Jazz in the new season of the Lincoln Center emphasizes connections to Africa

Jazz in the 38th season of Lincoln Center celebrates jazz, Africa and the African diaspora with programs that appreciate genre sizes such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, while other singers, pianists and other trumpeters will emphasize. A tour of Africa will also contain a tour through the jazz in the Lincoln Center Orchestra.

The new season opens on July 24th with a preview concert “Reflections on Africa” ​​in the Rose Theater. The program with the jazz in the Lincoln Center Orchestra and Vincent Gardner as music director offers compositions that reflect the effect of African consciousness on music, which were composed by jazz artists such as Coltrane, Randy Weston, Jackie McLean and Horace Parlan.

The season will be on September 18 with “Afro!” Continued, a new composition by Wynton Marsalis, the administrative and artistic director of jazz in the Lincoln Center, which highlights his meditations over the African continent. It will also show the singer Shenel Johns, the Djembe player Weedie Braimah and the drummer Herlin Riley.

On October 3 to 4, Jazz will present a 91st birthday retrospective of the 75-year career of the pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, born in capital city. (He was known as a dollar brand when Duke Ellington heard his trio for the first time in 1963 and sponsored his first recording.)

On October 24 and 25, the orchestra will contain another South African pianist, Nduduzo Makhathini, including a debut of the new work that it has composed.

Work by Ellington in the center 15-17. January 2026, with “Duke in Africa”. The music directors for this program are Chris Lewis and Alexa Tarantino, two of the latest members of the orchestra.

On February 13th and on Valentine's Day, Dianne Reeves will examine the universal topic of love while shaping songs, emphasizing the rapture, fear, romance and heartache.

The orchestra will contain works by Davis from May 14th to 16, 2026 in “Sketches of Miles: Miles Davis AT 100”. Later this month (May 29-30, 2026) Jazzmeia Horn, the winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Vocals 2015, will present a program that shows her voice span and improvisation with her noble force Big Band.

Etienne Charles, the trumpeter and composer born in Trinidad, will take over Afro-Caribbean traditions in “Folklore Live Vol. 2” from June 5th to 6th, 2026. Later this month, 12th-13th June 2026, the orchestra with Marsalis will also explore the African roots, which make up the genres of Brazil with “Soul of Brazil” with Hamilton de Holanda and the music of Moacir Santos in the Rose Theater.

The full season is online at Jazz.org/25-26.