This fall 2025\, JazzFest White Plains returns for its 14th year with more energy and excitement than ever. The 5-day festival presents 18 live performances taking place across downtown White Plains – from emerging talent to world-renowned artists\, in cluding seven GRAMMY Award winners and nominees.
Presented by Monte fiore Einstein.
12-1:15pm | FREE
Downtown Music at Gra
ce (33 Church St.)
Celebrated for his visionary improvisatio ns bordering on jazz and contemporary classical music\, and hailed by T he New York Times as “one of the best jazz pianists alive\,” Craig Tab orn makes his White Plains debut in this fully improvised solo piano concer t. Taborn has played and recorded with countless luminaries in the fields o f jazz\, improvised music\, new music and electronic music including Roscoe Mitchell\, Wadada Leo Smith\, Dave Holland\, John Zorn\, Chris Potter\, Vi jay Iyer\, Kris Davis and many others.
12:30-1:30pm | FREE
White Plains Farmers Market (59 Court St.)
Multip le GRAMMY Award-nominee\, educator and performer Sherry Winston is one of m odern jazz flute’s greatest innovators. She has performed alongside artists and producers like Najee\, Roberta Flack\, Grover Washington\, Jr. and Qui ncy Jones. She has also graced major stages across the U.S.\, including Car negie Hall\, Constitution Hall\, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center\, am ong others.
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White Plains Plaza (1 North Broadway)
6:30pm
Dinner and performance: $75 per perso
n | Cash Bar
price includes reception\, performance\,
and tax
Dinner Under the Stars returns to White Plains Plaz a for an unforgettable evening of dining and music. Guests will enjoy a buf fet-style dinner by Via Garibaldi set against the backdrop of the open sky\ , along with a live performance by the world-renowned Wycliffe Gordon Quint et. Experience an elegant night in Downtown White Plains filled with great food\, beautiful music\, and a vibrant atmosphere.
Wycliffe Gordon is an award-winning trombonist\, composer and educator known for his dynamic sound and deep roots in jazz. A former member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet \, he continues to inspire audiences worldwide.
Join us for a one-of- a-kind concert reception. Advanced ticket purchase includes:
This performance will take place outdoors with advanced ticket purchase required for prime viewing. Non-ticket holders are welcome to enjoy the pe rformance on the Plaza\, but must bring their own chairs. In the event of r ain\, this event will be moved indoors.
Join us for Jazz Str oll throughout a variety of local restaurants in Downtown White Plains.
5:30pm | FREE
Shiraz Kitchen and Wine Bar
(80 Mamaroneck Ave.)
Juliet Ewing is a former Broadway actre ss and celebrated jazz vocalist known for her ability to seamlessly blend t he worlds of jazz and cabaret with a rare finesse. Her forthcoming album\, which features arrangements of all Gershwin tunes\, will be released in Sep tember 2025.
6:45pm | FREE
Chazz Palminteri
Italian Restaurant (264 Main St.)
This special trio brings together jazz pianist Pablo Mayor’s in-depth study of the rhythms of the Ca ribbean and the music of his native country\, Colombia. The core of the ens emble features the long-standing rhythm section from the renowned Folklore Urbano Orchestra: Franco Pinna on drums and Dave Hertzberg on bass.
8-9pm | $10
ArtsWestchester (31 Mamaronec
k Ave.)
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The Jazz & Poet ry Choir Collective (J&PCC) will share original pieces and pay homage to ar tists who are known for working across poetry and jazz improvisation. J&PCC members bring experience\, narrative and playfulness to the stage\, taking the art of spoken word jazz to a new level. The performance will feature W estchester County Poet Laureate Phylisha Villanueva.
12pm | FREE
White Plains Public Library
(100 Martine Ave.)
Laura Anglade\, known for her pure tone and emotional depth\, draws inspiration from jazz legends like Sarah Vaugha n and Barbra Streisand while maintaining her own style. Anglade has earned widespread acclaim with performances at iconic venues like Paris’s Olympia and NYC’s Town Hall\, and a Juno-nominated album\, Venez Donc Chez Moi.
7pm (doors 6:30pm) & 9pm (doo
rs 8:30pm)
General seating: $55 (7pm or 9pm) / $100 (
both sets)
ArtsWestchester (31 Mamaroneck Ave.)
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Renowned for his singular combination of robust swing and poetic insight\, two-time GRAMMY Award-winner and fifteen -time GRAMMY nominee Kurt Elling has secured his place among the world’s fo remost jazz vocalists. The New York Times called Elling “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time.” The Guardian (UK) pronounced him “a kind of Sin atra with superpowers.” Over a twenty-five-year career of touring and recor ding\, Elling has won three Prix du Jazz Vocal (France)\, two German Echo A wards\, and two Dutch Edison Awards. He has had a 14-year run atop the Down Beat Critics and Readers polls\, and has won twelve Jazz Journalists awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year.”
For this very special duo performan ce\, Elling will be accompanied by GRAMMY Award-winning pianist Joey Calder azzo\, one of the finest players of his generation. Having recorded thirtee n albums as a leader\, Calderazzo has traveled the road from child prodigy to in-demand session musician to elite member of the finest ensembles in ja zz. Along the way\, he has accompanied jazz greats\, including Branford Mar salis\, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland.
12-1pm | FREE (donations welcome)
Music Conservatory of Westchester (216 Central Ave.)
A jam session will immediately follow the concert program. This session is open to all ages and levels of experience and will be facilitat ed by MCW faculty.
3pm (doors 2:30pm) | $30
ArtsWestchester (31 Mamaroneck Ave.)
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GRAMMY-Award-nom inated alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is one of the vital v oices of jazz in the 21st century. Wilkins\, a native of Pennsylvania\, mov ed to New York in 2015 for studies at the Juilliard School\, and has since worked with a wide range of artists\, including Wynton Marsalis\, Joel Ross \, Solange\, Gerald Clayton\, Kenny Barron and many others. His Blue Note d ebut\, Omega\, took the number-one spot on The New York Times’s list of Bes t Jazz Albums of 2020. In 2023\, Wilkins was ranked number one in the Downb eat Critics Poll in three categories: Alto Saxophonist\, Rising Star Compos er\, and Rising Star Group.
5-6:15pm | FREE
Freebir
d Kitchen & Bar (161 Mamaroneck Ave.)
Pianist Bertha Hope\, one of jazz’s living legends\, has toured globally with artists like Nat Ad derley\, Dizzy Gillespie and Eddie Henderson while being a respected educat or and bandleader in her own right. She is a recipient of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s Legends of Jazz award (2018)\, the Jazz Foundation of A merica’s Lifetime Achievement award (2024)\, and was recently named a Jazz Legacies Fellow by the Mellon Foundation (2025). She will be joined by gues t vocalist and local favorite\, Joe Boykin.
General seating: $55 (7pm or
9pm) // $100: both sets
ArtsWestchester (31 Mamarone
ck Ave.)
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Honored by The National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Ma ster\, Kenny Barron has an unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with hi s elegant playing\, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms. The Los Ange les Times named him “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz We ekly called him “the most lyrical piano player of our time.”
As a hig h school student in Philadelphia\, Barron worked with drummer Philly Joe Jo nes and the Mel Melvin Orchestra. At 19\, he relocated to New York City\, w here he began working with Roy Haynes\, James Moody and Lee Morgan. Later i n his career\, he went on to work with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie\, Freddi e Hubbard\, Stan Getz\, and countless others. Barron has released more than 40 albums under his name\, and appears as a sideman on more than 100 recor ds. He is a fourteen-time GRAMMY Award-nominee and seven-time recipient of Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists Association.
12:30-7:30pm | FREE | Rain or Shine!
(Mamaronec
k Ave. between E. Post Rd. and Maple Ave.)
Sunday Jazz Alfresco Concert brings liv e music and outdoor dining to the heart of Downtown White Plains on Sunday\ , September 14. Mamaroneck Avenue\, between Maple Avenue and East Post Road \, will be closed to traffic and transformed into an open-air stage with jazz performances all day long. Local restaurants w ill line the street\, serving their best dishes for a lively afternoon of m usic\, dining\, and community.
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12:30-1:15pm
The Westchester Center for Jazz & Contemporary Music provides opportunities for musicians of diverse backg rounds\, abilities and ages to develop their skills in jazz and other relat ed musical forms. This performance features a selection of the Center’s top student musicians and faculty.
1:45-2:45pm
The Billboard-chart ing artist Sounds of A&R\, aka S.O.A.R.\, is the brainchild of vocalist Apr il May Webb\, winner of the 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Com petition\, and trumpeter Randall Haywood\, voted Male Rising Star at Hot Ho use Jazz Magazine and Jazzmobile’s NYC Reader’s Jazz Award. Sounds of A&R\, awarded and named “Best Group” at the Reader’s Jazz Awards\, effortlessly weaves elements of swing\, cool\, hard bop and avant-garde\, paying tribute to the jazz greats while boldly embracing the future with fresh\, innovati ve arrangements and compositions.
3:15-4:15pm
Pianist\, composer\, educator Pete Malinverni has been a fixture on th e New York City Jazz scene since moving here in the early 1980s from his ho metown of Niagara Falls\, NY\, where he’d begun Classical Piano studies at the tender age of six. Since moving to NYC\, Pete has recorded sixteen time s as a leader\, and established himself as a performing\, recording and ins pirational contact with a host of masters on the scene including Joe Lovano \, Vernel Fournier\, Charles Davis\, Mel Lewis\, Dennis Irwin\, Karrin Ally son\, Steve Wilson and many others. He currently serves as Chair of Jazz St udies at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College.
4:45-5:45pm
Wilson “Chembo” Corniel\, Jr. was r aised in the humble streets of Red Hook\, Brooklyn by proud Puerto Rican pa rents. It was during these years\, that he had the privilege to study with percussion luminaries Tommy Lopez Sr.\, “Little Ray” Romero\, Louie Bauza\, and Cachete Maldonado. Later he honed his skills at The Harbor Conservator y for the Performing Arts and at the prestigious La Escuela Nacional de Art e in Havana\, Cuba under the direction of the great Chucho Valdés. Today\, he is considered as one of the best hard-hitting\, versatile percussionists around. Chembo teaches percussion to students at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College and leads numerous clinics throughout the U.S. where h e brings awareness to others of the rich Afro-Caribbean traditions.
6:15-7:15 pm
Trombonist and seashellist Steve Turre\, one of the world ’s preeminent jazz innovators\, has consistently won Readers’ and Critics’ polls in JazzTimes\, Downbeat\, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and for Best M iscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells). Turre was born to Mexican-American p arents and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area\, where he absorbed daily doses of mariachi\, blues and jazz. In 1972\, his career picked up momentum when Ray Charles hired him to go on tour. A year later\, Turre’s mentor Wo ody Shaw would bring him into Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He has worked w ith a diverse list of musicians from the jazz\, Latin and pop worlds\, incl uding Dizzy Gillespie\, McCoy Tyner\, J.J. Johnson\, Herbie Hancock\, Tito Puente\, Mongo Santamaria\, Van Morrison\, Pharoah Sanders\, Horace Silver and Max Roach\, as well as Rahsaan Roland Kirk\, who introduced him to the seashell as an instrument. Since then\, Turre has incorporated seashells in to his diverse musical style. He has a strong command of all musical genres and\, when it comes to his distinct brand of jazz\, he always keeps one fo ot in the past and one in the future.
Our collaborator Arts W estchester has artist bios and additional helpful information on t heir page\, here.
