Long hailed as a musical unifier, jazz has brought people and cultures together since it started more than 100 years ago. Continuing in that spirit, the 21st annual NYC Winter Jazzfest is back this year, from January 9–15, 2025. It will run seven nights, all filled with concerts and events, and highlight as many as 150 groups (more than 600 artists) across some 20 stages throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.
This year, the mission is as vital as ever, “focusing on artists with meaningful messages regarding racial and gender justice, climate action, migration, incarceration and other pressing issues that affect so many of us,” according to Winter Jazzfest. It all comes to life through a broad programming mission that speaks to the diversity of the acclaimed and vibrant New York and international jazz scenes.
Expect intimate performances like this one by Mark Guiliana at NYC Winter Jazzfest
Photo by Melanie Mor/NYC Winter Jazzfest
What started as a one-night event at a single venue (the iconic Knitting Factory) in 2005, has over the years, extended to a week-long festival. The “state of the union” of jazz, it takes place at multiple locations, ranging from Performance Space, City Winery, and LPR to Roulette, Public Records, Music Hall of Williamsburg, and Brooklyn Bowl. There’s perhaps no better time or place for discovery than at this all-inclusive jazz fest, celebrating the genre’s many stylistic camps, including avant-garde, post-bop, jazz-funk, fusion, composed music, global beats, and beyond.
See Aja Monet and more at Le Poisson Rouge
You can attend fabulous gigs and special showcases every night of the week, drawing attendees from across the country and worldwide. It kicks off with stellar shows on January 9, 2025, such as the surrealist blues poet Aja Monet, Fay Victor’s Herbie Nicols Sung jazz quintet, singer and harpist Sophye Soliveau at Le Poisson Rouge, and a Brazilian showcase with Dom Salvador at Drom.
Highlights from the week that follows are a 60th-anniversary celebration of the John Coltrane classic, A Love Supreme, performed by the Ravi Coltrane Quartet on January 12, 2025; and the Strata-East Records relaunch of the historic artist-run indie label of the ’70s at the Town Hall on January 13, 2025, featuring a star-studded list of players.
Tyshawn Sorey at a past NYC Winter Jazzfest
Photo by Melanie Mor/NYC Winter Jazzfest
Attend a concert by artist-in-residence Makaya McCraven
A focal point of this year’s Winter Jazzfest is its artist-in-residence, Makaya McCraven. The prolific drummer, beatmaker, and mixtape artist will perform four different sets during the festival, including a 10th-anniversary celebration of his 2015 breakout album In the Moment.
Listeners will have the opportunity to hear for themselves why the New York Times hailed him as “one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality.” McCraven, whose history with the fest goes back to 2009, will perform two entirely improvised shows that will be recorded in the spirit of his past albums—one show featuring a full band playing music from In the Moment and Universal Beings and a rare set by his working band on a big stage.
The incredible lineup at this year’s NYC Winter Jazzfest.
Courtesy of NYC Winter Jazzfest
Go to a Marathon night on January 10 and 11
Of course, jazz’s vitality will be on full display throughout the fest, most vividly at the event’s signature two-night marathon starting January 10, 2025, at more than seven venues in Manhattan, and on January 11, 2025, at over nine venues in and around Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each night features a sampler of all the jazz world has to offer in 2025—opening a world of musical possibilities and discovery.
