Jazz DateBook editorial
Some lineups deserve more than a calendar row. We trace the recordings, relationships, rooms, and musical questions behind exceptional live dates—then give you the sources and the music so you can hear the case for yourself.
Primary-source researchArtist, label, presenter, festival, and official media first.
A listening pathOfficial video and recordings placed inside the story, not bolted on afterward.
Useful after downbeatFeatures remain as documented chapters after the performance passes.
Before downbeat
The record remains
The ticket date has passed; the musical history, embedded performances, reporting, and source trail remain worth exploring.
Past performance
October 11, 2026 · Berlin
A recording partnership becomes a touring quartet: Frentzen, Felder, Thomas Stieger and Moritz Müller bring the core of a many-colored album to Berlin.
Past performance
September 19, 2026 · San Francisco
With Michael Formanek and Ches Smith, Melford brings her Cy Twombly-inspired music to SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab on September 19–20.
Past performance
September 13, 2026 · Berlin
The ECM album joins a classical trio, a jazz trio and three singers around one shared piano. Berlin keeps that architecture but changes a vocalist and the cello chair—making personnel, not repertoire, the night’s decisive variable.
Past performance
September 11, 2026 · Cologne
For a new Cologne Jazzweek commission, a composer known for rehearsal-heavy detail is writing compact material so an international quintet can reach improvisation in two days.
Past performance
September 10, 2026 · Cambridge
With Roberta Piket, John Lockwood and Billy Mintz, the tenor saxophonist brings several histories of collective improvisation into one Cambridge room.
Past performance
September 5, 2026 · Shinjuku
A piano-bass duo has two instruments capable of carrying melody, harmony and time. Across a five-date Japan run, Staaf and Roeder must decide who owns each function—and when ownership matters at all.
Past performance
August 30, 2026 · Seattle
The Seattle singer’s debut is a 67-minute studio constellation; at the Royal Room, a five-person band has to turn its guests, alternate readings and long personal history back into one live voice.
Past performance
August 26, 2026 · Los Angeles
Steve Lehman and Cory Smythe are the constants in a project that has moved from a bass-less 2024 premiere to a 2026 quartet with Chris Tordini and Jacob Porter—making personnel change part of the listening proposition.
Past performance
August 19, 2026 · Shinjuku
The Tokyo release show keeps the six-horn shape of her Brooklyn-recorded debut but hands it to a mostly new band, turning tanka’s 5-7-5-7-7 frame into a live test rather than an album replay.
Past performance
August 19, 2026 · New York
Sans Vox is not a revival of Chris Morrissey’s early quartets: Aurora Nealand, Steven Bernstein, Marvin Sewell and Dan Weiss reopen his instrumental book after years of voice-led records.
Past performance
August 17, 2026 · Shinjuku
After two quartet encounters, Moriya adds Hinata Ishii’s tenor to a band grounded by longtime Itabashi bassist Takashi Seo and returning drummer Yota Tsukada—turning a repeat invitation into a new five-way design.
Past performance
August 17, 2026 · Nagoya
The Nagoya release show keeps the trio behind most of a one-day, 13-track session but hands every string chair to a new player in the club Mizuno salutes by name.
Past performance
July 31, 2026 · Philadelphia
Warren Wolf joins Tony Miceli, Behn Gillece, Oliver Mayman and Morgan Walbridge for a Philadelphia jam where five players on the same instrument must become five distinct voices.
Past performance
July 29, 2026 · Los Angeles
With no piano or guitar, Adi Meyerson, Nicole McCabe, Julien Knowles and Anthony Fung turn missing information into the working material of a quartet.
Past performance
July 25, 2026 · Berlin
Before Kurt Rosenwinkel and Brad Mehldau meet Doug Weiss and Joe Peri inside Berlin’s Gasometer, hear the shared history that makes this quartet more than an all-star billing.
