Indoor Lineup

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Thursday, June 26, 2025
8 p.m. | Connor Palace Theatre

Born Troy Andrews, Trombone Shorty got his start (and nickname) earlier than most: at age 4, he made his first appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, performing with Bo Diddley. At age 6, he was leading his own brass band, and by his teenage years, he was hired by Lenny Kravitz to join the band he assembled for his Electric Church World Tour. He is well known for his magnetic charisma and showmanship. Since 2010, he has released five chart-topping studio albums. His most recent album, 2022’s Lifted, finds the Grammy-nominated NOLA icon and his bandmates tapping into the raw power and exhilarating grooves of their legendary live show, channeling it all into a series of tight, explosive performances that blur the lines between funk, soul, R&B and psychedelic rock. Trombone Shorty has collaborated across genres with Pharrell Williams, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, the Foo Fighters, Ringo Starr and countless more.

Trombone Shorty's performance is sponsored by Char and Chuck Fowler

Centennial Tribute to Oscar Peterson with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra featuring Benny Green and Dan Wilson

Friday, June 27, 2025
5:30 p.m. | Mimi Ohio Theatre

Oscar Peterson, a Montreal-born virtuoso often hailed as jazz’s greatest pianist, composed the Africa Suite in the 1980s. Largely unperformed during his lifetime, the suite included “The Fallen Warrior,” inspired by Nelson Mandela while imprisoned. Peterson met Mandela in 1988, though his music had been banned under apartheid. After Peterson’s death, his widow, Kelly, worked to share the suite globally, culminating in its 2020 premiere in Toronto’s Koerner Hall, arranged by John Clayton.

Clayton, cofounder of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra with Jeff Hamilton and Jeff Clayton, crafted the ensemble’s signature blend of influences from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones. The 19-piece orchestra tours internationally, collaborating with icons like Diana Krall and Natalie Cole.

Peterson’s protégé Benny Green and Ohio-raised guitarist Dan Wilson continue jazz’s rich traditions. Green toured with legends like Art Blakey, while Wilson, mentored by Christian McBride, gained acclaim for his innovative, genre-spanning artistry.

This performance is sponsored by Scott Balogh

Stanley Clarke N•4EVER

Friday, June 27, 2025
7:15 p.m. | Connor Palace Theatre

Four-time Grammy-winning bassist Stanley Clarke is one of the most celebrated acoustic and electric bass players in the world. What’s more, he is equally gifted as a recording artist, performer, conductor, arranger, producer and film score composer. A true pioneer in jazz and jazz fusion, Clarke is particularly known for his ferocious bass dexterity and consummate musicality. In 2022, Clarke was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its four new Jazz Master honorees. Clarke was honored with Bass Player Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Gallery of Greats.”

“Stanley Clarke’s prolific output can soothe you with a gentle bow of the bass … or launch you into an interplanetary future. His playing holds a reckless abandon, clarity and facility rarely heard on the low end.” — The New York Times

Stanley Clarke N•4EVER's performance is sponsored by The Roy Minoff Family Fund

Sun Ra Arkestra

Friday, June 27, 2025
9 p.m. | Mimi Ohio Theatre

“The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible.” — Sun Ra

The Sun Ra Arkestra is known worldwide for its live shows that combine big-band swing, space-age free jazz, bebop, singing, dancing, chanting and Afro-pageantry. The Arkestra has been at the forefront of Afrofuturism since its inception. Herman Poole Blount — better known by his stage name, Sun Ra — founded the Sun Ra Arkestra in Chicago in the mid-1950s. Sun Ra, a jazz composer, bandleader and pianist, is considered one of the earliest pioneers of the synthesizer and the free jazz revolution of the 1960s. He had sent a strong spiritual and musical message to his Arkestra, wanting them to help make the universe better through positive vibrations and music. The group has recorded over 100 albums, including the Grammy-nominated Swirling (2020). After more than 60 years, the band continues to tour worldwide, performing at prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall and the Berlin Opera House.

Dominick Farinacci & Friends/Taylor Eigsti and Christian Tamburr Celebrate Chick Corea and Gary Burton

Saturday, June 28, 2025
2 p.m. | Mimi Ohio Theatre

One show, two acts:

• Dominick Farinacci & Friends
• Taylor Eigsti and Christian Tamburr Celebrate Chick Corea and Gary Burton

No matter where Dominick Farinacci goes, he credits the jazz veterans of Cleveland, who welcomed him on their bandstands and gave him a solid foundation for swing, ballads and taste.

On June 28, Farinacci will celebrate Cleveland's saxophone dynasty with Ernie Krivda, Howie Smith and Ken LeeGrand, whose unique voices and commitment to education have helped shape the sound of the Cleveland music community for more than 50 years. The concert will also highlight the next generation of young artists from Cleveland: bassist Jordan McBride, drummer Gabe Jones and percussionist Patrick Graney. Special guests include vocalist Shenel Johns, pianist Richard Johnson and vibraphonist Christian Tamburr, who have toured with Farinacci for several years.

The second half of the program will pay tribute to the decades-long partnership of Chick Corea and Gary Burton, with Taylor Eigsti and Christian Tamburr.

Two-time Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti started playing the piano when he was 4 years old. Eigsti was quickly labeled a prodigy and has since released nine albums as a bandleader, in addition to appearing on over 80 albums as a sideman.

Christian Tamburr is an internationally acclaimed vibraphonist, pianist, composer and arranger. A five-time Downbeat Magazine "Critics Choice Top Rising Star" on vibraphone, he leads the Christian Tamburr Quintet, appearing at venues like Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Newport Jazz Festival.

This concert is sponsored by Scott Balogh.

The Baylor Project

Saturday, June 28, 2025
5:30 p.m. | Mimi Ohio Theatre

A husband. A wife. An astonishing duo built on love, family, faith, culture and community.

These are the things that power The Baylor Project, featuring Jean and Marcus Baylor. This enticing collaboration is steeped in the heart and soul of jazz. The duo’s debut CD, The Journey, released on its Be A Light label, reached No. 8 on the Billboard Jazz Chart in 2017. A year later, the album garnered two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance. In 2020, The Baylor Project released its single “Sit on Down,” which earned a third Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance, solidifying the duo as an undeniable force. Its 2021 album, Generations, earned the duo its first NAACP Image Award win for Outstanding Jazz Album-Vocal and its fourth Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The Baylors’ first live album, The Evening: Live At APPARATUS, earned them their fifth and sixth Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo. In collaboration with Adam Blackstone and Russell Ferrante, they received a seventh Grammy nomination for the original song “Vulnerable (Live)” from the live recording Legacy: The Instrumental Jawn. Most recently, in partnership with Apogee Electronics, The Baylor Project garnered its eighth Grammy nomination for an impromptu live, in-studio performance of the age-old spiritual “Walk With Me, Lord.”

Marcus and Jean also expanded into television, writing, producing and performing the new theme song, “Good Life,” for the sixth season of the Tamron Hall Show.

The Baylor Project pays homage to its wide-ranging musical influences, generating an eclectic sound with an overall effect that is spiritual, buoyant and feel-good music.

“Married musicians vocalist Jean Baylor and drummer Marcus Baylor have created a captivating “project” that meets at the three-way intersection of jazz, gospel and legacy. Brimming with aural snapshots of their individual roots and the sacred space where they come together, it is a very unique album that soothes the soul...” — A. Scott Galloway, The Urban Music Scene

Kirk Whalum/Jonathan Butler

Margot Copeland Smooth Jazz Night

Saturday, June 28, 2025
7 p.m. | Connor Palace Theatre

One show, two acts:

Kirk Whalum

Jonathan Butler

Kirk Whalum
For nearly four decades, Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum has helped define "cool," whether blazing trails in contemporary jazz or infusing hits by Luther Vandross or Whitney Houston with an extra jolt of soul. Whalum has more than 25 albums under his own name, including a Grammy-nominated collaboration with pianist Bob James, his faith-and-soul-melding Gospel According to Jazz series, and a trio of albums with the supergroup BWB, alongside guitarist Norman Brown and trumpeter Rick Braun. That's in addition to his work alongside such legends as Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau and Larry Carlton.

Jonathan Butler
In a time when artists of optimism are at a premium, Jonathan Butler is a shining example of purposeful excellence. From recording local hits as a teenager during the apartheid of South Africa, Butler went on to become a world-renowned singer, guitarist and songwriter, delivering soulful salvos of R&B, gospel, jazz and pop. Touring professionally by age seven, Butler's first single, "Please Stay," was the first by a Black artist to be played on white radio in segregated South Africa. It won a Sarie Award, the country's equivalent to a Grammy. Committed to conveying stirring messages of freedom and unity through his music, Butler became a national icon. Nelson Mandela told Butler that listening to his music had helped him endure time in prison.

Pedrito Martinez Group

Saturday, June 28, 2025
9:30 p.m. | Mimi Ohio Theatre

Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez, born and raised in Havana, Cuba, began his musical career at age 11. After moving to New York City in 1998, Martinez became a sought-after artist, collaborating with Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, Paul Simon and Sting, among others. He has contributed to over 100 albums. He is known worldwide for his mastery of the batá drum and is a leading figure in Cuban rumba.

Martinez was a founding member of Yerba Buena, an Afro-Cuban/Afrobeat band that gained international success in the 1990s. His career as a leader began in 2005 with the formation of the Pedrito Martinez Group. The group’s first self-titled studio album was nominated for a Grammy and was among NPR’s Favorite Albums of 2013 and The Boston Globe’s Top 10 Albums of 2013.

“Pedrito is a genius … working with him has been a revelation to me.” — Wynton Marsalis