2023 Lineup / Straight Ahead

Billy Childs

Fri, Aug 11 @ 9pm
Montgomery Theater Stage

Guggenheim grant-awarded Billy Childs is a piano prodigy with a gift for composition, with an astounding 16 Grammy Award nominations and 5 Grammy Award wins. Widely regarded as one of the foremost American composers of fusion jazz and chamber music, he is a technical wizard who continues to innovate harmonically and rhythmically.

Billy Childs
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Billy Childs

Fri, Aug 11 @ 9pm
Montgomery Theater Stage
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SJZ High School All Stars Big Band

Sat, Aug 12 @ 2pm
SJMA Next Gen Stage

SJZ High School All Stars Big Band

Sat, Aug 12 @ 2pm
SJMA Next Gen Stage

Benny Benack III

Sat, Aug 12 @ 5pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage

Emmy Award nominated Benny Benack III is not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the post-bop trumpet vernacular, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery. The 2022 DownBeat Critics Poll recently featured him as both a Rising Star Male Vocalist and Rising Star Trumpeter.

Benny Benack III
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Benny Benack III

Sat, Aug 12 @ 5pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage
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Halie Loren

Sat, Aug 12 @ 6:30pm
Montgomery Theater Stage

Halie Loren is an international, award-winning jazz singer and songwriter. Raised in Alaska and currently based in Oregon, she brings a fresh and original perspective to time-honored musical paths, channeling her innate understanding of connectedness across musical boundaries to forge bonds with diverse audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe.

Halie Loren
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Halie Loren

Sat, Aug 12 @ 6:30pm
Montgomery Theater Stage
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Soul Message Band

Sat, Aug 12 @ 7pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage

Soul Message Band is founded on the 25-year partnership of the celebrated Hammond B3 organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg Rockingham, aka “The Rock.” The pair have an unmistakable chemistry that has taken them to venues around the world as both headliners and as an opening group for Steely Dan, now with veteran guitarist Lee Rothenberg.

Soul Message Band
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Soul Message Band

Sat, Aug 12 @ 7pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage
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Grace Kelly

Sat, Aug 12 @ 8:30pm
Montgomery Theater Stage

An unequivocal musical prodigy, singer/saxophonist/songwriter and bandleader Grace Kelly has rocked the jazz world with sold-out concerts, 14 acclaimed albums, a performance at the Hollywood Bowl and a stint in the house band for Late Show with Stephen Colbert—all before reaching her mid-twenties.

Grace Kelly
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Grace Kelly

Sat, Aug 12 @ 8:30pm
Montgomery Theater Stage
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Unitarian Jazz Service

Sun, Aug 13 @ 11am
First Unitarian Church

Sunday morning, join our friends at First Unitarian Church of San José for a celebration with a jazz accent. This year’s theme, “The Women Who Raised Us,” is inspired by Kandace Springs’ 2020 album of the same name, paying tribute to the female musicians who inspired her throughout her childhood.

Unitarian Jazz Service

Sun, Aug 13 @ 11am
First Unitarian Church

Marcus Shelby New Orchestra Featuring Tiffany Austin

Sun, Aug 13 @ Noon
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Composer, bassist and educator Marcus Shelby formed his namesake orchestra in 1999 to give proper voice to his compositions that modernized the big band idiom. For this set the latest incarnation of the band performs with longtime collaborator Tiffany Austin, of whom DownBeat said: “West Coast vocal jazz simply gets no better than Tiffany Austin.”

Marcus Shelby Orchestra with Tiffany Austin

Marcus Shelby New Orchestra Featuring Tiffany Austin

Sun, Aug 13 @ Noon
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Yakiv Tsvietinskyi & the SJZ Collective Play the Music of Freddie Hubbard

Sun, Aug 13 @ 1pm
Montgomery Theater Stage

SJZ Collective, composed of some of the Bay Area’s most prominent jazz voices, join forces with Ukrainian trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi to pay tribute to Freddie Hubbard. Since all band members double as composers and arrangers, count on a night of thoughtfully re-imagined material from the catalog of a boundary-breaking modern jazz heavyweight gone too soon.

Yakiv Tsvietinskyi
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Yakiv Tsvietinskyi & the SJZ Collective Play the Music of Freddie Hubbard

Sun, Aug 13 @ 1pm
Montgomery Theater Stage
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Veronica Swift

Sun, Aug 13 @ 2pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Veronica Swift took the jazz world by storm following her debut album, 2019’s Confessions. Having made her mark as one of the star jazz vocalists of her era, she has now expanded her style, bringing to Summer Fest material from her upcoming album TransGenre, mixing bebop with classical, rock and soul, and showcasing the dynamic power of her performances.

Veronica Swift

Sun, Aug 13 @ 2pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Connie Han Trio

Sun, Aug 13 @ 3pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage

Hailed by Variety Magazine as “one of contemporary jazz’s most talented and inventive musicians” and DownBeat Magazine as “The Jazz Warrior-Goddess,” Steinway artist and pianist Connie Han performs with a fiery contemporary style, “combining the precision of her training as a classical pianist with the improvisation, and irrepressible emotion, of her heroes Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Kirkland.” (Variety)

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Connie Han Trio

Sun, Aug 13 @ 3pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage
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Patrice Rushen

Sun, Aug 13 @ 4pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Patrice Rushen is one of the most sought after R&B artists in the music industry–a three-time Grammy Award nominee who has composed scores for movies and television. Her song “Forget Me Nots” was famously sampled by Will Smith and earned her a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1983.

Patrice Rushen

Patrice Rushen

Sun, Aug 13 @ 4pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

SJZ U19s

Sun, Aug 13 @ 4pm
SJZ Break Room Stage

A select group of the San Jose Jazz High School All Stars Big Band, the SJZ U19s feature our finest young musicians in a small combo setting.

SJZ U19s
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SJZ U19s

Sun, Aug 13 @ 4pm
SJZ Break Room Stage
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Vocal Gents of Jazz with Kenny Washington, Nicolas Bearde and Jamie Davis

Sun, Aug 13 @ 5pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage

Together, Kenny Washington, Nicolas Bearde and Jamie Davis are the Vocal Gents of Jazz. Having given memorable performances at Summer Fest in years past, they are teaming up for the very first time, offering individual and ensemble interpretations of the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Joe Williams.

Kenny Washington, Nicolas Bearde and Jamie Davis
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Vocal Gents of Jazz with Kenny Washington, Nicolas Bearde and Jamie Davis

Sun, Aug 13 @ 5pm
PG&E Hammer Theatre Stage
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Gregory Porter

Sun, Aug 13 @ 6pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage

Two-time Grammy winner Gregory Porter’s bone-deep baritone has no equal. Porter, who grew up singing in the church of his poor Bakersfield neighborhood and then in New York’s jazz clubs as he worked as a chef during the day, now performs his spellbinding discography in front of audiences who gasp with disbelief.

Gregory Porter

Gregory Porter

Sun, Aug 13 @ 6pm
Sobrato Organization Main Stage