jazz

Musician, composer, actress and author Ledisi will be coming to Boston for a year as the first artist in residence at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. As artist in residence, Ledisi will be teaching, running workshops, advising students and, of course, performing!

Jazz performers are returning to stages throughout Boston and Cambridge this fall to delight audiences parched for the exhilaration that live music can create. The talent is extensive, with famous and soon-to-be famous musicians taking to the stage.

Chelsey Green will be performing music on stage at the BAMS Festival in Franklin Park on June 11. Green, who grew up in Houston, Texas, is a vocalist, violinist, composer and Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music who defies genres.

This month, the Boston Lyric Opera returns to the stage for its first full performance in a theater since 2019. And they’re coming back with a bang: “Champion: An Opera in Jazz” celebrates the legacy of six-time world champion prizefighter Emile Griffith.

Gregory Groover Jr., Kenny Garrett, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, and Javon Jackson have all released jazz recordings within the past nine months that place gospel in the foreground. While jazz has its roots in the spirituality of the Black church, the current phenomenon of gospel-jazz recordings is more explicit and widespread than ever. 

Saxophonist, composer and Berklee College of Music Professor Tia Fuller is well known as being the model for the character of Dorothea Williams in the Pixar movie “Soul.” As a performer, she has toured with Beyoncé and Esperanza Spaulding; as an academic, she works with youth to tap into their strengths. Her most recent recording, with Mack Records, is “Diamond Cut.” The Banner caught up with Fuller last week.

Nikki Giovanni, one of the great poets of the Black Arts movement in the late 1960s, and Javon Jackson, saxophonist and composer, have paired up to release “The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni” on Feb. 18.

A wealth of Black music is coming to Boston stages this winter — jazz, soul and more — thanks to the rich and imaginative programming of such presenters as the Celebrity Series of Boston, Global Arts Live and the New England Conservatory (NEC). Following are a few of many highlights.

Next Jazz Legacy, a collaborative program between the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and New Music USA, is days away from granting its first six fellowships to women and nonbinary improvisers in jazz.

Jazz musicians released albums this year to celebrate life after incubation brought on by the pandemic. Six albums stand out with enough depth, surprise and harmony to bear listening to weekly. One is a surprising discovery, recorded in 1961 and only released two weeks ago!

Pianist and composer Donal Fox performs Friday, Dec. 3 in a free, mostly virtual event as part of the JazzNOW series co-sponsored by GBH and JazzBoston.

Vocalist Daymé Arocena will be in concert on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center. Arocena, who hails from Cuba, defies genres in her integration of jazz, African percussion and the traditional sounds of her homeland.