Kavita Shah is a vocalist, composer, and lifelong New Yorker who makes work in deep engagement with the jazz idiom while addressing and advancing its global sensibilities. Hailed by NPR for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages,” Kavita incorporates ethnographic work on Latin American, West African, and South Asian traditions into her music. Her 2014 debut album “Visions,” co-produced by Lionel Loueke, was released to great critical acclaim. In 2018, Kavita released “Interplay,” an album of standards and originals in duet with bass virtuoso François Moutin, which was nominated for a Victoire de la Musique (French Grammy Award) for Jazz Album of the Year. Photo: Julien Charpentier

Bassist Kris Funn began touring internationally with alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and has traveled to every major jazz festival in the world, touching six continents while performing with artists including Sean Jones, Benny Golson, Bruce Williams, Nicholas Payton, Warren Wolf, Pharoah Sanders, Jeff Lorber, Christian Scott, Kamasi Washington, Joey Alexander and many others. In 2017 Kris released his debut album, “Cornerstore". Photo Sam Prather

“The bassist unearths his life through the lens of his own emotions.” Washington City Paper

Saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed is a veteran of Chuck Brown's historic Go-Go band, and leader of the current Jo-Go Project. Elijah has received a Wammie Award and has been recognized by the Washington City Paper as Best New Musician and Best Tenor Saxophonist. Already an established leader in the D.C. jazz community, Elijah is busy as both saxophonist and bassist.

"considerable subtlety and nuance"
The Washington City Paper

Clarinetist Oran Etkin is described by his mentor Yusef Lateef as "a composer of eminent individuality". With strong influences from Africa and the Middle East, Mr. Etkin succeeds at what so many musicians are struggling to acheive in the cross currents of world music. He has recently appeared at the Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival and New York's Jazz At Lincoln Center.

"Great Clarinetist, excellent improviser...ebullient swing rhythm" The New York Times

"Oran Etkin is a musician with his ears wide open, absorbing influences from West Africa, the Far East and Europe... this is world music in the true sense" The Irish Times

“Enthralling, full of punch and panache” DownBeat Magazine

Born in the U.S. and raised in Israel, Adi Meyerson has studied with the great bassists of our age, Reggie Workman and Ron Carter. Adi is a rising talent in New York city, and has performed with numerous major figures on the world scene. She regularly performs at Mezzrow, Smalls, Smoke, and Dizzy’s Coca Cola. Her debut CD “Where We Stand” will be released this year.

The Kenny Rittenhouse Quartet is one of the hardest swinging jazz groups on the eastern seaboard. The group appears regularly at Blues Alley, Bohemian Caverns, Twins Jazz Club. Two CD's have come out of this ensemble, "The Francis Suite", and "New York Suite". It's an explosive quartet, playing original straight ahead jazz with a bit of Funk & R&B in the mix.

Trumpeter Kenny Rittenhouse has performed with many great jazz artists including Larry Willis, Ralph Peterson, Don Braden, Buck Hill, and Steve Wilson. He is a member of The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and The Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, while serving on the faculty of George Mason University.

"a hard-edged post-bop groove, burning with both power and soul. Rittenhouse's trumpet work is solid, cutting and just a little raw in the up-tempo number. The joie de vivre is undeniable and infectious." Jazz Times

Alto saxophonist and composer Sarah Hughes brings her singular voice and vision to the jazz and avant garde music spheres. Known for and an unapologetically personal approach to music, as well as mastery of the instrument, Sarah is a singular visionary in the Washington music scene. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, she brings music to her audience that appears to have no boundaries.

In her own words, Sarah Hughes offers "an expression of the feeling of having a head full of heavy thoughts that churn, froth, and bubble out in the form of giggles, gibberish, gargles, screams, cries, sirens, prayers, and whooping calls."

Photo: Diriki Rice

Jazz on Jackson Place welcomes Marty Nau one of the finest alto saxophonists in the country today. Marty has played an outsized role in the D.C. music scene, both as leader of the sax section of the US Navy Commodores Jazz Orchestra, and in performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and appearances with Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Daniels, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Ethel Ennis, Nancy Wilson, Maureen McGovern.

"The quartet's style is intense and innovative, whether swinging or setting up a lyrical mood, overflows with compelling ideas executed with masterful technique and harmonic sophistication" JazzTimes

Saxophonist/composer Jonathan Parker Jonathan Parker leads his smoldering Octet, now a mainstay of the DC jazz scene. Adept at weaving in between the idioms of traditional hard bop and contemporary jazz, the group performs Parker’s own compositions adjacent to his compelling arrangements of the standard repertoire.

“chock-full of tight ensemble work and compelling solo statements. Jonathan Parker utilizes all of the tone colors and rhythmic tools at his disposal” All About Jazz
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Jazz vocalist Danielle Wertz has already gained national recognition as one of the next generation’s leading voices in jazz. Semi-Finalist in the illustrious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, she was the inaugural winner of the Washington Women in Jazz Festival Young Artist Contest. Danielle is a recipient of several other accolades including the Outstanding Jazz Performance Award in the DownBeat 38th Annual Student Music Awards.

“her voice is the most subtle instrument…a soft delivery with a flawless articulation—it's a late-night voice.” The Washington City Paper

Jazz on Jackson Place welcomes Sharón Clark, the unrivalled jazz diva of Washington, DC.

“You can’t underestimate the transformation of what seems like an ordinary song when an interpreter like Sharón Clark, a Washington-based jazz and soul diva, tears it apart and peers inside.” The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal put it best, “an absolute triumph. The brilliant Sharón Clark, however, knows how to personalize the songs of Motown or the Beatles, no less than if they were by Gershwin or Rodgers, and offers an object lesson in how to revitalize someone else's vintage hit. Her approach is firmly rooted in the pantheon of jazz singers, particularly Carmen McRae and especially Sarah Vaughan.

“a singer with the range, musicality and command of tone and timbre that was Sarah Vaughn at her best” JazzTimes