Hanck has released a solid string of blues albums under his own name. Hanck has also been a frequent Elvin Bishop sideman, and was also instrumental in bringing venerated blues guitarist and producer Christoffer \u201cKid\u201d Andersen to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Mavis Staples<\/b>
\n6pm \/ Jay Paul Company Main Stage
\nComing to fame as part of Stax Records\u2019 r&b-gospel-soul royalty The Staple Singers, today Mavis Staples is the sole surviving member of that group. She launched her solo career in 1969 when the Staple Singers were still at the top of their game. Her solo work is widely acclaimed; Rolling Stone<\/i> named her #46 on its list of the 200 greatest singers of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: This roundup refers to an event that took place last weekend, Aug. 8-10. Celebrating its 35th year, the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest is an institution. When the festival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36,39,44,51,61,63,69],"tags":[5751],"class_list":["post-29838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gospel","category-hip-hop","category-indie","category-live-shows","category-pop","category-rant","category-reggae","category-soul","tag-san-jose-jazz-summer-fest","cat-35-id","cat-36-id","cat-39-id","cat-44-id","cat-51-id","cat-61-id","cat-63-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29840,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29838\/revisions\/29840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}