Stanford Jazz Festival

On a jazz scene bristling with brilliant young vibraphonists, Sasha Berliner has distinguished herself with a lithe electro-acoustic group sound rooted in post-bop improvisation and shaped by contemporary currents. Now based in Los Angeles, the San Francisco native spent formative years at the Workshop. On her first of three high school visits she was still […]

A long-running, ever-evolving showcase for jazz’s finest guitar stylists, Guitar Night pairs two extraordinary bandleaders with strikingly different sounds this season. Chilean-born Camila Meza first drew widespread attention on the New York scene in the late aughts performing with Cuban pianist Fabian Almazan and trombonist Ryan Keberle, who began featuring her vocals in arrangements for […]

A treasured presence at the Workshop for years, George Cables made his mark on classic recordings by era-defining musicians including Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, and Woody Shaw. As a bandleader and composer, he’s released some two dozen albums, most recently his 2024 trio session I Hear Echoes with bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer […]

Even in a country with a glorious tradition of extravagantly talented pianists, Havana-reared Aldo López-Gavilán is a conspicuously commanding musician. Steeped in jazz, Afro-Cuban, and European classical traditions, he hails from an illustrious musical family: his father, Guido López-Gavilán, is an esteemed conductor and composer, and his late mother, Teresita Junco, was an acclaimed concert […]

Taylor Eigsti’s annual performance at the Stanford Jazz Festival typically falls in the Festival’s last week, providing a bold exclamation point to the previous weeks of musical adventures. Though he’s never hidden his incandescent talent, Eigsti waited a decade between albums before reemerging with 2020’s Tree Falls, a GRAMMY winner. His 2023 release, Plot Armor, […]

At this lovingly curated annual jam session, you’ll hear parings and combinations of jazz artists you’ll never hear anywhere else. In duet, trio, quartet, and larger ensembles, these amazing top-tier players can let their unbridled creativity soar. Though the list is subject to change, it’s likely that you’ll experience the playing of amazing artists such […]