The 2022-23 season is a big one for SFJAZZ, the largest presenter of jazz — as well as Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, the blues, Americana and other musical genres — in Northern California. The nonprofit organization is celebrating its 10th anniversary at its SFJAZZ Center, the first freestanding building in the U.S. devoted to jazz. It also will celebrate its 40th year and the last full season with founder and executive artistic director Randall Kline at the helm.
Here’s a highlight per month amidst the 300-plus shows over 37 weeks that the Hayes Valley performing arts organization will present. All concerts are at Miner Auditorium unless otherwise indicated.
SeptemberPianist Hiromi Uehara has a technical facility that dazzles like Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson and an infectious sense of joy. She opens the 2022-23 season with a pair of solo performances, including an SFJAZZ members only opening night. The focus of the program comprises numbers from her most recent solo album, “Spectrum” from 2019, which features color-themed original compositions and covers. The SFJAZZ Center’s 1-year-old immersive media system will be used to give a dazzling visual accompaniment to equally brilliant playing.
The pair of solo dates will be followed by concerts Saturday, Sept 10, and Sunday, Sept 11, with the PUBLIQuartet string quartet. It performs pieces from her “Silver Lining Suite” album, which was released in August 2021 and features nine of her originals, including the titular four-movement work that she composed for piano quintet.
Hiromi: Solo Piano, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8 (members only) and Friday, Sept. 9, $30-$85, sfjazz.org
Hiromi: The Piano Quintet featuring PUBLIQuartet, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 (members only) and 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, $30-$95, sfjazz.org
October
A native of the Mission, conguero and educator John Santos will be both the guest of honor and the bandleader on Halloween Eve (which also happens to be two days before his 67th birthday). The night begins with an exclusive showing of “Santos—Skin to Skin,” the new 75-minute feature documentary by Kathryn Golden that examines the subject’s artistic and social activism and invaluable contribution to the Bay Area and global Afro-Caribbean music scenes. The screening, which is in partnership with the Mill Valley Film Festival, is followed by a John Santos Sextet concert.
”Santos—Skin to Skin” Documentary + live performance by the John Santos Sextet, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, $25-$50, sfjazz.org
November
Prodigious as both a composer and a clarinetist, San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist Beth Custer has had an impressive number of creative outlets. From Trance Mission and the Club Foot Orchestra to Eighty Mile Beach and Clarinet Thing, she’s explored jazz, avant-garde, dance, blues and contemporary classical — among other genres. She’s also composed for groups including the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the Joe Goode Performance Group. Her new “All Hands on Deck” collects many of her original scores; and she and a top shelf group that includes double bassist Lisa Mezzacappa perform pieces from it for this songbook release concert.
Beth Custer, Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7 & 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, $25, sfjazz.org
December
A Bay Area collective that got its start in the Mission and is now headquartered in Oakland’s Millsmont neighborhood, Jazz Mafia takes several forms (including brass and string bands) and is always celebratory, adventurous and tenacious. Prior Jazz Mafia Holiday Heist concerts have featured vocals, violin, trumpet, trombone and drums with Tchaikovsky, James Brown and Donny Hathaway classics all fair game. These eight shows feature general admission seating in the front and standing/dancing in the back.
Jazz Mafia Holiday Heist, Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7 & 8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec 1.-Sunday, Dec. 24, $25-30, sfjazz.org
January 2023
Since the SFJAZZ Center’s grand opening in 2013 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, SFJAZZ has had groups of resident artistic directors who serve two-year terms to help shape the concert programming. Each one resident artistic director performs for a four-day weekend a season for two years and works with SFJAZZ to headline special concerts.
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As part of its 10-year anniversary celebration, SFJAZZ is bringing back previous residents for two alumni concerts. Vocalist Laurie Anderson, guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Jason Moran, double bassist Marcus Shelby and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington are currently scheduled for Jan. 14 with Moran and Shelby, vocalist Mary Stallings, tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, woodwind player Soweto Kinch, drummer Eric Harland and percussionist John Santos on deck for the 15th.
”There’s a lot of stuff here that nods to what we’ve done over the 10 years,” said Kline in an interview at his SFJAZZ Center office. “The resident artistic directors have been pushing it in great directions.”
SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Directors Reunion Concert, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14 and 7 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 15, $40-$105, sfjazz.org
February 2023
Oakland resident and San José native Amy D has been exploring a delicious blend of R&B, neo-soul and electronic music with her recent original music. But for this concert in SFJAZZ’s “classics revisited” Hotplate series, she’ll revisit the late vocalist/pianist/NEA Jazz Master Sarah Vaughan’s 1961 “After Hours” album as well as selections from Vaughn’s next album, “Sarah + 2,” which was released two years later.
Amy D., Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7 & 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, $20, fjazz.org
March 2023
In addition to being a heralded clarinetist on the jazz and Brazilian music scenes, Anat Cohen is also an adventurous resident artistic director when it comes to programming her series of shows. She opens on March 9 in a duet setting with pianist Fred Hersch. (The pair recorded an excellent album together, “Live in Healdsburg,” in 2016.) The following evening she teams up with a pair of guitarists, fellow Israeli native Gilad Hekselman and Brazilian native Romero Lubambo. On March 11, she’ll lead a quartet with Hekselman, bassist Joe Martin and a yet-to-be determined fourth member. And she’ll traverse the Pan-American Songbook with strings to close out the final year of her residency on March 12.
Anat Cohen, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, March 9-11, $25-70, 7 p.m., Sunday, March 12, $25-65,sfjazz.org
April 2023
In addition to being one of the most influential tenor saxophonists of his generations, Chris Potter is also an impressive multi-instrumentalist and composer. Currently serving his second season as the SFJAZZ Collective music director, the 2021-2023 resident artistic director leads a large ensemble for the third time at the SFJAZZ Center. While the previous pair of concerts featured big bands with jazz instrumentalists, this new Generations original extended work will feature the 51-year-old leading an all-star quartet with keyboardist Craig Taborn, double bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade along with a chamber orchestra.
Chris Potter: Generations, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20-Saturday, April 22, 7 p.m. Sunday, April 23, $30-$95, sfjazz.org
May 2023
Whether in the recording studio or on the bandstand, three-time Grammy-winning vocalist, composer and graphic artist Cécile McLorin Salvant always presents intriguing musical projects. When she was in residence at the SFJAZZ Center back in February, the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Vocals Competition winner and 2020 MacArthur Foundation “genius” brought together pianist and regular collaborator Sullivan Fortner, Alexa Tarantino (on flute, piccolo and alto flute) and percussionist Keita Ogawa.
Highlights from that residency included performances of the sublime title track to her latest album, “Ghost Song,” released in March, and her haunting, pre-”Stranger Things” Season 4 interpretation of “Wuthering Heights,” another non-”Running Up That Hill” Kate Bush classic. The instrumentation and players for her return this spring is to be announced, but it promises to be compelling as always.
Cécile McLorin Salvant Quintet, SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F., 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 5-Saturday, May 6, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 7, $40-$125, sfjazz.org
