Before being interrupted by bebop, then Elvis Presley, and then The Beatles and the remaining British Invasion, big band jazz was America’s most popular music.
Yet despite the genre’s overall scroll of innovators, jazz as a whole has scrambled for the spotlight in-between (and ever since) in the United States — even as its innovators were, and continue to be, embraced overseas.
The era in which jazz flourished domestically featured large swing orchestras in the 1940s through 1960s, many of those Caucasian or at least appealing to white audiences. Those featured band leaders like Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Tommy Dorsey.
When director Ken Burns’s 10-part historical series Jazz came out on PBS in 2001, covering the years since 1917, one of the primary complaints about it came from aging white viewers. They felt there was too much emphasis on African-American bebop trailblazers and standard-bearers like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.
Having esteemed Black trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center empresario Wynton Marsalis as a primary commentator fueled their ire. And even though many of the most creative jazz artists are currently Black, South Florida’s emphasis on paying tribute to the swing era always looms large.
With occasional exceptions, the 2026/2027 season features conservative bookings of actual to covert tributes in order to draw aging audiences seeking nostalgia for what they’ve already heard — rather than the creativity they’ve never heard. That trend is currently rampant throughout all forms of music, but it’s particularly hurting jazz, especially here in the land where the art form was created.
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Ironically, the venue in the whitest town in South Florida is the one booking the most Black jazz artists. The fledgling Glazer Hall, the former Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, has already featured jazz legend Herbie Hancock, plus an all-Black “Summer Jazz Series” of South Florida artists. Forthcoming is bassist and jazz ambassador Christian McBride, plus the self-explanatory duo Black Violin. Part classical, part hip-hop and often meeting in the middle at jazz, violinist Kevin Sylvester (who goes by the stage name Kev Marcus) and viola player Wilner Baptiste (Will B.) have emerged as a unique creative force since both attended Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale. The duo’s name was taken from the title of a 1965 album by groundbreaking Black jazz violinist Stuff Smith (1909-1967), and its Be Free Tour will indeed display musical freedom seldom seen, including creative improvisation within classical music pieces like Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto. The Grammy Award-nominated duo is likely to perform material from its sixth and latest album, Full Circle (Di Versatile Music Group), and has shared stages with Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, and Wu-Tang Clan, and appeared at the Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theater as well as on the Today Show and CBS Mornings.
4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at Glazer Hall, 70 Royal Poinciana Way, Ste. P70, Palm Beach (561-576-7860, $110-$125); 7 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Au Rene Theatre at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222, $23-$151).
Formed by its struggling New York City jazz pianist, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox might’ve been one of the first among the surge of gimmicky tribute acts when it formed 15 years ago. And ironically, the large rotating collective of vocalists and instrumentalists has risen to fame by performing Bradlee’s throwback swing and ragtime arrangements of pop and rock tunes by the likes of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, the White Stripes and The Strokes. It’s proven a profitable idea for the former starving artist: dress nicely to look like jazz, play your instruments well to sound like jazz, and give the people what they’ve been conditioned to think they want. Which is familiar pop tunes with vocals. An occasional name instrumentalist like smooth jazz saxophonist Dave Koz performs with the band, but the spotlight is on the singers, and many of those were previously on the TV vocal competition American Idol. The group has covered Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” naturally, but it’s really all about that show’s vocal finalists like Catie Turner, Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart, Joey Cook, Rayvon Owen, Clark Beckham, and Melinda Doolittle. All with attire out of The Great Gatsby. Bradlee’s struggles as a legitimate jazz artist ended when he concocted this successful jazz-adjacent ensemble.
8 p.m. Oct. 11 at Pompano Beach Ampitheatre, 1806 N.E. 6th St., Pompano Beach (561-223-7231, $78-$237).
For a bass player to become the face of modern jazz takes some doing, especially one who plays both the acoustic and electric variations of his instrument. But Christian McBride and Ursa Major proves that this energetic bassist (who said, “When electric bass is mentioned, the jazz world goes silent” in an ArtsPaper interview earlier this year) has always done things right. The 54-year-old Philadelphia native’s career as a supreme jazz musician is augmented by his production talents, artistic direction at multiple venues and festivals, broadcasting on both satellite and terrestrial radio programs, and as a multi-faceted educator. With his youthful Ursa Major group, the 11-time Grammy Award winner — with more than 400 recording credits — blends his musician and educator roles. He’ll be joined onstage to perform mostly original compositions, written collectively with New York City-based tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, keyboardist and Oberlin Conservatory graduate Mike King, guitarist and Berklee College of Music product Ely Perlman, and drummer (and Modern Drummer magazine contributing writer) Savannah Harris. Finding his young bandmates through his touring travels and word of mouth, McBride pays it forward with Ursa Major, helping to keep himself forever young.
7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at Glazer Hall ($125-$150).
Tribute shows lack originality by design, but a secondary problem usually lies in their artistic selections. Not so with the Arsht Center’s “Jazz Roots” presentation of Jobim and the Music of Brazil. Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994) was a Rio de Janeiro-born singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who fused samba with cool jazz, and brought his Brazilian bossa nova style to prominence in the United States during the 1960s. And this tribute to Jobim features not only Shelly Berg, the pianist and former dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, leading its Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, but three special guests who’ll exemplify the country’s bossa nova, samba and choro genres. Grammy Award-winning Brazilian pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias’ recording career as a leader spans four decades and includes multiple tributes to Jobim. Israeli-born clarinetist Anat Cohen has brought her instrument back into post-Benny Goodman jazz relevance in the 21st century via her 20-year solo recording career and multiple albums as a session player with Trio Brasileiro. And Brazilian group Trio da Paz, with guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Nilson Matta and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, will show this North American audience why it’s a powerful South American force.
8 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami (305-949-6722, $52.65-$152.10).
Veteran guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli has certainly earned enough bread to avoid tributes, but he’s savvy enough to know where his bread gets buttered. Yet his themed Dear Mr. Bennett show, with pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Mike Karn, is straight out of the presenting Gold Coast Jazz Society’s playbook. Tony Bennett (1926-2023) was a national treasure who blended the worlds of jazz and pop music throughout his career, even gaining traction while in his 90s by dueting with singers like Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse. Which means that Pizzarelli’s estimable vocal chops will be put to the test much more than his incredible instrumental prowess. The singing guitarist’s father was renowned guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (1926-2020), who recorded on some of Bennett’s albums through the 1960s, and the younger Pizzarelli’s voice has also adorned the national radio show Radio Deluxe With John Pizzarelli, co-hosted by his wife, vocalist Jessica Molaskey. Yet it’s his 40-plus-year recording career — equal parts original and tribute presentations — that literally sets the stage. Like Bennett, Pizzarelli straddles genres with recorded tributes to Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer, plus Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and, you guessed it, this year’s release of Dear Mr. Bennett.
7 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Lyric Theatre, 59 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart (772-286-7827, $75), 7:45 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center ($82.60),
The piano playing of the leader of the Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio defies logic, tastefully sounding like the Havana, Cuba-born Coral Gables resident has three hands rather than two. Trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie called him “the greatest pianist I’ve heard in the last 10 years” upon hearing Rubalcaba play for the first time in 1985. Living in South Florida since 1996, and on the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music since 2015, the dazzling, 63-year-old pianist pays it forward at one of the top music programs in the United States. Rubalcaba’s recording career features 40 years of releases under his own name. Highlights include Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy Awards for recordings with bassist Charlie Haden, plus for Rubalcaba’s latest, A Tribute to Benny More and Nat King Cole (Calviero Entertainment, 2025). Recorded by his most recent trio, with saxophonists Yainer Horta and Joey Calveiro, the album follows in a tradition of Rubalcaba’s powerful three-piece lineups. The Latin Grammy Award winner Supernova (Blue Note, 2001) featured bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ignacio Berroa; The Trio (Angel, 2005) bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Dennis Chambers, and Skyline (5Passion, 2021) bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
8 p.m. Jan. 9 at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, 10950 S.W. 211 St., Miami (786-573-5300, $40-$65).
Perhaps the only band of its kind, Pink Martini gets included in jazz because it might be the genre the collective comes closest to by default. Founded and led by pianist Thomas Lauderdale since 1994, the ensemble was his answer to what he saw as boring music played at fundraisers during his career in politics in Portland, Oregon. And Pink Martini has proven anything but boring since, with an output of original compositions, cover tunes and presentations that couldn’t have possibly been scripted. The group’s website reads: “If the United Nations Had a House Band in 1962,” and Lauderdale and female vocalists China Forbes and Storm Large, plus a current rotating cast that includes guitarist Dan Faehnle, violinist Nicholas Crosa, trombonists Robert Taylor and Antonis Andreou, trumpeters Thomas Barber and Mihail Iossifov, and percussionist Miguel Bernal Nodal add worldly spices to what’s often a 15-piece lineup. Forbes sings in multiple languages, including French on the title track from Pink Martini’s 1997 debut Sympathique. The 2013 album Get Happy featured guests from comedy legend Phyllis Diller to political commentator Ari Shapiro, and Dream a Little Dream (2014) featured the singing Austrian family the Von Trapps, offspring of the singers portrayed in the 1965 film The Sound of Music.
7 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Au Rene Theatre ($47-$176).
Another Gold Coast Jazz Society presentation features veteran keyboardist Bob James, the 86-year-old whose serpentining career started when he was discovered by Quincy Jones in 1962. James’ early recordings on piano included explorations into free jazz; backing one of the all-time jazz vocal greats in Sarah Vaughan, and working as a producer, arranger and studio musician for Creed Taylor’s CTI Records (notably on releases by Grover Washington Jr., Stanley Turrentine, and Maynard Ferguson). But when his tune “Angela” became the theme song for the popular TV sitcom Taxi in 1978, is started James on a smooth jazz path more recently exemplified by the all-star group Fourplay. Starting out in 1991, Fourplay’s purposely-smooth lineup’s sum never quite equaled its impressive parts (which have included bassist Nathan East, drummer Harvey Mason, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, and guitarists Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton and Chuck Loeb). Yet James is featured on the new album Nostalgia by bassist Tony Grey, who’s a generation younger and the nephew of jazz/fusion guitar giant John McLaughlin. Playing both acoustic piano and electric keyboards, on such less contemporary material, signals that James might be bookending his career closer to where he started it.
7:45 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center ($82.60).
Year after year, Japanese pianist Yoko Miwa brings her trio back to the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Every year, that is, since 2021 — the year after COVID-19 canceled her initial debut there in 2020. The lyrical pianist last performed at the venue in February of 2026, entertaining a capacity crowd with her original compositions and creative covers with bassist Will Slater and her husband, drummer Scott Goulding. An associate professor in the piano department at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Miwa has been a fixture on the Beantown jazz scene since 1997. Auditioning on a lark for a scholarship after having studied classical piano in her native country, she nailed Thelonious Monk’s intricate “Bye-Ya” and relocated as a student. Nearly 30 years later, her ninth release is the critically acclaimed album Songs of Joy (Ubuntu Music, 2021). Her long recording hiatus is set to end with two forthcoming releases, one with her trio and the other a duo recording with Berklee master’s program vocalist Mikayla Shirley. Anyone attending can expect equal parts technique, humor and interplay between the trio’s members on Miwa’s introspective originals and an array of covers by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, and Stanley Turrentine.
8 and 10 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Arts Garage, 94 N.E. 2nd Ave., Delray Beach (561-450-6357, $60.50-$65.50).
The life of heralded Cuban-American trumpeter Arturo Sandoval reads like a movie script, and with good reason. In 2000, renowned actor Andy Garcia portrayed Sandoval in the HBO dramatic biopic For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story. And the drama centered on American jazz trumpet icon and friend Dizzy Gillespie (portrayed by Charles S. Dutton) helping Sandoval to defect from his native Cuba to the United States while on tour with the Gillespie-led United Nations Orchestra to eventually become a naturalized citizen in 1998. Sandoval won an Emmy Award for his soundtrack score, adding it to a trophy case that includes four Grammy Awards. Now 76 years old, his accomplishments also include recordings with pianist Chucho Valdes’ legendary Cuban jazz group Irakere between 1976 and 1982; Sandoval’s own 40-plus-year recording career, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2013, and receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 2024. For several years starting in 2006, his Arturo Sandoval Jazz Club in Miami Beach showcased his muscular yet fluid trumpet style, along with notable shows by the likes of drummer Steve Smith’s Vital Information, trio The Bad Plus, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, and guitarists Mike Stern and John Scofield.
8 p.m. April 10 at the Moss Cultural Arts Center ($50-$105).
The leader of the Christian McBride Big Band might not bring back post-bebop, West Coast “cool jazz,” but there’s no one cooler in the genre today. That’s largely because he learned from, and worked with, elder statesmen octogenarian jazz legends in keyboardist Herbie Hancock and guitarist John McLaughlin. McBride is represented in these season previews with both his youthful group Ursa Major and his self-titled big band, six months and two counties apart. The open-minded bassist’s six different groups encompass influences from Art Blakey, Miles Davis and Quincy Jones to James Brown, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington, and his 18-piece big band combined the power and sophistication of those greats on its Grammy Award-winning (for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album”) 2011 debut The Good Feeling. McBride has since helmed feel-good performances through last year’s release Without Further Ado, Vol. 1, with stalwarts like saxophonists Steve Wilson, Todd Bashore, Ron Blake, Todd Williams, Dan Pratt and Carl Maraghi; trumpeters Frank Green, Freddie Hendrix, Brandon Lee, Nabate Isles and Anthony Hervey, trombonists Michael Dease, Steve Davis, Douglas Purviance and James Burton, keyboardist Xavier Davis, guitarist Rodney Jones, and drummer McClenty Hunter Jr.
8 p.m. May 6 at the Adrienne Arsht Center ($58.50-$152.10).