Jazz

The centennials

John Coltrane and Miles Davis would each have turned 100 this year. The jazz world responds not with solemn tributes but with concerts offering proof that these two voices are still being invented, still pulling their art form forward.

Coltrane 100: Both Directions at Once convenes a supergroup that spans generations and geographies for the occasion: saxophonists Joe Lovano and Melissa Aldana, pianist Leo Genovese, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. 

Then, in April, Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves pay homage to Coltrane’s legendary 1963 collaboration with vocalist Johnny Hartman: ballads of unmistakable beauty, imbued with Coltrane’s signature searching tenderness.

Artemis: Sketches of Miles celebrates Miles Davis’ centennial with reimagined arrangements largely drawn from Davis' 1960s reinventions. From introspective moods to free interplay and dramatic shifts, Artemis presents a fascinating look at the many moods of Miles. 

Farewells

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis comes to Symphony Hall for what may be the most emotionally charged jazz concert of the year. After decades as one of jazz’s most consequential champions—building an institution, nurturing generations of musicians, arguing passionately for the music’s centrality to American life and history—Marsalis steps down as music director and gives up his seat in the back row at season’s end. This is his victory lap. You will want to have been there.

And then there is Chick Corea. Even as his career took him around the world, Boston proudly claimed him as its own. Stanley Clarke and Hiromi, along with the PUBLIQuartet, bring Chick's music back home in an evening of love and virtuosity that is part tribute, part proof that his music is still here, still moving, still discovering what it can become.

ENSEMBLES

Christian McBride & Ursa Major have an irresistible energy and up-for-anything spirit; McBride calls them his "all-in" quintet, and you'll love their music and chemistry. Lizz Wright, making her first solo headline appearance at Vivo Performing Arts, brings a honeyed alto and folk-inflected band that creates the kind of musical communion audiences carry home with them.

Emmet Cohen Trio with vocalist Georgia Heers turn a concert into a party invitation: their music is joyful, alive, impossible to resist. And Michel Camilo makes his Vivo Performing Arts debut with his Trio, offering virtuosity that critics describe with an almost-combustible intensity, and one of the tightest rhythm sections in jazz.

Jazz Festival

In April, the Jazz Festival returns to the Museum of Science’s Public Science Common for four nights of music inspired by astronomy, neuroscience, and the act of gathering itself: Fred Hersch Trio, Endea Owens & The Cookout, Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, and Patricia Brennan’s constellation-mapped Tentet.