📆 Thursday, October 17th – Sunday, November 3rd
⏰ Performances between 7:30 pm and 9 pm
📍 Royal Room, Town Hall, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and more
🎟️ Single tickets start at $12; Festival passes $202 – $505
If you love jazz, you probably have a genuine appreciation for variety and possibility.
It’s fitting that the 36th annual Earshot Jazz Festival will feature over thirty different acts over nearly three weeks in venues all around Seattle. Starting October 17th, locally and globally acclaimed jazz artists will perform almost every night until November 3rd.
John Gilbreath, Earshot’s executive director who’s organized the event for 32 years, anticipates emotional performances that honor the history of jazz. “Every night there’s a different story, but they’re all relevant and they’re all important,” he says. “The music is partly about thinking, but it’s mostly about feeling. And it’s always in motion.”
You’ll want to be in motion too! Here are just a few of the acts and themes to look for:
🎷 This year’s Festival Resident Artist is Skerik, the prolific, boundary-pushing Seattle saxophonist. He’ll head three performances including one with the Ahamefule J. Oluo Ensemble on October 18th, and in a solo with immersive digital projections on October 23rd.
🎙️ Premiere of a new festival commission from trombonist, educator and KNKX Jazz Caliente host Freddy “Fuego” Gonzalez.
🎹 Pianist Marina Albero will unveil a new recording, created with Cuban women artists she met in a recent residency in New Orleans.
🎸 Wayne Horvitz, with jazz stars from across the country, will pay tribute to legendary genre innovators in a seven-concert series (a festival within a festival!) called “What’s Going on: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure.”
🎵 Acts throughout the festival will honor Wayne Shorter, the visionary saxophonist and composer who passed in March 2023.
🥁 A week of music co-present with LANGSTON Seattle at the historic Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute that features hip-hop artist Gabriel Teodros, neo-soul collective Day Soul Exquisite, and the jazz/hip-hop duo BoomSCAT.
Tickets are sold separately for each act: here’s a complete list. Make sure to double-check where you’re going — venues include the Royal Room (which is 21+ after 10:00 pm), Town Hall Forum, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and more.
Earshot Jazz honors jazz as a vital Black American art form through live performance presentations, artist advocacy, and community engagement.
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