When it comes to star power, the gravitational force generated by the music and legends of John Coltrane and Miles Davis has warped the 2026 jazz calendar. Contrary to programmatic appearances, they weren\u2019t the only jazz giants who arrived on Earth in 1926.<\/p>\n
There are at least a half-dozen indispensable jazz artists deserving centennial celebration, including pianist\/composer Randy Weston, trombonist\/arranger Melba Liston, saxophonist\/composer Jimmy Heath, and alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s more than fitting that SFJAZZ kicks off its 2026-27 season with a 100th birthday tribute to another modern jazz patriarch, bassist Ray Brown.<\/p>\n
The new season, which runs through May 2027 and has yet to be fully revealed, opens with a four-night stand by bass star Christian McBride, starting with Sept. 10-11 concerts celebrating Brown\u2019s centennial featuring pianist Benny Green and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. An early master of bebop who also recorded prolifically with jazz greats from the swing era, Brown died in 2002 at the age 75.<\/p>\n
McBride has been celebrating the bass maestro ever since his death, drawing from a familial confederation of players taken under Brown\u2019s wing in his prolifically swinging trio, like Hutchinson and Green. Bassists don\u2019t often get a chance to perform and record together, but McBride and John Clayton convened with Brown at the Boston club Sculler\u2019s 30 years ago for a session released on Telarc as \u201cSuperbass,\u201d a project featuring Hutchinson and Green (who\u2019s written beautifully about being mentored in life and music by Brown).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this collective Ray Brown tribute since he passed,\u201d McBride said, while noting that he\u2019s eager to reconvene with Green and Hutchinson, his siblings in swing. \u201cIt\u2019s always a thrill to play with Benny and Hutch, no matter the context. They not only happen to be two of the greatest musicians in the world. I met them weeks apart just after arriving in New York in 1989, and consider them blood brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown and Hutchinson played on pianist Oscar Peterson\u2019s 1998 torch-passing album featuring Green, \u201cOscar and Benny,\u201d a project that marked the conclusion of the bassist\u2019s extensively documented five-decade relationship with Peterson. As a member of the pianist\u2019s hugely popular trio from 1951 to 1965, Brown propelled hundreds of sessions with Peterson, including albums accompanying foundational stars such as trumpeters Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Clark Terry and tenor saxophonists Lester Young, Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.<\/p>\n
McBride, 54, has gracefully stepped into a Brownian role as a bassist for all seasons. And as a contemporary musician he\u2019s second only to Wynton Marsalis when it comes to visibility and institutional heft. Last fall he stepped down after a decade as artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival. He continues to host NPR\u2019s \u201cJazz Night In America\u201d broadcasts and works closely with his wife, jazz singer and educator Melissa Walker, in Jazz House Kids, a jazz school in their hometown, Montclair, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Like Brown, McBride has turned his band into a proving ground for leading young players. The second half of his run, Sept. 12-13, features Ursa Major, his quintet powered by Oakland-reared drummer Savannah Harris. A regular presence at SFJAZZ concerts for decades, McBride brings a broad-spectrum perspective to the organization\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n
He first connected with SFJAZZ in the early 1990s when it was known as the San Francisco Jazz Festival and watched \u201cas Randall Kline was starting to really put it together,\u201d McBride said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a wonderful experience to watch SFJAZZ become the force that it is, getting bigger and bigger year by year. That\u2019s a great path for success, the slow burn. People want to be the big hit, the pop sensation, but real success is the slow grind.\u201d<\/p>\n
That slow grind regularly produces booking coups, like the virtuoso bass summit between Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke Nov. 12-15. The Davis and Coltrane centennial celebration continues apace with numerous events, including the collaboration between saxophonist Branford Marsalis and vocalist Dianne Reeves Sept. 17-20, a residency that also marks the release of their new Trane tribute album on Blue Note, \u201cDedicated to You.\u201d In the middle of their run saxophonist Ravi Coltrane celebrates his father at a Sept. 19 SFJAZZ concert at Berkeley\u2019s UC Theatre. And electric bassist Marcus Miller explores the late-career fusion he helped design with the trumpeter on \u201cWe Want Miles\u201d featuring guitarist Mike Stern on Sept. 24-27.<\/p>\n
The marquee concerts at Miner Auditorium (and other major concert halls) get the lion\u2019s share of attention, but equally important to the scene are the shows in the 100-seat Joe Henderson Lab, which feature many of the rising artists defining the contemporary scene. Now booked mostly by Kevin Tomlinson, the manager of artistic programming, the Lab opens the season with a one-two pianistic punch of the Paul Cornish Trio Sept. 10-11 and South Africa\u2019s Nduduzo Makhathini Sept. 12-13.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul Cornish has come through with Josh Redman, and it\u2019s awesome to have him open our season paired with Makhathini, who\u2019s just captivating,\u201d Tomlinson said. \u201cHe\u2019s someone who\u2019s going to hold the room with this spiritual presence that\u2019s more than the actual notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomlinson has embraced the Lab\u2019s role as a stepping stone to Miner Auditorium, often via the double-bill UpSwing series launched by Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard. Designed to boost the visibility of artists leading their own projects, UpSwing often pairs younger players, like the Feb. 27, 2027 Miner Auditorium program featuring vocalist Tyreek McDole and saxophonist Isaiah Collier, who both played two-night runs in the Lab this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSFJAZZ wants to help artists build audience,\u201d Tomlinson said. \u201cLook throughout the programming. The number of musicians who haven\u2019t performed here before is increasing. Joe Henderson Lab is our intimate venue, and with that intimacy there\u2019s a different dynamic. We present a lot more local artists there, and a number of different sounds. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n
With an array of education programs planting seeds locally and live and encore broadcasts of Miner Auditorium performances turning SFJAZZ into a global presenter, the organization\u2019s full-spectrum vision looks stronger than ever.<\/p>\n
Contact Andrew Gilbert at\u00a0jazzscribe@aol.com.<\/p>\n
SFJAZZ<\/p>\n
Who: Christian McBride and his trio present a tribute to Ray Brown<\/p>\n
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10-11<\/p>\n
Where: SFJAZZ Center\u2019s Miner Auditorium<\/p>\n