COUNTDOWN 2027 COLTRANE FESTIVAL IV: Jeremy Pelt with the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring Vincent Herring & Eric Scott Reed

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*PLEASE NOTE: All 6:00PM and 8:00PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows $25.00 / $40.00 / $50.00 / $55.00 – Wed Jeremy Pelt – trumpet Vincent Herring – alto saxophone Eric Scott Reed – piano Gerald Cannon – bass Willie Jones III – drums “Mr. Pelt plays brilliantly, with warmth and depth.” – The New York Times “Herring fuses instrumental mastery with equal and unified parts of jazz’s holy trinity of heart, mind, and soul.” – WNPR “Eric Scott Reed has been a pianist of fiery passion and soulful finesse.” – WRTI Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt is the special guest of the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed. A Los Angeles native who studied at Berklee, Pelt has been one of the most compelling trumpeters on the New York scene since emerging in the early 2000s, with credits alongside Wayne Shorter, Roy Hargrove, Cassandra Wilson, the Mingus Big Band, and Ravi Coltrane, who leads his own quartet earlier in this year’s festival. A prolific bandleader, he has released a long run of albums for HighNote, most recently Our Community Will Not Be Erased (2026). JazzTimes calls him “a technical marvel,” while The Village Voice described his musical personality as “intrepid, convincing, resolute.” The Countdown Festival Quartet is led by two Smoke favorites: alto saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed. The New York City Jazz Record says Herring “has firmly established himself as one of his generation’s masters,” and The New York Times notes that he “projects his sound in a strong, centered beam.” His latest Smoke Sessions release, Split Decision , a live summit with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander recorded at Smoke, prompted Downbeat to call the pair “two of the finest saxophonists on the jazz scene,” and made The Times of London’s mid-year list of the best jazz albums of 2025. Reed, a veteran of Wynton Marsalis’s septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, is “one of my very favorite pianists,” according to the late, great Ahmad Jamal, and All About Jazz says he has “fully established himself at the forefront of jazz pianists.” With bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Willie Jones III rounding out the rhythm section, it’s a hard-swinging band that anchors Smoke’s holiday week of special guests.