SFJAZZ SEPTEMBER 2025 PROGRAMMING
In September, SFJAZZ kicks off its 2025/26 season with an electrifying mix of talent, setting the tone for a month of genre-defying performances across SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium and Joe Henderson Lab. Tickets for all performances are on sale now at sfjazz.org.
Cory Henry - courtesy photo
*** SEPTEMBER 4–8, 2025 | 2025/26 SEASON OPENING WEEK ***
CORY HENRY & THE FUNK APOSTLES
Thursday, September 4, 7:30 PM
Friday, September 5, 7:30 PM
Miner Auditorium
Keyboard master, bandleader, composer, and former member of Snarky Puppy, Cory Henry returns with his incendiary Funk Apostles band, performing music from across his career including material from his GRAMMY-nominated Culture Collective release, Operation Funk.
Henry was a core member of bassist and bandleader Michael League’s funk juggernaut Snarky Puppy, winning three GRAMMY awards with them before striking out as a bandleader with the hard-driving Funk Apostles. With a style owing more to idols Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum than the typical Hammond organ heroes who preceded him, Cory Henry has captured the imagination of music fans of all stripes, creating an alchemy of gospel-inflected R&B, funk, jazz, and global influences that move the body and touch the soul.
ANTHONY WILSON NONET
Thursday, September 4, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Friday, September 5, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
One of the finest guitarists of his generation, Anthony Wilson is a longtime member of Diana Krall’s band and is a veteran of work with Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, and his father, the legendary Gerald Wilson. He’s released 14 albums as a leader and performs here with an expansive 9-piece band with a couple special guests that will be announced soon.
BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA WITH SPECIAL GUEST CORY HENRY
Saturday, September 6, 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 7, 3 PM
Miner Auditorium
More than a gospel institution, the Blind Boys of Alabama are a cultural force that has swept up musicians from every stylistic precinct, including Prince, Willie Nelson, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Ben Harper. With six GRAMMY Awards (including one for lifetime achievement) and a sumptuous repertoire of soaring anthems, the group is a gospel standard bearer that has crossed over without adopting secular songs.
STELLA HEATH SEXTET
Saturday, September 6, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 7, 6 PM & 7:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
A versatile young vocalist and bandleader whose taste for classic jazz spans the 20s through the 40s, Stella Heath brings an evening of music from the Great American Songbook. Born in Novato and raised in Petaluma, Heath began singing at eight and was inspired by the Billie Holiday records in her mother’s collection. She spent the last two years of high school at Michigan’s prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy before acting studies in New York and a career as a working Shakespearean actor that took her from Florida to Beijing and all points in between.
*** SEPTEMBER 12–14, 2025 ***
LABRATS PLAY HERBIE HANCOCK’S MWANDISHI
Friday, September 12, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
The Sacramento-based quartet of master instrumentalists performs music from jazz giant Herbie Hancock’s 1971 fusion landmark Mwandishi, including the classic composition “Ostinato (Suite for Angela).”
FAMILY MATINEE WITH TIFFANY AUSTIN
Saturday, September 13, 11 AM
Miner Auditorium
Join celebrated vocalist Tiffany Austin and her stellar ensemble for a joyful exploration of the transformative power of song. Beyond its aesthetic beauty, music can soothe the nervous system and the soul, chronicle a history, unite community, and take us beyond the world we know. From lullabies to freedom songs to jazz songs and so much more, we'll traverse the magic of music!
CINDY BLACKMAN SANTANA FEATURING RAVI COLTRANE
Saturday, September 13, 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 14, 7 PM
Miner Auditorium
A singular artist possessed of unmatched passion, fire, and percussive mastery, Cindy Blackman Santana graces the Miner Auditorium stage for this long-awaited return appearance with her newest project.
Made famous by her 10+ years providing the bone-deep grooves behind singer and guitarist Lenny Kravitz, Blackman Santana has distinguished herself as a highly versatile player and composer who is as comfortable leading post-bop sessions with Joe Henderson and Wallace Roney as she is touring with pop stars like Kravitz and husband Carlos Santana, whose legendary band she currently anchors.
ELEW PLAYS STING
Saturday, September 13, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 14, 6 PM & 7:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
Virtuoso pianist, DJ, composer, and former member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Eric Lewis — better known as ELEW — brings a solo piano show to the Joe Henderson Lab. He presents daring and imaginative takes on the songs of pop icon and Police frontman Sting.
*** SEPTEMBER 18–21, 2025 ***
RON CARTER QUARTET
Wednesday, September 17, 1 PM
Thursday, September 18, 7:30 PM
Friday, September 19, 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 20, 7:30 PM
Miner Auditorium
Ron Carter is, quite simply, the face of the bass. A towering figure who has defined the instrument’s evolving role in jazz for more than six decades, he was already a creative force on the roiling early ‘60s scene when he joined Miles Davis in 1962, the first piece of what became the trumpeter’s second great quintet.
Anchoring that epochal band would have secured his spot in history, but that’s just one, albeit extraordinary, chapter in a singularly prolific career. With more than 2,300 albums to his credit, the 1998 NEA Jazz Master holds the Guinness World Record as jazz’s most recorded bassist. But whether he’s a sideman or a leader, it’s the consummate quality of his work across a vast array of musical settings that makes Carter a legend.
DOMINIQUE FILS-AIMÉ
Thursday, September 18, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Friday, September 19, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
A rising vocal star and two-time JUNO Award winner, Montreal-based singer and songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé performs two nights in the Joe Henderson Lab with music from her latest album, Our Roots Run Deep, which took the 2024 JUNO for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. “What she does with her voice is absolutely incredible” (NPR).
SARAH HANAHAN
Saturday, September 20, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
A short list of the most exciting young alto saxophonists to emerge in the last five years would have to include Sarah Hanahan. Her incendiary performances were already turning heads via far-flung touring with the Mingus Big Band, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Orchestra, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. But the release of her 2024 debut album Among Giants catapulted her into a whole new realm, earning a rare five-star review from DownBeat. She brings the magic of that album to the Joe Henderson Lab with her powerful quintet.
MELANIE CHARLES FEATURING IGNABU & PAUL WILSON BAE / MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE
SFJAZZ x SMARTBOMB Community Open House
Sunday, September 21, 1 PM
SFJAZZ Center
Headlining our first full building activation of the season with Oakland’s SMARTBOMB curatorial arts collective will be Melanie Charles and Mark de Clive-Lowe.
Brooklyn-based Melanie Charles has transcended jazz vocalist conventions as a contemporary singer, multi-instrumentalist, beat maker, and composer. Her collaboration with a pair of fellow New York natives, drummer Cinque “Ignabu” Kemp and keyboardist Paul Wilson Bae, began in 2019 at a rehearsal for a performance at the 41st annual Wall to Wall concert series at Symphony Space devoted to John Coltrane. They have curated a body of work exploring his legacy via found footage, interviews and samples of his contemporaries to create a 4-movement tribute.
“A musical force unlike any other” (Popmatters), Producer, electronic musician, and pianist Mark de Clive-Lowe is an artist with established roots in multiple sonic worlds.
Early exposure to Tokyo’s thriving club scene cemented the desire for serious study of jazz, and later immersion in hip-hop and R&B while a teen in Auckland gave the budding producer his first taste of collaboration with other like-minded musicians.
A major developer of the broken beat scene blending cutting-edge electronics, classic funk, and percussion-heavy global influences with a distinctly jazz-inspired approach, he has collaborated with Lauren Hill, Kamasi Washington, Eric Harland, Sheila E, Jody Watley, Hiatus Kaiyote, bass virtuoso Pino Palladino and dozens more, contributing to over 300 releases while releasing 23 full-length albums and nine EPs under his own name.
*** SEPTEMBER 25–28, 2025 ***
PAQUITO D’RIVERA QUINTET
Thursday, September 25, 7:30 PM
Friday, September 26, 7:30 PM
Miner Auditorium
Celebrating 70 years of amazing music, woodwind genius, Latin Jazz icon, and 2005 NEA Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera settles in for two nights on the Miner stage with his terrific quintet.
An artist deeply versed in both the classical and jazz traditions, the five-time GRAMMY winner and 11-time Latin GRAMMY winner began his musical life prodigiously, performing with Havana’s National Theater Orchestra at age 10 and appearing as featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony at 17.
He helped build the Cuban jazz movement of the 1960s and 70s as a founding member of Orquesta Cubana Música Moderna and later co-founded the legendary ensemble Irakere in 1973 with pianist Chucho Valdés and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, a band that forged an explosive mix of jazz, rock, and traditional Cuban rhythms that changed the face of Latin music.
YILIAN CAÑIZARES
Thursday, September 25, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Friday, September 26, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
In describing the immensely gifted Cuban-born, Swiss-based vocalist and violinist Yilian Cañizares, piano luminary Chucho Valdés says it best: “Yilian is one of the most incredible talents of the new generation of Cuban musicians. She is a virtuoso, she is expressive, spontaneous and with a grace that makes her the favorite of all of us.” Cañizares performs music from her new album Vitamina Y.
ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ TRIO / DAYRAMIR GONZÁLEZ & HABANA ENTRANCÉ
Saturday, September 27, 7:30 PM
Miner Auditorium
A double dose of Cuban piano pyrotechnics features two of most spectacular improvisers to emerge from the island in the 21st century.
After Quincy Jones first heard Alfredo Rodríguez at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 the legendary producer guided his ascent as Rodríguez became one of Cuba’s most visible and creatively unfettered musicians. Based in Los Angeles since he defected in 2009, the pianist has released a series of increasingly expansive albums for Mack Avenue, incorporating sounds from South India, Argentina, Spain, the Middle East and beyond. His trio features veteran Cuban drummer Michael Olivera and award-winning Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Munir Hossn on bass and guitar.
Sharing the bill is Havana-raised, New York-based Dayramir González, a Chucho Valdés protégé whose stellar band Habana enTRANCé features well-traveled bassist James Robbins, Argentine-born drummer Juan Chiavassa, and Japanese percussionist Taka Nikaido (who made his first trip to Cuba at 12 to study with the legendary rumba ensemble Los Muñequitos de Matanzas). The combination of González’s historically grounded jazz-meets-danzón tunes and Rodríguez’s epic compositions turn this concert into a sweeping showcase of Cuba’s bravura piano tradition.
ARTURO O’FARRILL & THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE
Sunday, September 28, 7 PM
Miner Auditorium
At the center of a jazz dynasty that encompasses Havana, New York, Mexico City and borderlands physical and metaphorical, GRAMMY Award-winning piano virtuoso, composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill proudly carriers the 21st century’s Latin jazz flame in his fingers. He leads his dynamic eight-piece Latin Jazz Ensemble for this SFJAZZ debut.
The son of Latin jazz arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill and father of trumpeter Adam and drummer Zachary O’Farrill, Arturo honed a vibrant Pan-American approach with his GRAMMY-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.
He built his sterling reputation on the international jazz scene through this work with Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, and Jerry and Andy Gonzalez’s Fort Apache Band, and worked widely with his father in addition to stellar work as a bandleader that has yielded nearly 20 acclaimed recordings.
OKAN
Saturday, September 27, 7 PM & 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 28, 6 PM & 7:30 PM
Joe Henderson Lab
Taking its name from the word for heart or soul in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, OKAN fuses Afro-Cuban and other global rhythms with jazz, folk, electronic pop, and classical forms.
Embracing genres and roles that have historically been dominated by men, co-leaders, composers, and multi-instrumentalists Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne bring a fresh perspective to Latin and world jazz fusion through their powerful vocals, inspired musicianship, and potent lyrical content.
