DAVE KOZ & FRIENDS

Featuring Jonathan Butler with special guests Rebecca Jade and Marcus Anderson
And introducing Justin Lee Schultz

Dave Koz and Friends announce the 26th anniversary of the longest-running jazz-based Christmas tour!

Beginning the next era of this rich musical tradition, Koz and Friends will perform fresh renditions of timeless Christmas classics — as well as a Hanukkah medley — and hits from their respective catalogs.

The tour reunites Koz with a longtime musical partner, guitarist-singer Jonathan Butler, and will feature special guests saxophonist/flutist Marcus Anderson, making his debut, and vocalist Rebecca Jade, marking her third time with the tour. Traversing 25 cities in one month, the tour will also introduce musical prodigy Justin Lee Schultz, a 16-year-old South Africa-born, U.S.-based pianist, guitarist, vocalist and social media sensation.

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HENRY MANCINI 100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Starring Monica Mancini with special guests John Pizzarelli, Shelly Berg, Gregg Field and Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute

From “Moon River” to “The Pink Panther Theme,” “Baby Elephant Walk” and “Days of Wine and Roses,” Henry Mancini composed some of the most beloved music of our time, while revolutionizing the art of film scoring.

The Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra will be joined onstage by Henry’s daughter, two-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Monica Mancini, and eight-time Grammy winner Gregg Field, plus other surprise guest artists in a multimedia event to kick off the centenary celebration of Mancini’s birth.

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DC JAZZ FESTIVAL | THE WHARF

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VANESSA RUBIN QUARTET

New York City vocalist extraordinaire and 2020 NAACP Image Awards nominee makes a one-night-only return.

Vanessa’s journey to becoming a jazz singer could be said to have begun at an early age. She was characterized by her mother as always being “a very vocal child,” and knew Vanessa would, “do something with that big ol’ mouth of hers.” Coming from parents who valued academia, discipline and hard work, that “something” was meant to be law school. Attaining a BA from the The Ohio State School of Journalism in 1979 was not a disappointment. However, her decision to pursue a career jazz singing did come as a surprise. Vanessa’s fascination with language coupled with her passion for music, especially jazz, pointed her on a collision course toward jazz performance.

Her “a-ha” moment came during a college beauty pageant at which Vanessa was accompanied by a very young, and even then, a very capable Bobby Floyd of Columbus, Ohio. Her first performance of a jazz evergreen, the Billie Holiday original “God Bless The Child,” garnered both rousing applause and the winning talent award. Most importantly though, it awakened what Vanessa describes as “her calling.” “I fell in love with the moment, the music, the audience and the effect it had on them and me,” Rubin remembers.

Vanessa’s first gigs began around 1980 in small clubs around Cleveland such as Tucker’s Place, Bob’s Toast of the Town, Lancer’s Steak House, Club Isabella, The Native Son and The Teal Lounge. Some early band mates included Wynn Bibbs, Skip Gibson, saxophonist and arranger Willie Smith, Neal Creque, Matthew “Chink” Stevenson and, later, the uniquely soulful organ quartet of The Blackshaw Brothers with Cecil Rucker on vibes. “We worked 8 days a week all over Cleveland catching the tail end of what was left over from the good old days,” Rubin recalls. After two years, Rubin was anxious to set her sights on New York where she earnestly and humbly soaked up the tutelage of many veterans like Pharaoh Sanders, Frank Foster and Barry Harris.

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KATHY KOSINS QUARTET

A singular sound in the vocal world, Kosins exemplifies the intersection of jazz and soul. In 2022, Kosins earned several top nominations for her duet with Frank McComb, “I Gotta Pinch Myself”, featuring Najee. The song was nominated in the Song of the Year category at the SoulTracks Readers Choice Awards. She also played to sold-out audiences in Istanbul and the UK. Her latest single with renowned pianist, composer, and producer Bob Baldwin, “Let’s Rewind”, earned her another Number One Spot on the Smooth Jazz charts, the UK Soul Chart Top 30 and the Indie Soul Chart Top 30.

2023 has exciting news for all discerning soul jazz fans: new material with Paul Randolph and the legendary Al Hudson will end up on an EP, due in the first quarter of the new year. And Kosins will also release several tracks she wrote during the making of her now-classic “Uncovered Soul” and its aftermath. Lookout also for more tour dates at home and abroad. Steeped in the jazz tradition as well as all of the energy and intensity of soul, Kosins’s most recent album release, Uncovered Soul, was the natural next step in her prolific career.

After successful engagements at the 2019 Blue Note at Sea Cruise and Blue Note Beijing, the Exit Zero Jazz Festival, a supporting performance for Gregory Porter in Atlanta, an appearance at The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society’s famed winter jazz series, Detroit Vocalist and ASCAP Award Winning composer Kathy Kosins is thrilled to celebrate the two year-long success that her sixth studio album, Uncovered Soul has gained across commercial radio. The driving, funk-tinged track “Put the Voodoo on Me,” is Kosins’s 4th consecutive Top 20 Smooth Jazz Single and topped the Indie Soul Chart at #1.

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