The first thing you notice about Gerald Albright is his sense of propulsion: a musician who perceives the band from both the engine room and the front line simultaneously. The veteran saxophonist also thinks like a bassist, and that dual perspective shapes a sound built for momentum and lift.

On November 7, Canadian vocalist and songwriter Caity Gyorgy will perform two shows at the Joe Henderson Lab, featuring sets that combine classic swing, original compositions, and new orchestral ideas into a confident journey. A three-time JUNO award winner, Gyorgy has built a reputation for quick phrasing, clever wit, and a musician’s ear for melody.

East L.A.’s Las Cafeteras are bringing their Hasta La Muerte production to Miner Auditorium on Halloween night, blending son jarocho, hip‑hop, dance, and poetry. Bandleader Hector Flores describes why the story belongs on stage in San Francisco, creating a shared altar—part ritual, part party

Nicolas Bearde has spent his life discovering where soul storytelling intersects with jazz’s improvisation. The Bay Area singer—who honed his stage skills working with Bobby McFerrin—now applies that instinct to Al Jarreau, creating a four-set tribute that honors Jarreau not as mere nostalgia but as a dynamic, living language.

“KCSM was built on a foundational link from the past to the present,” says Dr. Robert “Bob” Franklin, station manager and executive producer of a new documentary celebrating the station’s 60th anniversary. “Amazingly, some of the former students are now program curators, and they’ve put together some of the most interesting jazz shows you could ever want to hear.” He describes the sound that flows through the transmitter as “a form of cultural memory, a vital public service,” and notes that KCSM is “one of the last full-time jazz radio stations in the country.”

In a space as intimate as SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab, the Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas doesn’t just perform pieces—he creates an atmosphere. A pilgrimage to the Amazon inspired his recent music, and his solo set translates that experience into sound: rainforest textures, ritual movements, and the feeling of two mighty rivers converging and flowing as one.

Saxophonist-composer Nicole McCabe is creating a space where club energy and improvisation don’t oppose each other—they enhance each other. Raised in Marin County and now a vital figure on Los Angeles stages and studios, she co-leads the electro-jazz duo Dolphin Hyperspace with bassist-producer Logan Kane, and she’s bringing that high-energy blend into SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab.

Steve Roby sits down with keyboardist Ivan Neville of Dumpstaphunk for a deep dive into the band’s New Orleans roots, their message of unity, and the making of their latest music. Ivan shares stories about the band’s evolving lineup, the inspiration behind their single “Let’s Do It,” and the enduring power of collaboration. The conversation also covers their take on Buddy Miles’ “United Nations Stomp,” the importance of social messages in their music, and what fans can expect at their upcoming San Francisco show.

The Afro-Indigenous singer and composer combines Harlan County roots with Brooklyn grit, inviting San Francisco to sing, testify, and heal together on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Trumpeter Anthony Hervey and pianist Sean Mason bring a living-room energy to the Joe Henderson Lab—blues first, intellect in the pocket—and unpack the stories behind “Du-Rag,” “Open Your Heart,” and a Monk program built to unfold in the moment.

Becca Stevens doesn’t treat genre as a fence line. She hears it as a set of threads—folk, jazz, chamber colors—braided for story and feel. In an intimate setting, that braid tightens: voice, guitar, and the listening that lets a melody choose its own light.

Havana-born and Switzerland-based, violinist-vocalist Yilian Cañizares moves with uncommon ease between conservatory precision and street-carnival pulse. Her music stitches classical rigor to Afro-Cuban ceremony and jazz’s risk-taking conversation, creating a living language—one heard on the new single “Ore,” the bridge piece “Habana-Bahia,” and a forthcoming EP leading to the full album Vitamina Y.

Paquito D’Rivera arrives at SFJAZZ with a mission and a grin—one that views borders as mere suggestions. Two nights on the Miner Auditorium stage with his seasoned quintet will celebrate years of practice and spontaneous creativity, tracing a career that started with prodigy recitals in Havana and has spanned orchestras, big bands, and clubs worldwide.

Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan arrives at SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab with the urgency of a player who learned her craft on the bandstand and is unmistakably steering her own course.

“I’ve always been sure of my connection to the instrument,” she says. “Anyone who knows me knows my dad is a drummer and a great musician. He really got me hip to the music when I was a young kid… we’d watch his DVDs of Buddy Rich’s big band, and I loved how the saxophones were always taking the first solos and bringing the house down.”

An Evening with Andy Summers lands is built for a room where you can hear harmonics bloom and see the grain of a street photograph dissolve into another city. It’s also built for a crowd that wants to listen to the guitarist who helped reshape pop harmony step inside his own archive, then step out again. At the Presidio Theatre, Summers says, that arc will close this leg of the tour: “I’m pleased we’re ending in San Francisco… I should be just about ready to do it, and then the tour ends.”

The first thing you notice about Arturo O’Farrill is how completely he turns purpose into sound. Whether he’s speaking about water, memory, or the way a room breathes during a concert, the GRAMMY-winning pianist and composer treats music as a living system—one that welcomes humor, fury, and community in equal measure. That sensibility powers his new project, Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley, and it animates his return to SFJAZZ, where he’ll lead a charged, pan-American ensemble built for openness and surprise.

Afro-Cuban duo OKAN creates music that bridges gaps—between Havana and Toronto, ritual and dance floor, refined conservatory training and raw street style. Their name, taken from Santería, means “heart.” That rhythm energizes everything they perform: violin complemented by luminous vocals, batá drums, and cajón intertwined with jazz harmony, songs that emphasize joy as both an inherent right and a strategic choice.

Montreal vocalist and composer Dominique Fils-Aimé discusses music as if it were vital—indispensable, calming, and communal. In conversation, a few themes repeatedly emerge: freedom fueling jazz, music as a healing force for the body, and connection—among people, across generations, and through histories—as the subtle foundation that enables songs to flow. These ideas aren’t just abstract symbols for her; they shape how she writes and how she assembles a live set—especially in intimate venues like SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab.

LabRats didn’t aim to fit neatly on a shelf. The Sacramento-based collective, led by drummer and bandleader Jacob Swedlow, moves wherever the groove takes them—through jazz fusion, hip-hop, and live improvisation—while maintaining a tight, communal vibe both on stage and in the studio…