Outdoor Jazz Shows in Austin

Sun, Oct 11, 7:30 PM CDT

Kerry Politzer Quartet

Monks Jazz Club / St. Elmo / Map

Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for Kerry Politzer Quartet! Kerry Politzer – Piano Joel Frahm – Saxophone James Suter – Bass Daniel Dufour – Drums Kerry Politzer is a Portland-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator who tours nationally with programs of Brazilian and original jazz compositions. She has served on the music faculty of Portland State University since 2013 and has also taught at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, the University of Portland, and the Oregon Jazz Workshop. Kerry received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Rowan University. An active clinician, she has held workshops and master classes at the Reno Jazz Festival, Boise State University, the University of Kansas, and others. Kerry has released nine albums as a leader, the most recent of which is Alternate Route (Whirlwind Recordings) featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel. Other recordings include Blue in Blue, which featured saxophonist Donny McCaslin and was termed a “first-rate jazz outing” by AllAboutJazz.com. Kerry has also been a featured sideman on albums of George Colligan, Laura Dreyer, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and was featured on Sax and The City: Musical Contributions From New York’s Best Women Jazz Instrumentalists (Apria Records, 2004). In 2019, Kerry was awarded a Regional Arts and Culture Council Artistic Focus grant to explore the music of Brazilian composer Durval Ferreira. The project culminated in the August 2019 release of Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira. In 2020, she received another RACC grant to produce the first edition of Music of Brazilian Piano Masters, which can be accessed at the Music of Brazilian Piano Masters YouTube page. Kerry leads Bossa PDX, a Portland-based Brazilian jazz and bossa nova group for which she has transcribed dozens of classic arrangements from the original recordings. With this music, she has performed around the country at venues such as Jazz Forum Arts in New York, the Black Dolphin in Kansas City, Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver, BC, Chez Hanny in San Francisco, the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival. the Oregon Coast Jazz Party, and Ellenburg’s Jazz in the Valley. Her group has a monthly residency at local club The 1905. Kerry has also headlined the Montavilla Jazz Festival and was a featured performer at the 25th Annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, ID. Some groups she has played with include DIVA No Man’s Band, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 7:30 PM. Monks is open 6:30 PM for a new Happy Half Hour, featuring $2 off of our Classic and Signature Cocktails, $2 off Glasses of Wine, and $1 off of our Beer Menu between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Join us for a drink, or come at your scheduled seating time! We'll have a wonderful evening planned ahead!

Tue, Oct 13, 7:30 PM CDT

Alan Braufman Quintet

Monks Jazz Club / St. Elmo / Map

Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for the Alan Braufman Quintet! Alan Braufman - Alto Saxophone and Flute Chase Baird - Tenor Saxophone Stefan Gonzalez - Vibraphone Mathew Frerck - Bass Joshua Canate - Drums For decades, alto saxophonist and flutist Alan Braufman was a cult musician whose then-lone LP as a bandleader, 1975’s Valley of Search, offered rich, evocative, and forthright sonic documentation of a lower Manhattan jazz scene slightly afield from the SoHo and Lower East Side hubbub. Following the enthusiastically-received reissue of that record forty-three years later, Braufman, who never stopped playing or writing music, has marked several years of greater visibility with a string of consistently warm and intense small-group recordings (and a few previously-unissued archival discs) that feature a mix of peers and younger firebrands from the contemporary American improvisation scene. A necessity for this time period, the aptly-titled Anthem for Peace sees Braufman in a quartet setting, joining forces with vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and drummer/percussionist Chad Taylor, both of whom are returning from 2024’s Infinite Love Infinite Tears, and bassist Luke Stewart, a familiar player marking his first collaboration with the saxophonist. One cut, the lilting and funky “Snow in Central Park,” is a holdover from that prior date and includes Michael Wimberly on congas and bassist Ken Filiano. Though this record’s seven tracks are concise and clearly delineated, programmatically they hang together, a quality recognizable throughout Braufman’s leader discography (his debut consists of two sidelong suites), not least because his compositions are hooky and inviting. The opening piece, “Angels,” is anthemic, gospel-tinged, and with a martial B-section, recalls Albert Ayler though with Braufman’s more velvety flywheel as an underpinning. The leader’s alto can certainly peel paint, but these salvos are delivered with a patient brightness and loquacious urgency. “In Motion” is a post-bop number in which the tart push of Jackie McLean is audible, but contextually updated with the warped cascades of Brennan’s electronically-augmented vibraphone, a voice that is both foregrounded and glassily atmospheric, and the supplely driving gradient of bass and drums. Stewart and Taylor are a telepathic pairing throughout, rock solid on the groovier numbers (dig Taylor’s metronomic backbeat, tight enough to almost sound looped) and shimmering in freer rubato space. Though Braufman is the only horn (tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has been a frequent front-line partner), occasional and elegantly-done overdubs create interweaving lines. On the title tune, its appealing melodic bounce is accentuated by doubling octaves, and there’s the bamboo-like birdsong of the closing “Reflections on a Rainy Day” with its shakuhachi-like clamber. Through the subtle linkages between songs, improvisations, and four individual personalities, Anthem for Peace creates a highly simpatico and positive sonic worldview that we can all get behind. Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 7:30 PM. Monks is open 6:30 PM for a new Happy Half Hour, featuring $2 off of our Classic and Signature Cocktails, $2 off Glasses of Wine, and $1 off of our Beer Menu between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Join us for a drink, or come at your scheduled seating time! We'll have a wonderful evening planned ahead!

Sun, Oct 18, 7:30 PM CDT

ACME x Monks Jazz Present: Mark Scott III feat. Aubrey Johnson

Monks Jazz Club / St. Elmo / Map

Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for ACME & Monks Jazz Present: Mark Scott III feat. Aubrey Johnson! Aubrey Johnson – Voice Mark Scott III – Guitar Andy Langham – Piano James Suter – Bass Daniel Dufour – Drums About Mark Scott III: Austin-based guitarist, composer, and educator Mark Scott III has emerged as a distinct voice in the modern jazz landscape, blending technical precision with a deeply personal, narrative approach to the instrument. His debut album, Soft Light, reached #60 on the Roots Music Report Top 100 Jazz Albums chart, marking a significant entry into the guitar trio tradition. Drawing from the lineage of Barney Kessel and Kenny Burrell, Scott’s playing is defined by what critic Brice Boorman calls a "quiet confidence," a style that rejects bravura in favor of control, patience, and the "power of less is more." Performing widely across the state, Scott has become a fixture of the Texas music scene. Originally from Dallas, Scott moved to Austin in 2021 and has called it home ever since. He has performed alongside jazz luminaries such as Branford Marsalis, Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker, John Fedchock and others, and has collaborated internationally through tours with Finnish guitarist Niklas Winter. Whether leading his trio or contributing as a sideman, Scott’s emotive touch remains a constant, celebrated for its dynamic sensitivity and harmonic flow. Currently serving on the faculty at Tarleton State University, he mentors the next generation of musicians through applied guitar and the study of popular American music. A former Teaching Assistant at the University of Texas at Austin and a judge for the TMEA All-State jazz guitar competition, Scott bridges the gap between the classroom and the bandstand. About Aubrey Johnson: Aubrey Johnson is a New York-based jazz vocalist, composer, and educator. She’s contributed to more than 50 albums, including Bobby McFerrin’s Grammy-nominated VOCAbuLaries , Arturo O'Farrill's Grammy-winning Four Questions , and Lyle Mays’ Grammy-winning Eberhard . Her Steve Robby (Pat Metheny Group)-produced debut album Unraveled , released on Outside In Music in 2020, features her original music and arrangements. She teamed with pianist Randy Ingram for the 2022 Sunnyside Records duo project focusing on standards, Brazilian music, and pop song, Play Favorites . The latest album featuring Aubrey’s compositions and arrangements, The Lively Air , was released in March, 2026 on Greenleaf Music. In demand as both a bandleader and side person, Aubrey has performed and/recorded with Jacob Collier, Janis Siegel, Michael Mayo, Billy Childs, Alex Sipiagin, Fred Hersch, Dave Douglas, and many others. Most recently, she was awarded the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant to record a new album of original music. Aubrey is presently on faculty at The New School and Montclair State University, and previously held positions at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, her alma mater. Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 7:30 PM. Monks is open 6:30 PM for a new Happy Half Hour, featuring $2 off of our Classic and Signature Cocktails, $2 off Glasses of Wine, and $1 off of our Beer Menu between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Join us for a drink, or come at your scheduled seating time! We'll have a wonderful evening planned ahead!

Thu, Oct 22, 7:30 PM CDT

Nick Finzer Quartet

Monks Jazz Club / St. Elmo / Map

Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for the Nick Finzer Quartet! Nick Finzer – Trombone Andy Langham – Piano James Suter – Bass Daniel Dufour – Drums Trombonist and bandleader Nick Finzer brings his acclaimed quartet to the stage for an evening built around a simple idea: every song has a story. Drawing from his forthcoming release Songs & Stories, Chapter One (out October 16, 2026 via Outside in Music), Finzer pairs jazz standards and original music with the people, places, and moments that shaped them — from an arrangement forged on the road with saxophonist Lucas Pino to "With Gratitude," a piece written just days after Finzer's graduation from Juilliard and revisited here for the first time in over a decade. Expect a set that moves between classic repertoire and personal history, with the stories behind the music told right alongside it. Please Note: MONKS JAZZ IS NOW A FULL SERVICE BAR. As part of this transition, Monks Jazz is no longer a BYOB venue. We invite you to enjoy our thoughtfully curated beverage menu and roll with us through the changes! As always, this is a live-taping, so we'll be enforcing a whisper-policy! Free parking is available in the area. Doors at 7:00pm, Show at 7:30pm. Monks is open 6:30 PM for a new Happy Half Hour, featuring $2 off of our Classic and Signature Cocktails, $2 off Glasses of Wine, and $1 off of our Beer Menu between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Join us for a drink, or come at your scheduled seating time! We'll have a wonderful evening planned ahead!