French Caribbean singer, bassist and fashion icon Adi Oasis is taking the music world by storm. Her 2023 debut album Lotus Glow — silky vocals, funky bass and retro-futurist production — has garnered over 30 million streams globally and earned features in Rolling Stone, Elle and Dazed. Lotus Glow is Adi’s most personal and political work to date, reflecting her journey from growing up in the Paris projects to life as a Black female immigrant in America. Born in Martinique, Oasis brings a distinctly global perspective to funk, soul and R&B, and her bass playing carries on a proud tradition of women who have made the instrument their own. Since going solo in 2018, she has earned widespread critical acclaim and a thriving fanbase built in large part on her electrifying live shows. She has toured with Lenny Kravitz, Masego, Anderson .Paak, Thundercat and Yasiin Bey and performed at Newport Jazz Fest, Montreux Jazz Festival, Afropunk, Central Park Summerstage, Cross the Tracks and NYC Winter Jazzfest, among many others. Along the way she has collaborated with Leven Kali, KIRBY, Jamila Woods, Danielle Ponder, Gilles Peterson and more. Adi Oasis is an artist fully and unapologetically herself, and the world is taking notice.

Distinguished jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut brings over 30 years of masterful improvisation and dynamic compositions to his craft. The Berklee graduate has collaborated with Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Aretha Franklin and Freddie Hubbard while performing at premier festivals including Montreux, North Sea and Montreal. Chestnut’s musical journey began with classical piano training under esteemed instructors Adam Jenkins, Marie White and Linda Lessey. This foundation fueled his passion for jazz, leading him to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging at Berklee College of Music. His exceptional talent earned him accolades including the Oscar Peterson Award, Count Basie Award and Quincy Jones Award. After Berklee, Chestnut collaborated with jazz legends including Michael Carvin, Jon Hendricks and Chick Corea. His improvisational style and harmonic sensibility established him as a sought-after performer at premier jazz festivals worldwide. His discography includes acclaimed albums like Soul Brother Cool, There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit and Kaleidoscope, blending contemporary influences with traditional jazz. Dedicated to fostering future jazz musicians, Chestnut has taught at the Rimon School of Music, Middlebury College and Howard University while leading workshops at jazz camps nationwide. His contributions have earned prestigious honors including the NAACP ACT-SO Award for Music Composition, the Eubie Blake Scholarship Award and the Benny Golson Jazzmaster Award. A vital force in jazz, he continues shaping its future while honoring rich traditions.

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Irene Diaz blends folk, soul and Chicano/a influences into a sound that is both intimate and expansive. Her voice has drawn praise from NPR’s Alt.Latino, which called her “simply immense.” Diaz first came to wider attention with her debut EP I Love You Madly, which caught the ear of Alt.Latino and introduced her gift for evocative, emotionally direct songwriting. Her full-length album Lovers & Friends deepened that reputation, showcasing the vocal range and dynamic stage presence that have made her a compelling voice in contemporary music.

Joe Bataan is the King of Latin Soul, the originator of the New York style that paralleled Latin Boogaloo, anticipated disco and helped give a record label its name. From street corner doo-wop in the 1950s to one of the first rap records to chart, his career spans more than six decades of genre-bending musical vision. Self-taught on piano, he organized his first band in 1965 and has been entertaining audiences around the world ever since. His early hits “Gypsy Woman” and “Subway Joe” exemplified the nascent Latin Soul sound, creating dance energy by alternating pop-soul with breaks featuring double-timed hand claps, an early anticipation of the disco formula. His landmark album Salsoul fused funk and Latin influences in slick yet soulful orchestrations, sparking the national explosion of urban dance music and giving a record label its name. Among his most celebrated recordings is a 1975 version of Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Bottle,” released on his album Afrofilipino and promoted to the new disco market, a much-anthologized classic that drives an R&B horn arrangement with a relentless piano montuno. Always in touch with the street, Bataan picked up on rap early, recording 1979’s “Rap-O, Clap-O,” remembered as rap’s debut in the European market. Joe Bataan remains everyone’s Ordinary Guy with a lot of sweet soul.

Three-time Grammy Award nominee Gretchen Parlato is among the most captivating jazz vocalists of her generation, known for her intimate, Brazilian-inflected sound and her long collaboration with drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Alan Hampton. Her albums Flor and Lean In earned Grammy Award noms and international acclaim. Featured on over 85 recordings and four as a leader, Parlato earned her first Grammy Award nomination for Live in NYC (2013), which received a 4.5-star review from DownBeat and hit No. 1 on the iTunes best music video list. The Lost and Found (2011) received more than 30 national and international awards including the DownBeat Jazz Critics Poll No. 1 Vocal Album and iTunes Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. In a Dream (2009) was hailed by Billboard as “the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009.” Her 2021 release Flor honored her deep love of Brazilian music and earned her second Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Drummer and composer Mark Guiliana — hailed by The New York Times as “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed” — has collaborated with David Bowie, Brad Mehldau and St. Vincent. Bassist Alan Hampton has toured and recorded with Andrew Bird and Rufus Wainwright. Los Angeles-based pianist and arranger Jacob Mann has toured extensively with the funk/pop/jazz group KNOWER and has also performed with Jacob Collier, Moonchild and Lee Ritenour. Gretchen Parlato Quartet is also appearing on the Signia Club Regent Stage on Friday, August 7 at 11pm.

How does a 19-year-old from Vicksburg, Mississippi play his first Chicago gig and earn 165,000 Facebook views with 4,000 shares? If you’re Harrell “Young Rell” Davenport, who started playing harmonica and guitar at seven, you’re a rising star in the blues world. A dexterous guitarist and fat-toned harmonica phenom, Young Rell is already a commanding vocalist and poetic songwriter. Whether accompanying himself on guitar while playing harmonica on a rack and singing, or alternating between instruments with an ensemble, he performs with the poise and charisma of a veteran performer. As a child, he navigated personal struggles by immersing himself in music born from oppression and hardship, finding solace in the blues. His graceful social interaction and prolific online presence have created a global community of fans while landing him relationships with today’s greatest blues artists. He has been championed by Billy Branch, Kingfish Ingram, Bob Margolin and Bernard Allison. Young Rell has performed at Norway’s Notodden Blues Festival, King Biscuit Blues Festival, both of Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Clubs in Mississippi and Red’s Juke Joint in Clarksdale. He has been nominated twice by Blues Blast Magazine for the Sean Costello Rising Star Award and once by SPAH for the Bernie Bray Harmonica Player of The Year Award. This multi-instrumentalist sings his songs with sincerity and without affectation, working stages with infectious energy that proves the future of blues is in excellent hands.

New Jazz Underground is an innovative trio merging traditional jazz with hip-hop, pop and Afro-Latino influences. The Juilliard graduates went viral during lockdown with living room performances, building 100k+ YouTube subscribers and earning the 2023 DCJazzPrix Winner title. Abdias Armenteros (saxophonist/composer, 26), Sebastian Rios (bassist/composer, 29) and TJ Reddick (drummer, 26) have each been lauded as some of jazz’s most promising young artists. After meeting at The Juilliard School, the trio began playing in NYC parks during lockdown in 2020, shortly launching their YouTube channel that features videos like “they can hate but we still swingin’” and “fk/st/c**t/jazz.” Their releases including “MF Doom Suite,” “Harlem to Havana” and “cook/swing/work/relax” demonstrate reverence for jazz icons while establishing their own voice. Armenteros is the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Rios, a 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Winner and longtime student of Ron Carter, was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center to write a suite for the trio. Reddick and Rios have performed as sidemen for Jon Batiste, Sullivan Fortner and Emmet Cohen. The group has performed at major festivals including Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival and Jazz BRNO. They were recently featured on NPR Music for “Oney Ones One,” the opening track from their forthcoming album Hoodies, creating new standards for jazz presentation through seemingly clickbait videos that deliver authentic musical expression to non-traditional jazz audiences. New Jazz Underground also performs at the SJZ Break Room Stage on Friday, August 7 at midnight.

Straight out of East LA, Thee Sinseers blend nostalgic soul with fresh innovation, led by multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter Joseph Quiñones. Anchored by a full brass section, sweet harmonies and a tight rhythm section, they are bringing a unique sound to soul music with deep roots and a contemporary spirit. The lineup features a brass section led by Eric Johnson on tenor sax, Steve Surman on bari sax and Joseluis Jimenez on trombone, with Christopher Manjarrez on bass, Francisco Flores and Bryan Ponce on guitars and Adriana Flores on vocals. The band is part of the Colemine Records family, which released their first singles, “It Was Only A Dream” and “I Don’t Mind,” in 2019. Their full-length debut, Sinseerly Yours, followed in March 2024. Their song “Seems Like” appeared on Presenting Penrose Records, the inaugural compilation from the Penrose imprint of Brooklyn-based Daptone Records, and “It Was Only A Dream” was featured in the film Self Reliance, starring Jake Johnson, and in the TV series Riverdale. They have dazzled audiences in soul strongholds across California, Texas, New York, Chicago, Oregon and beyond.