New Orleans institution Dirty Dozen Brass Band closes out the year at SFJAZZ with a New Year's Eve party steeped in second-line tradition. Celebrating 50 years as a band, they fuse classic brass-band street beats with bebop lines, funk grooves, and soul-infused horn arrangements.

Pianist Benny Green returns to the Bay Area for an unaccompanied recital that distills more than four decades of work with jazz legends into a single, intimate evening. A former member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the Ray Brown Trio, Green draws on bebop, hard bop, and the blues with a touch that is at once muscular and elegant.

Bassist, composer, and bandleader Marcus Shelby presents his New Orchestra at Miner Auditorium for a comprehensive holiday program centered around Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's Nutcracker Suite. Reinterpreting Tchaikovsky's ballet through the language of big-band jazz, the suite replaces traditional waltzes and marches with lively grooves, blues-influenced harmonies, and Ellington's distinctive voicings.

Bay Area pianist Adam Shulman offers a daytime take on A Charlie Brown Christmas, leading his trio through Vince Guaraldi's timeless score. A key figure on the San Francisco jazz scene, Shulman combines a deep feel for swing and melody with an arranger's ear for detail.

Bay Area guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader George Cole returns to SFJAZZ with an expanded ensemble devoted to Nat King Cole's beloved holiday album The Magic of Christmas. Cole channels the warmth and effortless swing of Nat's singing and guitar work while leaving room for his own personality and for his bandmates' voices.