Photos: NYC WINTER JAZZFEST to Present Marathon Lineups Across Manhattan and Brooklyn

NYC Winter Jazzfest will present its 23rd edition on stages across Manhattan and Brooklyn from January 12-19, 2027, under the theme Collective Radiance. On January 10, 2027, bassist, composer and poet William Parker turns 75, and the festival will mark his birthday with a series of performances through January 19. Ravi Coltrane and Michelle Coltrane will host Expressions, a Coltrane 100 celebration that ends with a two-part concert. Full festival and marathon passes are on sale now at winterjazzfest.com.

Jazz communities from Portland, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. will send artists who carry their home scenes with them, in a first wave that also spans experimental music, soul and global traditions.

This year's theme, Collective Radiance, starts from the idea that what an individual community of musicians and listeners generate together is larger than any single one and nurtures a strong combined ecosystem. Winter Jazzfest has always reflected New York, and in 2027 the festival opens its stages to the jazz communities that sustain the music in cities across the country, inviting artists who bring their home scenes to the festival's audiences.

Portland's Cosmic Tones Research Trio arrives through a new partnership with KMHD Jazz Radio. Chicago is represented by the Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble in their NYC debut and by Kahil El'Zabar, who appears with David Murray. From New Orleans come Davell Crawford and Victor Campbell; from Los Angeles, Jimetta Rose, Dave Harrington, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson; from Philadelphia, the Sun Ra Arkestra; and from Washington, D.C., The Messthetics.

Each scene has its own elders, its hallowed halls, and its own way of marking the music in the community. Representing these separate communities together in New York in January, when presenters from around the world are in town for APAP, is how the festival assembles and celebrates together, organizers said, adding that in the coldest season, during uncomfortable times, the festival aims to create a warm and welcoming place for collective communal joy.

Manhattan Marathon, Friday January 15

LPR
5:30 PM - Doors open
6:00 PM - Julius Rodriguez - From the Bench to the Throne
7:15 PM - Donny McCaslin
8:30 PM - Melanie Charles and The Jazz Baddies
9:45 PM - The Greyboy Allstars
11:00 PM - Marc Ribot's Hurry Red Telephone
12:15 AM - Chad Taylor's Matape

City Winery
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:30 PM - Cheryl Durongpisitkul
7:45 PM - Gretchen Parlato
9:00 PM - Andrew Cyrille Quartet
10:15 PM - Steven Bernstein ResoNation Trio
11:30 PM - Dafnis Prieto Sí o Sí Quartet

City Winery Loft
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:15 PM - Alan Braufman
7:30 PM - Candice Hoyes
8:45 PM - Jeremy Cunningham
10:00 PM - Allison Miller BOOM TIC BOOM
11:15 PM - Linda Sikhakhane

DROM
5:30 PM - Doors open
6:00 PM - Skylar Tang
7:15 PM - Patricia Brennan & Sylvie Courvoisier
8:30 PM - Marta Sanchez
9:45 PM - Melissa Aldana
11:00 PM - Elijah Fox
12:15 AM - Zohar & Adam (extended set)

Zinc Bar
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:45 PM - Sounds of April & Randall
8:00 PM - Hannah Marks Quartet
9:15 PM - Mathis Picard
10:30 PM - Zheniia
11:45 PM - Samir LanGus Quartet

D'Addario Stage at Nublu
6:30 PM - Doors open
7:00 PM - Adam Schatz Civil Engineering
8:15 PM - Elsa Nilsson Band of Pulses
9:30 PM - The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
10:45 PM - George Burton
12:00 AM - Billy Mohler
1:15 AM - Dave Harrington's Pranksters East

Bitter End - Paris Jazz Stage
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:30 PM - Antoine Boyer & Yeore Kim
7:30 PM - Sarah Lancman
8:30 PM - No(w) Beauty
9:30 PM - Gildaa
10:30 PM - Harold Lopez Nussa
11:30 PM - Léa Maria Fries

Nightclub 101 - Where Flowers Grow Stage
6:30 PM - Doors open / Jadalareign (DJ)
7:30 PM - Janel Leppin Ensemble Volcanic Ash
8:45 PM - Blacks' Myths
10:00 PM - Mayan Space Station
11:00 PM - Open Jam – Hosted by Trae Crudup (Downstairs)
11:15 PM - Val Jeanty + Cassie Watson Francillon present KaFou
12:30 AM - Melissa Almaguer Trio

Brooklyn Marathon, Saturday January 16

The Ballroom at Arlo Williamsburg
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:45 PM - Lau Noah x Adam Neely
8:00 PM - William Parker & Marc Ribot
9:15 PM - KatzPascale
10:30 PM - Brandee Younger Trio
11:45 PM - Nate Mercereau's Fantastic Thoughts w/ Carlos Niño & Austin Williamson

Brooklyn Bowl
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:15 PM - Sam Fribush Organ Trio
7:30 PM - TBA
8:45 PM - The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis
10:00 PM - Sun Ra Arkestra
11:15 PM - Gary Bartz NTU Troop
12:30 AM - The Nth Power

Superior Ingredients
6:30 PM - Doors open
7:00 PM - Sparklmami
8:15 PM - aja monet
9:30 PM - Stetson Fox & Dunn
10:45 PM - SHABAKA
12:00 AM - Knats
1:15 AM - Yoni Mayraz

Loove Annex - Fully Altered Stage
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:30 PM - Virginia MacDonald
7:45 PM - Lux Quartet
9:00 PM - Simon Moullier
10:15 PM - Nasheet Waits / Eric Revis / David Virelles
11:30 PM - Pan Amsterdam

Baby's All Right
6:30 PM - Doors open
7:15 PM - Roni Kaspi
8:30 PM - Telemakus
9:45 PM - Ben Williams presents Continuum: The Music of Jaco Pastorius
11:00 PM - Ashley Henry
12:15 AM - Dezron Douglas
1:30 AM - Dolphin Hyperspace

Williamsburg Music Center
6:00 PM - Doors open
6:45 PM - TBA
8:00 PM - Next Jazz Legacy
9:15 PM - Williamsburg All Stars ft. Gerry Eastman
10:30 PM - Joe Dyson
11:45 PM - Emilio Modeste

Jolene at Moxy Williamsburg
9:00 PM-4:00 AM - Soul Summit

Cafe Erzulie - JGI Stage
10:00 PM - Doors open
10:30 PM - Late4dinner & The Family feat. Authentic Intelligence, Safa, SAFA, Chloe Hogan, AL SKRATCH, Qaasim The Strongest, Hrlum, Kai the Universe, Zora Imani, Ajai Kasim, Vanessa Camacho
12:00 AM - THE CIRCLE feat. Peter Collins, Hosted by Avangelia and Bobby Hall III
1:15 AM - CLASSICNEWWAVE + Mtali Banda

Marquee Concerts

Collective Radiance, featuring Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble, Jimetta Rose presents METTASUN, Victor Campbell, and aja monet, takes place January 12, 2027 at Roulette, with doors at 6:00 PM and the show at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $45 Advance Standing GA, $50 Advance Balcony Seated GA, and $55 Day of Show.

The theme of this year's Winter Jazzfest, Collective Radiance, revolves around the belief that a community of musicians and listeners creates something greater than the sum of its parts, a shared energy that sustains the whole ecosystem around it. While Winter Jazzfest has always reflected the New York City jazz scene, in 2027 the festival opens its stages to the communities that sustain the music in cities across the country, inviting artists to bring the energies of their spaces to New York audiences. This evening celebrates music communities whose shared commitment to the arts radiate far beyond their birthplaces, as vital elements of healthy collective live-music ecosystems.

Chicago artist Damon Locks founded the Black Monument Ensemble in 2015. The multigenerational group of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists blend free jazz, gospel, electronics, sampling, and spoken word in an immersive live experience. Making their NYC debut, they bring music from acclaimed International Anthem albums including Where Future Unfolds and Now. The group will feature Angel Bat Dawid, Dana Hall, Arif Smith, and other TBA.

A South Central Los Angeles native raised on church choirs, Jimetta Rose is a singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer whose warm, spiritual voice has shaped LA's soul, jazz, and hip-hop scenes. Mettasun is her solo opus, inspired by the interplanetary mythologies of Sun Ra and dedicated to Arkestra vocalist June Tyson. Through her interpretations of Sun Ra classics like 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Springtime Again,' she adds her voice to the Afrofuturist tradition, offering a jazz- and gospel-tinted vision of radical hope and Black joy.

Born in Camagüey, Cuba, pianist Victor Campbell trained at the National School of the Arts and moved to New Orleans in 2019. He has since absorbed the city's many musical styles into his own virtuosic, joyful voice, blending Havana and New Orleans. Chucho Valdés has predicted he will revolutionize Cuban jazz piano.

Brooklyn-born poet and lyricist aja monet calls herself a 'surrealist blues poet.' The youngest ever winner of the Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam, she earned a Grammy nomination for her debut album when the poems do what they do. Her new album, the color of rain, co-produced with Justin Brown and Meshell Ndegeocello, moves between jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R&B with guests including Georgia Anne Muldrow and Novena Carmel. Rather than reciting over fixed arrangements, she works in close conversation with the music, adjusting her phrasing and cadence as the compositions shift. A longtime community organizer and co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio, an arts collective in Miami, she carries on the tradition of poets working alongside social movements for change.

This evening is presented in association with Jazz Generations Initiative and Dada Strain.

William Parker's 75th Birthday Celebration, featuring William Parker, Hamid Drake, SHABAKA, Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier, and Black Cherry & Shamanic Principal (William Parker, Hamid Drake, Patricia Nicholson Parker, Val Jeanty, Shahzad Ismaily), takes place January 13, 2027 at Roulette, with doors at 7:00 PM and the show at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $55 Advance Seated GA and $65 Day of Show Seated GA.

Born in the Bronx and shaped by the Lower East Side of the early 1970s, William Parker has spent five decades building communal infrastructure in New York, from his years in bands led by Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware to being an integral presence over the last 40 years as a teacher and mentor to the creative music communities of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Village Voice once called him 'the most consistently brilliant free-jazz bassist of all time,' and his widely acclaimed, far-ranging recorded output as a leader now runs past 40 albums for AUM Fidelity and his own Centering Records alone. For the kick-off birthday celebration, Parker appears in trio with longtime friend and drummer Hamid Drake and multi-instrumentalist SHABAKA; Black Cherry, his percussion and African-instruments duo with Drake, is here expanded with the presence of Patricia Nicholson Parker, Val Jeanty and Shahzad Ismaily. In between the two, the bill features the duo of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. Smith will give the world premiere of a brand new composition for the occasion. Says Parker, 'This year at the Winter Jazzfest, I'm looking forward to celebrating my 75th year by bringing different aspects of sound, movement, text, historical recollection, and future exploration with old and new creative friends.'

William Parker also appears at Winter Jazzfest with Mayan Space Station, in a duo with Marc Ribot, and leading the festival's special tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., From The Mountaintop, on Monday January 18th.

Artwork Records Night 03, featuring Lakecia Benjamin, Sullivan Fortner, Tyreek McDole, Davell Crawford, and Georgia Heers, takes place January 14, 2027 at LPR, with doors at 6:00 PM and the show at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $35 Advance, $40 Week of Show, and $45 Day of Show.

Winter Jazzfest showcases the independent label Artwork Records bringing together artists whose work spans generations and traditions, from New Orleans piano to fearless contemporary saxophone to a new wave of jazz vocalists. It's an evening of music from the label's established figures and rising voices.

New York-born alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin grew up in Washington Heights and has worked with Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Prince, and The Roots. A multiple-time GRAMMY nominee, she made her Artwork Records debut in 2026 with We Dream, a cinematic, poem-driven album featuring Terence Blanchard, Chris Potter, Black Thought, and Kassa Overall.

GRAMMY-winning pianist, composer, and bandleader Sullivan Fortner is a New Orleans native known for his imaginative, deeply rooted playing. His 2025 trio album Southern Nights earned his fifth career GRAMMY nomination, and his sixth album, Leave That In There, was just released in August 2026.

Haitian-American baritone Tyreek McDole, a Florida native, won the 2023 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, joining past winners including Samara Joy. His debut album Open Up Your Senses (2025) mixes originals, spirituals, and freedom songs, and he approaches performance as a space for healing and reflection. His new album CHROMA releases this coming November.

Known as the 'Piano Prince of New Orleans,' Davell Crawford has performed professionally since age seven. He is the grandson of 'Jock-A-Mo' songwriter James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford and the godson of Roberta Flack. A singer and pianist, he draws on gospel, R&B, and traditional jazz, carrying forward the lineage of Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, and James Booker.

South Carolina-born vocalist and composer Georgia Heers studied at Oberlin and The Juilliard School and now lives in Harlem. She has performed at Dizzy's Club, Mezzrow, and the Kennedy Center, and appeared in the Broadway production of Good Night, and Good Luck. A Chamber Music America grantee, she is dedicated to exploring music across the African diaspora and its healing power.

Manhattan Marathon

Date: January 15, 2027

Venues: LPR, City Winery, City Winery Loft, Zinc Bar, The Bitter End, Drom, Nightclub 101, Nublu

Timing: 6:00 PM - 3:00 AM

Single Day Pass - $85 Advance, $95 Day of show
Two Day Pass - $145 Advance, $175 Day of show
Two Day VIP Pass - $255 Advance, $275 Day of show
Full Festival Pass - $555 Advance, $575 Day of show (All 8 days, Jan 12-19)

On January 15, 2027, Winter Jazzfest's Manhattan Marathon transforms Lower Manhattan into a living map of sound, with music coursing through LPR, City Winery, City Winery Loft, Nublu, DROM, Nightclub 101, The Bitter End, and Zinc Bar.

Brooklyn Marathon

Date: January 16, 2027

Venues: Brooklyn Bowl, The Ballroom, Superior Ingredients, Love Annex, Baby's All Right, Williamsburg Music Center, Cafe Erzulie, Jolene

Timing: 6:00 PM - 4:00 AM

Single Day Pass - $85 Advance, $95 Day of show
Two Day Pass - $145 Advance, $175 Day of show
Two Day VIP Pass - $255 Advance, $275 Day of show
Full Festival Pass - $555 Advance, $575 Day of show (All 8 days, Jan 12-19)

On January 16, 2027, Winter Jazzfest's Brooklyn Marathon transforms Williamsburg into a living map of sound, with music pulsing through Brooklyn Bowl, The Ballroom, Superior Ingredients, Baby's All Right, Loove Annex, Williamsburg Music Center, Jolene, and Cafe Erzulie.

Collective Resonance, featuring BDA w/ Toribio & Bring Dat Jazz orchestra, Irreversible Entanglements, Blacks' Myths, Dave Harrington x Kalia Vandever, DJ Tara, Caroline Davis plus more TBA, takes place January 17, 2027 at Good Room, Bad Room, with the show at 7:00 PM. Tickets range from $35 to $55.

Collective Resonance is a joyous evening of live music and dance. When bodies move together, the energy in the room forms a constellation of sound, ideas, and creative spirit that burns all at once. As the evening's birthday boy Cesar Toribio likes to say, 'Bring Dat Ass' for an all-nighter celebration of community, improvisation and rhythm, unfolding in two adjacent rooms. In the Bad Room, saxophonist/composer Caroline Davis brings her inventive and lyrical voice, as well as a special way to interact with deep electronics; then Dave Harrington's guitar and Kalia Vandever's trombone intertwine in hypnotic, textured soundscapes that drift through ambient groove. Meanwhile, the Good Room hosts Blacks' Myths with a surprise guest, in a one-of-a-kind collaboration that blurs the line between jazz and hardcore; before the fearless collective Irreversible Entanglements pushes fiery grooves and a truth-to-power delivery that pulls the whole room into their orbit. Between sets, DJ Tara keeps the energy moving with specially chosen selections. And to cap off the evening, Toribio & Bring Dat Jazz Orchestra provide a mix of DJ rhythms and live instrumentation that is sure to keep the party moving into the late hours.

This evening is presented in association with Dada Strain.

From The Mountaintop..., featuring William Parker, Alicia Hall Moran, Anne Marie Sandy, Juan Pablo Carletti, gabby fluke-mogul, James Brandon Lewis, Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Swell, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Ellen Christi, Eri Yamamoto, Diego Hedez, Isaiah Parker and surprise guests TBA, takes place January 18, 2027 at LPR, with doors at 7:00 PM and the show at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $40 Adv standing GA, $45 DOS standing GA, and $65 VIP seated.

'Flower In a Stained Glass Window,' is one of William Parker's deeply affecting works brought forth by the essence of Dr. Martin Luther King. Here, the vision is of MLK as a seminary student, looking through a stained-glass window, hearing the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Henry Stephens Salt and Henry David Thoreau; the message being social and political justice and equality for all human beings. Imagine it is April 4, 1968. A dying Dr