Portland Jazz Festival

The Portland Jazz Festival returns every February with a stellar series of concerts and events celebrating Black History Month.

Nineteen-time Grammy nominee, four-time Grammy winner and all-time guitar great Larry Carlton is joined by guitar viurtuoso Stanley Jordan at this PDX Jazz Festival performance. Carlton has 38 albums to his credit and has performed on over 100 albums that have gone Gold or Platinum. Jordan has performed in over 60 countries on six continents,…

Enjoy the sounds of Terry Riley (composer, pianist, vocalist) and his son, classical guitarist Gyan Riley, at this PDX Jazz Festival performance. Riley launched the minimalist movement with his classic IN C, composed in 1964, a seminal work, which was to have an enormous impact on the course of Western music. In addition to his…

Saxophone player, composer, pianist, singer, politically committed poet, playwright: Archie Shepp is a legend – making this PDX Jazz Festival concert a must-see. Shepp populates his musical world with themes and stylistic elements provided by the greatest voices of jazz: from Ellington to Monk and Mingus, from Parker to Siver and Taylor. His technical and…

The musical collective known as Antibalas (Spanish for bullet-proof or anti-bullets) was conceived of in Mexico City and formed in Brooklyn, New York. Catch them in Portland for their 2020 PDX Jazz Festival performance. Though recognized for their fluency in Afrobeat and funk music, the band is known to collaborate with diverse groups and artists,…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music. The NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. World-renowned Blue Note/Capitol recording artist Kandace Springs’ next album, scheduled for release in February 2020, will be her most personal work yet. Entitled The Women Who Raised Me, it is her loving tribute to the great female singers who inspired her to begin her journey towards becoming…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. In October 2018, Omar Sosa and violinist-vocalist Yilian Cañizares released Aguas, a very beautiful and personal album. Featuring their compatriot, percussionist Inor Sotolongo, Aguas reflects the perspectives of two generations of Cuban artists living outside their homeland, interpreting their roots and traditions in subtle and unique ways….

Enjoy the sounds of six-time-Grammy Award Winner David Sanborn and this PDX Jazz Festival concert. Sanborn has released 25 albums and has had eight Gold albums and one Platinum album. Having inspired countless other musicians, Dave has worked in many genres that typically blend instrumental pop, R&B and lately, more and more traditional jazz.

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. For 40 years this unique, genre-crossing vocal/guitar jazz duo has cast its passionate musical spell worldwide, capturing the hearts of lovers, the respect of jazz buffs and the jaw-dropping awe of guitarists and singers. To understand Tuck & Patti, start with the wellspring of love within them,…

Two legendary jazz pianists share the stage as part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival.

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Honored by The National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, Kenny Barron has an unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms. The Los Angeles Times named him “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Note: this show is not seated. 21+. A three-time GRAMMY-nominated artist/producer/multi-instrumentalist from the Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin is renowned as being one of the top jazz musicians in the world and has become a creative engine at the epicenter of L.A.’s progressive hip-hop scene. His noteworthy production…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Kat Edmonson has played major stages across the United States, Europe and Japan. The Texas native and Brooklyn transplant forged her sound performing in small rooms and clubs before touring worldwide and performing with Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Jaime Cullum and Gary Clark, Jr. In the decade…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Multiple Grammy nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Growing up in a religious household, Eric Gales‘ brothers Eugene and Manuel used to blast out Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Muddy Waters, Blue Cheer, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, King’s X and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Whilst their mother was at church and little Eric was aged just four…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Even before moving to New York City in 2013, pianist James Francies had generated a well deserved buzz in the jazz arena. He is the youngest recipient of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) President’s Youth Award, DownBeat Magazine awarded him twice for Composition and Jazz Arrangement,…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Over the course of his 20-year career, drummer Stanton Moore has become known as one of the premier funk musicians of his generation. On his latest album, Conversations, he moves in a slightly different direction, returning to his roots while reinventing his trademark sound. The result is…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Note: seating is limited for this show. 21+. Donald Harrison Jr. has combined a whirlwind career as a saxophonist with establishing cultural and educational traditions in his native New Orleans, Louisiana. Known for creating nouveau swing, a jazz style that combines R&B, funk, hip-hop and African dance,…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival, presented in partnership with Soul’d Out. Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner spent the last part of the new millennium’s first decade as the go-to bassist for practically every artist in black vanguard music. Part of the fabric of Los Angeles’ hip-hop/jazz/soul avant-garde since 2005, Georgia Anne Muldrow has built…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival, presented in partnership with OMSI. Dan Tepfer has made a name for himself as a pianist-composer of wide-ranging ambition, individuality and drive — “a remarkable musician” in the words of the Washington Post and one “who refuses to set himself limits” in those of France’s Télérama. The…

Part of the 2020 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival. Over the course of a stellar career that has spanned more than 30 years, saxophonist Kenny Garrett has become the preeminent alto saxophonist of his generation. From his first gig with the Duke Ellington Orchestra (led by Mercer Ellington) through his time spent with musicians such as…