SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES ADDED SHOWS FOR 2025/26 SEASON
Espirales Project - Photo courtesy of SFJAZZ
SAN FRANCISCO (September 19, 2025)—SFJAZZ today announced newly added performances for its 2025–26 Season. Tickets for all performances are on sale now at sfjazz.org.
The 2025/26 Season features more than 350 concerts over nine months, showcasing jazz legends, rising stars, and boundary-pushing collaborations. Performances take place at the SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium and Joe Henderson Lab, as well as at various venues throughout San Francisco, including the Herbst Theatre, BroadwaySF’s Golden Gate Theatre, Davies Symphony Hall, and Grace Cathedral.
ESPIRALES PROJECT
Saturday, November 1, 2025 · 7 & 8:30 PM
Sunday, November 2 · 7 & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
Formed in 2023, the fresh and dynamic Espriales Project brings together five remarkable musicians, each a graduate of Cuba’s renowned Instituto Superior de Arte, who represent the next generation of master Cuban instrumentalists.
The band weaves together vibrant threads of Cuban jazz, classical finesse, and the island’s pulsating rhythms—a fusion that’s both daring and elegant. The group’s founder, 19-year-old pianist Rodrigo García, was mentored by the virtuoso Aldo López-Gavilán and has amassed an impressive number of significant awards from Stanford Jazz Workshop and Carnegie Hall. He anchors a superb lineup that includes violinist Tania Haase, double bassist Olivia Rodríguez, and the powerful percussion duo of Alejandro Aguiar and Jesús Estrada, whose dynamic interplay creates a soundscape bursting with soulful musicality and pure joy.
Already veteran performers and educators, the group has performed around the world and blend the rich trove of Cuban songs with new compositions that make the most of their chamber music acuity and jazz sensibilities. Their debut album, En Busca de un Espacio, was released this year.
Espirales Project’s performances are more than concerts—they’re sonic adventures, celebrating Cuba’s artistic legacy while integrating up-to-the-minute influences from all areas of contemporary music to explore new frontiers of composition and improvisation.
TRIO GRANDE W/ GILAD HEKSELMAN, WILL VINSON & NATE WOOD
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 · 7 & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
Featuring an all-star lineup of guitarist Gilad Hekselman, saxophonist and keyboardist Will Vinson, and drummer and bassist Nate Wood, the modern jazz supergroup Trio Grande brings razor-sharp interplay and masterful musicality, as heard on their 2023 Whirlwind Recordings release, Urban Myth.
Winner of multiple awards, including the 2005 Montreux International Guitar Competition, Gilad Hekselman is among the finest guitarists on the scene, active as both a bandleader and collaborator with Chris Potter, Esperanza Spalding, and Fred Hersch.
London-born saxophonist Will Vinson is an in-demand instrumentalist who has released 10 albums as a leader and worked with artists including Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Miguel Zenón, and Marcus Gilmore.
Best known as a member of the fusion juggernaut Kneebody, Nate Wood is a virtuoso drummer whose résumé includes mind-bending performances with Tigran Hamasyan, Louis Cole, and Donny McCaslin. A gifted bassist as well, Wood plays both instruments simultaneously with Trio Grande and Kneebody, and as a solo artist with his fOUR project, in which he also sings and plays keyboards.
The trio’s self-titled 2020 debut release with original drummer Antonio Sánchez was a powerful statement of collective chemistry, and 2023’s Urban Myth is an evolutionary step in their approach with Nate Wood adding his truly remarkable dynamism to the mix.
ADDED PERFORMANCE DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND!
MUSIC OF 'KIND OF BLUE'
Saturday, March 21, 2026 · 4 PM
Miner Auditorium
An all-star band including saxophonist Javon Jackson, trumpet giant Eddie Henderson, and Miles Davis band alumnus Lenny White unite for concert #3 of the Miles Davis Centennial Celebration, looking back to the trumpeter’s epochal hard bop ensembles of the 50s and 60s. This salute to Miles’s hugely influential mid-career music includes material associated with his first quintet of the 1950s with John Coltrane and Red Garland, the iconic 1959 sextet session Kind of Blue, and the exploratory 1960s second quintet with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock featured on the Columbia Jazz masterpieces Miles Smiles, Nefertiti, and E.S.P., among others.
INSTANT ALTER FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST WIL CALHOUN
Sunday, April 19, 2026 · 6 & 7:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
Led by saxophonist Emilio Modeste and vocalist Natasha Agrama, INSTANT ALTER is a project that, more than any other electro-acoustic jazz ensemble, delivers on the promise of its name — a philosophy of transformation and immediacy to change a listener’s emotions and state of mind in the blink of an eye. For this collaborative presentation with Oakland’s Lo-Fi Oyster Co., the band, featuring bassist Adam Donegan, will be joined by powerhouse drummer Will Calhoun of Living Colour and Wayne Shorter fame.
The band seamlessly layers electronic elements with a distinctly post-modern edge and the influence of Brazilian tropicália, expanding the limits of the acoustic lineup and charting new territory at the intersection of technology and improvisation.
Known to SFJAZZ audiences through his stellar work with Stanley Clarke, N 4EVER, Kassa Overall, and Cindy Blackman Santana, Modeste is a rising giant whose resume includes stints with Wallace Roney and Buster Williams, while Agrama is a remarkably accomplished young vocalist and stepdaughter of bass virtuoso Clarke.
On the heels of their debut release of Communicator MIXTAPE, the band celebrates the release of their new Stanley Clarke-produced album, which includes the single “Oração Ao Tempo” — an inventive cover of the Caetano Veloso classic featuring Clarke and drummer Kassa Overall.
For the full season lineup and tickets, visit: sfjazz.org/tickets/seasons-series/2025-26-season.
About SFJAZZ
SFJAZZ is a nonprofit organization that presents the finest jazz artists from around the world through concerts, educational programs, and community outreach. Its mission is to promote jazz as a living art form and to inspire and engage audiences through dynamic programming and performances. For more information, visit sfjazz.org.
