Rolling Jazz 2026

Toast of the Nation 2026's sets are already posted, though I've just come in on the broadcast: what I've so far heard from Nicole Zuraitis & Friends upwas pretty tensile---the kind of Friends who could upstage a lesser vocal stylist without necessarily meaning to, but it didn't happen here. Took a while to warm up to some of Kassa Overall's musos, but it all came together. Sofia Rei's crew are the ones who are killing meee--never heard of her before! Still ahead:

Toast of the Nation takes note of a few magical live performances to emerge in 2025. We begin in New York, where drumming royalty Marcus Gilmore makes an auspicious Village Vanguard debut as a leader. Tyreek McDole serenades festival goers in Marciac, France. Amir ElSaffar reveals a new quartet in Berlin. Then we head to Philadelphia for the visionary Marshall Allen and his small group, Ghost Horizon. The set concludes with inspired performances from Kokayi at Big Ears in Knoxville and one of the last performances featuring Jack DeJohnette with George Colligan's Trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-nXegyTyuI

If, like me, you were upset that Kamasi Washington's soundtrack to the anime Lazarus (which stands up really well as a KW album) was only going to be available on vinyl, good news! They made a CD version for Japan. I've got a copy on the way to me, along with reissues of two grails from the BYG-Actuel catalog: Frank Wright's One For John (with Noah Howard on alto sax, Bobby Few on piano and Muhammad Ali on drums, also never before available on CD) and Alan Silva's Seasons (with the Celestrial Communication Orchestra, a 22-member group that included the whole Art Ensemble of Chicago, three pianists, multiple bassists, and a slew of horns - it's a triple LP now reissued as a 2CD set).

The Small's jam session ruiner/guitar guy debacle has been all over my social media (jazz jams often bring out the real weirdos, but I guess it's notable for going down at jazz jam central).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tBA_5SlNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ropCaQu2jLU

Can't bring myself to watch the second one.

Although it seems like the guy requested "Sunny" and they maybe played a Sonny Rollins tune instead ;)

xxxpost Kamasi is also on Saul Williams Meets Carlos Nino & Friends at TreePeople, the first International Anthem album to be nominated for a Grammy, and both tenors, Aaron Shaw as well as KW, are especially appealing in this overall bubble of live clarity---spoken word seems no prob here: Williams's voice fits in well, though the only lines that have grabbed me are about how Wall St. got its name. (Tenor may be mainly KW; it's one of several instruments played by Shaw).

Scrolling through the Smalls/Mezzrow email makes me think I've gotta get over there soon.

lol @ the dude crashing the Small's jam with a giant acoustic guitar

it is like some kind of Andy Kaufman performance

lol

tbh I feel bad for the guy

Jazz Legacies Fellowship Honors All-Star Concert was at Lincoln Center in NY last night. I was not there but read about it. the Jazz Legacies Fellowships provide unrestricted $100,000 grants to jazz elders. Performing last night were Valerie Capers, Amina Claudine Myers, George Coleman, Akua Dixon, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Bertha Hope, Roger Humphries, Carmen Lundy, Roscoe Mitchell, Johnny O’Neal, Shannon Powell, Julian Priester, Herlin Riley, Michele Rosewoman, Dom Salvador and Reggie Workman. The Mellon Foundation and Jazz Foundation of America fund this

That new Pat Metheny "Side EYE III" is pretty good. Some of the keyboard/synth stuff on that kinda echos sound wise some of those early ECM synthy touches with 2025 sounds (with the loops etc).

I was checking that out last night. I listened to the Side EYE I which was just the trio a while back and that has some cool stuff on it too.

What a great lineup, curmudgeon! Just made me think of Rudy Lawless, who played drums with Valerie Capers for many years and was a really great person to be around.

Honestly makes me so happy to see Shannon Powell & Herlin on there, and Roscoe Mitchell. Good job, rich people.

I need to check out those Metheny records, I love Joe Dyson.

End of an era: The Bad Plus (aka Reid Anderson, Dave King, and your gran on bongos) are hanging it up at the end of this year, after a tour featuring Craig Taborn and Chris Potter on which they'll play the music of Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.

might actually see this tour

Ben Monder came and went?

They're doing a couple of dates with Monder and Chris Speed in St. Louis this week, and a festival in June. The Potter/Taborn shows are in March and April.

The annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics' Poll is out. My label did quite well on the "Rara Avis" (reissues and archival releases) list; the Anthony Braxton Quartet (England) 1985 set was #4, and the Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley album Flashing Spirits was #9.

concur on the new Metheny -- super good

I don't connect with Metheny's music very often. I've tried - and I've interviewed him; he seems to be a genuinely good dude. But what he does is Not For Me. That said, if his taking control of his post-ECM catalog means Zero Tolerance For Silence is coming back into print, I'm all for that.

Have you gone back to Trio->Live recently? That's sneakily become my fave Metheny, just burning.

I love this concept - Chris Weisman and Pablo Held wrote each other an album's worth of music on paper, then each arranged and recorded the other's music however they wanted to, and then they each released the album of the other person playing their new compositions:

https://pabloheld.bandcamp.com/album/chris-weisman-plays-my-music
https://chrisweisman.bandcamp.com/album/pablo-held-plays-my-music

I struggle with Metheny myself, but some of his stuff is pretty great. Honestly, my favorite single disc Metheny thing might be Works II.

His album of John Zorn compositions — Tap: Book Of Angels Vol. 20 — is really good. I listened to that last night. I also like his album From This Place, and a few other 21st century things. I think it's mostly the Pat Metheny Group stuff that sets my teeth on edge.

Yeah, haven't kept up with him in this century, but I always preferred some of the non-Group ventures, like with Haden and Ornette---also unexpectedly enjoyed [Fictionary, by Group mainstay Lyle Mays. One of my friends swears by some of his albums with Gary Burton, and. I've liked radio tracks from his album with Scofield.

Will have to check out his Zorn covers!

The Gary Burton album with Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland is a classic, but the trio albums with Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart are *fire* (esp. the live one).

Speaking of Metheny, can anyone tell me if this has been an official release or a streaming-only thing? It's pretty good.

Also pretty good is the Tales from The Hudson concert with Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Joey Calderazzo and Dave Holland . Metheny's solo in "Slings and Arrows" is stunning.

Heard two tracks from an upcoming Shabaka Hutchings album (coming out in March) and they both suuuuucked.

The second James Brandon Lewis/Messthetics record, also out in March, rips, though.

Yeah, this Shabaka is not great. The last one was a bit too bougie wellness jazz for my liking, so I was intrigued by the idea of him making his own beats, but the production is pretty tame, with generic ambient jazz synth sounds. There's some potentially interesting stuff going on rhythmically on the back half, but as with all his electronic projects, it needs to go harder. As for the rapping, his delivery is pretty monotonous. He's been playing live with Pat Thomas lately, so I'm hoping something more exciting will come out of that.

The thing with Shabaka is that he's a good player, particularly on clarinet, but he's never really lived up to the hype of being the UK's golden boy. His artistic curiosity is admirable, but Sons Of Kemet aside, I don't think he's really landed on anything truly distinctive or vital. I enjoyed The Ancestors record, but they felt like group efforts, and I think that he's probably at his best when he has collaborators who can inspire and challenge him.

Of the two that have been made public, Future Untold is a twinkly ambient blandfest, but the beat on this is quite fun, and I like the way the sax gets a bit spicier after the chromatic breakdown. But as with a lot of his stuff, I want him to take it a bit further, freer, weirder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkV4FsZi-i8

art is cool for sure

I like that Shabaka track, the Baile funk-esque beat, the weird calliope-sounding flutes, bringing back the SoK rhythmic sax...

Just heard syndicated Jazz In The New Millenium's hour of Craig Handy: starts with version of "Watermelon Man" on Headhunters' live 2025 alb, then back to early 90s for live Mingus Big Band, forward a few years to "I Left My Baby," from the Kansas City soundtrack: Handy as Coleman Hawkins, with Curtis Fowlkes, David Fathead Newman, Kevin Mahogany, others; also with group 2nd-Line Smith, which is organ jazz meets New Orleans street, parade etc. elements (organist isn't trying to be the frontman here, wisely); The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner, with Conrad Herwig, and (great finale) James Brown's "Aint It Funky Now," with German combo BAM, back to 2025.

All of that really worked, plus some more with annotations I didn't take in (must start recording this show: there's no archive of any kind, much less downloads)

Here's that Kansas City track; Mark Whitfield's on there too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvYiRl6-FY8

That was arranged by Steven Bernstein, whose long-part-time band with Charlie Hunter, ", Bobby Previte, and Skerik (Omaha Diner) finally released its s/t album in 2025. Name is ironic tribute to where a guy got the idea for Top 40, on which all of the songs covered were originally No. 1, "at least briefly." Think some were Top 20, or other formats officially, but all are the unmistakably well-preserved, processed goods, though not too familiar, not as done here. Also not like the Mothers assaulting "Louie Louie," but witty, lithe, charming, hell maybe it's gay, I wouldn't know:https://charliehunter1.bandcamp.com/album/omaha-diner

(Also don't know why that ", is between Hunter and Previte.)

Cecil Taylor's final live performance — at the Whitney Museum on April 23, 2016, with Harri Sjöström on saxes, Okkyung Lee on cello, Jackson Krall on drums and Tony Oxley on electronics — will be released on CD by the Fundacja Sluchaj label. I was there, and wrote one of the two liner note essays.

https://sluchaj.bandcamp.com/album/words-and-music-the-last-bandstand

cecil is an automatic purchase for me

The show was fascinating - it's 80 minutes long, and about 30-35 minutes of that is him reading what starts out as a poem but becomes a long lecture on biology, human prehistory, and all kinds of other stuff. It's wild. (And the quality of the recording is great, btw.)

Utterly lost touch with jazz last year— couldn’t find myself excited by much on offer, with a few exceptions. One goal this year is to get back into it!

Just saw The Naked Gun last night, which I found to be moderately enjoyable trash– I mean good fun! – but now recalling the parody of jazz singing sequence that kind of bugged me.

Utterly lost touch with jazz last year— couldn’t find myself excited by much on offer, with a few exceptions. One goal this year is to get back into it!

Catch up last year with anything involving Luke Stewart (esp Silt Remembrance Ensemble), the Otherlands Trio (w/Darius Jones), anything with Mary Halvorson

I am utterly baffled by love for Halvorson. Totally unmoved by everything I have heard from her.

i’m a sucker for digital delay

Artlessly Falling is still the one Halvorson album I've really gotten into----from RJ 202i:

eah we were digging AF over on Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?:

He's good on that Code Girl album--sounds old, but vivid, to lingering impression after tracks are over---and alb is all good, by far the best Halvorson set I've heard so far, maybe because she's an accompanist here, to singers and instrumental "chamber" (but non-antiseptic) jazz combo & soloists.

― dow, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 19:45 (one month ago) link

i was a little cooler on the album overall, maybe it needs a few more spins to grow on me, but agree that Wyatt is fantastic on it

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open)

t's a great setting for him and he sounds perfect on it even if I am not as high on as I was the first Code Girl record, but agreed I need some more time with it

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 20:47 (one month ago) link

I thought Amirtha Kidambi's vocals were very strong too, think she's the main singer other than Wyatt, although tenor saxophonist Maria Grand also gets voice credit on the bandcamp page. MH writing and picking but not singing is okay by me; People was like a Portlandia take off on jazz school nerds, although as such, could be entertaining, but it goes on a while. Anyway, this one is soooo much better, and whole thing is here:
https://maryhalvorson.bandcamp.com/album/artlessly-falling

― dow

Grand must be doing backing vocals e.g. on the refrain of "Mexican War Streets (Pittsburgh)". Kidambi was the only credited vocalist on the previous Code Girl and the non-Wyatt lead vocals on this album sound like the exact same voice to me.

― to party with our demons (Sund4r)

I posted this Odyssey show on a Blood thread which will soon sink out of sight, like the other one, so might as well put it somewhere actually still rolling:

Here they are, v. mobile at Jazz Jamboree Warsaw 1983--forgot there were only three--Blood providing enough bass function along with his other soundz, some unaccompanied Burnham too

Yeah, I included that video in my newsletter last week. Really great stuff.

I put out an album by Breath Of Air (guitarist Brandon Ross and the two non-Ulmer guys from Odyssey) on my label a few years ago.

https://breathofair.bandcamp.com/album/breath-of-air

Warren Benbow has subsequently died, but Brandon told me they've brought in Tcheser Holmes of Irreversible Entanglements on drums and might be making another album.

Excellent choice! Yeah, I came back to mention Breath Of Air's ace alb. Agree also about Blood as sterling team player with Arthur Blythe---Black Arthur, they called him, long gone and seldom mentioned nowadays, seems like, but, as well as Illusion, check hisLenox Avenue Breakdown, also w Blood (and Dejohnette, and McBee, and Bob Stewart, and Guillermo Franco), which is like what Sonny Rollins did on several 70s albums, accessibly adventurous (though not like Prime Time, drawing me into blues-disco on Mars, which was also fine).

Interesting ideas on that Wendel album, but the naff reverb on his sax let it down for me. I love effects when they're used to take a horn player's tone to weird new places, but too often contemporary players are using effects in a really shiny, processed cheese way. There are exceptions of course: Seymour Wright's dissonant use of the harmoniser is an antidote to all the sub-John Hassell stuff going on in new age ambient jazz, while Caroline Davis does really beautiful, psychedelic and wobbly things with granular delay etc. And then there's Delphine Joussein running her flute through all sorts of distortion, delays and pitch-shifting.

Speaking of new age ambient jazz and effects on saxophone, I posted this to the UK jazz thread, it's guilty but also really beautiful and executed well, and Gary Bartz sounds great. Maybe that's the retirement plan for legendary saxophone players now, record a prestige ambient jazz album with some British people.

https://yourbrotherskeepergarybartz.bandcamp.com/album/where-rivers-meet

Tyshawn Sorey's "Members, Don't" is great (Fay Victor's vocals are not. I will complain about the state of jazz vocals elsewhere).

Fay Victor is incredible and her contribution to that recording Is the cherry on top. What do you mean by state of jazz vocals? She's steeped in the tradition but has pushed it way out.

is that new miles ‘56 boxset any good

xp "etended tachniques" are anti-ASMR to me.

extended

is that new miles ‘56 boxset any good

It contains nothing you haven't already heard, and if you're fanatical enough, is missing some alternate takes you have already heard.

xp "etended tachniques" are anti-ASMR to me.

― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Monday, June 22, 2026 10:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

So you like them or you don't like them? I thought ASMR was when ladies on Tik Tok touch food with their fingernails, so I'm not sure what the opposite of that would be

for me, “extended vocal techniques” are like nails on chalkboard and makes me instantly repulsed. it works on my nervous system in a bad way. Honestly, many extended vocal techniques now in modern jazz singing, just sound like hiccuping and vomiting to me. That’s my problem, of course.

I gather the ASMR videos and stuff are meant to be pleasant.

like I love Cathy Berberian, though.

If you love Cathy Berberian I don't think it's much of a leap to Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton, Jaap Blonk et al. They're all bad asses (and Minton and Nicols can really sing too - check the former belting it out with Mike Westbrook and Carla Bley, and the latter's recent standards album) but in jazz context that kind of Dada/free improv vocalese can be a bit forced if it's not done right.
Fay Victor definitely does it right: she's earned her jazz standards and bebop bonafides, but has also learnt a lot from her time hanging out with Misha Mengleberg and the ICP in Amsterdam, as well as hanging out in the 1980s NYC club scene. When she scats on the Herbie Nichols stuff, it doesn't sound dated or fake, it's just great improvising.
My main issue with contemporary jazz vocal in the more conventional sense, is that it can be a bit too music theatre. I don't mean that in terms of the material, cos obviously show tunes are part of the tradition, but it's more about the performative way it's put across.

I took part in one of Phil Minton's feral choirs (perhaps you did too, Stew?) and it was a really fascinating experience. At one point in a rehearsal, the choir fell into an almost shanty-like dirge that felt, in the moment, like a musical breakthrough for the collective - it was much more like 'proper' song - and of course Phil totally disregarded it when it came to the actual performance. Proper song was definitely not what he was looking for, or trying to coax from us.

Five Men Singing - with Blonk, Makigami, Dutton, Minton and Moss - is (along with the two Patty Waters albs) my go-to disc for improv singing, incredible rec:

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/five-men-singing-jaap-blonk-victo-review-by-eyal-hareuveni

Ha yes, at an Instal many moons ago? That was such a blast. It's online too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_dfgHEuvw

I've not heard Five Men - got to remedy that asap. Thanks for the heads up.

I was at FIMAV that year for the Five Men Singing show -- totally amazing.

Good stuff here re vocalese, Lambert Hendricks & Ross to present day, not very experimental though:
RFI: Vocal jazz songform

But I shoulda said that LH&R's Sing a Song of Basie was experimental af in 1956! They were one of the first jazz acts, after Bechet, I think, to use four-track recording, singing the horn parts from Basie Orchestra recordings, and sometimes adding lyrics, with their own recorded harmonies responded to by a live-in-the-studio combo.

And their songwriting could adventurously follow their sound, like Annie Ross's song about her shrink, "Twisted," with lyrics set to a Wardell Gray sax solo, and well-covered by Joni Mitchell.

James Brandon Lewis’ new quartet album on Intakt is a winner

brilliant track: from forthcoming album by Akusmi

track: Anima

groovy 7 minute track reminds me of Triosk and Peter Gabriel track San Jacinto.

Described as French composer Pascal Bideau blends post-classical with Spiritual jazz and Afrobeat influences, complete with electronic production

Akusmi - Terra Incognita
https://akusmi.bandcamp.com/album/terra-incognita

Due
July 3rd 2026

Tags
afrobeat electronic electronica global jazz highlife jazz instrumental minimalism modern classical world music London

― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 May 2026 7:06 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

FYI this album is spectacular

Holy shit! The DownBeat critics' poll is out, and not only did a record I released — Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley's Flashing Spirits — get honored in the Historical Album Of The Year category, but Burning Ambulance itself was listed in the Record Label Of The Year category. I'm pretty fuckin' amazed, I gotta say.

congrats on all that!

Yeah, congrats.

Nice!

Congratulations!

congratulations, unperson. next they should have you in for a blindfold test!

Congrats!

Congrats!

Released today, this looks interesting, anyone familiar with this artist?

Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Trio

https://vincentyuenruiz.bandcamp.com/album/trio

FELT survey Copenhagen's contemporary jazz scene with RMC graduate Vincent Yuen Ruiz’s intimate and strikingly minimal rendition of stifled percussion, spacious piano and precise double bass work, tipped FFO of The Necks x Talk Talk, naturally ✨https://t.co/MwlIvtz1hn pic.twitter.com/mdJdotAOYl

— Boomkat.com (@boomkatonline) July 14, 2026

JUST IN! 'Trio' by Vincent Yuen Ruiz

Ambient jazz on FELT from the Copenhagen piano, double bass, and percussion group, drawing from jazz influences past and present alongside minimalism, impressionism, chamber music, and the output of ECM records.https://t.co/IgWa8Up2Jk pic.twitter.com/0EuCmvopJA

— Norman Records (@normanrecords) July 16, 2026

I don't think so, but from the clips I love how it's recorded/mixed (close, super compressed, might not work for all jazz but it's great for this spare textural stuff).

the Tomeka Reid album continues to grow on me, definitely one of the year's best in all genres

Agreed, it’s great.

Aye, congratz unperson! Second the blindfold test too (don't we have a thread for that?)

Congratulations unperson!

Francis Davis mid-year poll is out. It's a strong list, with quite a few of my picks ranking highly. Hard to argue with Tyshawn and Tomeka taking the top spots, although there plenty of equally fine records throughout the list. As compiler Tom Hull says, the votes are pretty spread out, meaning the top ranked albums getting a fairly low vote share. I think that lack of consensus is a good thing, reflecting a healthy and diverse scene.

https://artsfuse.org/331941/the-annual-francis-davis-jazz-critics-poll-at-mid-year-warming-up-a-riff-how-it-happened-and-why-it-matters/

I was happy to see that Cecil Taylor album top the Rara Avis list - they gave me a producer credit on it but all I did was write the liner notes and help with emails to a few people.

congrats unperson!

I saw Steve Turre live last night in a DC club with his son Orion on drums, and DC-based musicians Allyn Johnson on keys, and Herman Burney on acoustic bass. Turre played trombone, conch shells and various percussion instruments. A mostly straight-ahead jazz gig for both sets (little Latin jazz or salsa). Turre did do the Don Drummond and the Skatalites song "Green Island" (and Turre noted his own wife is from Jamaica), played 2 conch shells at once on Miles Davis "All Blues," & also covered Herbie Hancock "Watermelon Man" and Rahsan Roland Kirk. He did a couple of new originals and a nice ballad where the keyboardist shined. He told a good Ray Charles story

thought about going

Ha, I mean Herbie Hancock “Cantaloupe Island”

The Brooklyn Jazz Festival, which was supposed to happen yesterday, has been "postponed" due to lack of ticket sales, despite a really good lineup - a jazz festival with actual jazz artists! Check the website to see:

https://www.bklynjazzfest.com/

The LA Jazz Festival (more of a typical R&B-with-a-few-jazz-artists event) was cancelled outright; apparently that one was more of a bureaucratic shitshow, plus financial problems:

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/l-a-jazz-festival-canceled-john-legend-janelle-monae-1236830665/

"inaugural" Brooklyn Jazz fest postponed

I was unaware of the Brooklyn Jazz Festival until now. Was it well advertised? Great line-up, but I also see most of those acts regularly in smaller indoor venues. This summer has been brutal in terms of weather-related cancellations for outdoor shows, and the entire weekend has a heat advisory. I'd suggest another time of the year, but not to compete with the other jazz festivals going on around NYC.

Same

Guitarist Joel Harrison, who was one of the talent bookers for Brooklyn, offered some thoughts on Facebook, in response to various comments (not reproduced here, but you can infer what they were).

Reluctantly, I am going to weigh in since I was one of the talent buyers in Brooklyn. 1. There should be virtually NO comparison with LA because that was a HUGE event over many days, we were one day. There are many factors why this had to be postponed: extremely low ticket sales is the main reason. Why? 1) Advertising started too late 2) Outdoor events are very expensive and hard to produce 3) There is a TON of summer competition, free events, other festivals. Perhaps stupidly we were not aware that Nomad was happening when we chose this date, for instance. 4) The Parks Dept. really dragged their feet and made delays inevitable in the producers execution, promo, and planning. How do you "prepare" for that? To note, I was only the talent buyer, not the lead producer or organizer. As for whether this means anything in the bigger picture. I doubt it. Everyone I spoke to thought this was a fabulous lineup that could be successful. I think if done indoors, with way more time to promote it would have been. The more cruel and negative comments here are really unnecessary. The producer made mistakes that should be forgiven. He put up his money to make something beautiful happen and should be thanked. How many people are willing to even try who have the ability to do it? We DID put on a successful guitar festival in June, though again Parks Dept. almost killed it. Yes, to Willard Jenkins point, it is harder than it looks. Lessons have been learned. Apologies have been made. We are going to reschedule for the winter 2027 and hope as many artists as possible will be free at the same time. To the persons point that this was "too old" a roster. Come on! Marcus Gilmore, Linda May Han Oh, Vinicius Gomes and Joel Ross are too old? I hope not or we are all going to be dead very soon. And to the gentleman's point of an anchor artist. One must ask...who would that be? This whole thing about art meeting commerce is quite intricate. Until you've tried...you don't really see HOW intricate. So let me end by saying I have even more respect for those who have succeeded, and they have been consulted this past week and will continue to be. Anyone with a genuine interest in contructive advice in the truly challenging art of making a jazz festival great musically and great financially is welcome in my inbox! One last thing...I've had a LOT of people express genuine support after this cancellation. THANK YOU!

Speaking of booking:

A superior court judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 to a jazz musician who last December canceled the annual Christmas Eve performance he had hosted there for nearly 20 years. Chuck Redd, a vibraphonist and drummer, decided to cancel the concert after President Trump's name was added to the facade of the arts center that month.

After Redd canceled the performance, the Kennedy Center vowed to sue Redd for $1 million in damages. In June, Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier dismissed the center's breach of contract suit against Redd, granting his motion to dismiss the case under the district's anti-SLAPP statute, a law designed to protect public interest speech.
In her ruling Monday, the judge decreed that the Kennedy Center must pay Redd $252,479.70 to cover attorneys' fees and other legal costs.

The Kennedy Center in a statement said it intended to appeal.

Here’s a NY event:

Please join us...

Saxophone Colossus
A Celebration of the Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

Saturday, September 19, 2026
1 PM

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street
New York, NY 10025

Presented in partnership with the Rollins Family

Performers and additional details to be announced.