By Nanette Wiser
From jazz jams and festivals to clubs and concerts, you can enjoy jazz artists in all genres – Latin, classic, big band, N’awlins, bebop and smooth. Seasonally, jazz enthusiasts groove at Clearwater Jazz Festival (October), Suncoast Jazz Festival (November), the Listening Room Festival (February) and St. Petersburg Jazz Festival (spring). Venues are large and small, from The Palladium in downtown St. Petersburg to Ruth Eckerd Hall and Capitol Theater in Clearwater, where Diana Krall and Chris Botti regularly tour, including The Baycare Sound in Coachman Park who hosted Dave Koz. On occasion, The James Museum, Imagine Museum and Central Park Performing Arts Center showcase jazz musicians such as Hot Tonic. Check their social and sign up for their newsletters. Tune in below for some of our favorites!
The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association Their Monday Night Jazz Jam with host Dwayne White at The Hangar from 7-9pm is legendary. ADTPJA President Alvinette Downing’s podcast Sounds of Healing interviews Fred Johnson, an international star and other jazz greats, and a Youth Jazz Jam is the last Saturday 1-3pm monthly at the Pinellas Community Church. Coming up is Scotty Wright, jazz voice, who returns 4/13 to The Palladium with a varied program of timeless standards, classic jazz compositions, and Scotty’s original songs. www.aldowningjazz.com
TomKats Jazz Orchestra After years at St. Pete Beach’s Blue Parrot, you can now find them at CJ’s Backstage in Tyrone, starting at 7pm. The Tomkats Jazz Orchestra is a 17-piece big band with some of Tampa Bay’s best jazz musicians playing swing standards, bebop, blues, and fusion. Follow them on FB to see the weekly line-up. www.facebook.com/TomkatsJazzOrchestra
The Palladium Recently, The Crew performed the Great American Songbook here, and there’s more jazz in the works at the intimate Side Door Cabaret. Don’t miss 3/29 Ken Peplowski & Ted Rosenthal Duo and the St. Pete Jazz Festival 3/31 Tal Cohen Trio; 4/1 Alexis Cole & Helios Jazz Orchestra and 4/2 Uri Gurvich-Rodolfo Zuniga. www.mypalladium.org
Restos & Bars Flûte & Dram is Beach Drive’s favorite champagne, caviar, and whiskey bar and boasts live music daily both happy hour and evening. If you can catch The Jazz Librarians at Left Bank Bistro, oh happy day! If there was a multiverse, trumpeter James Suggs and vocalist/band leader Bryan Hughes (The Crew) would be everywhere, all at once. You can find James on most Sundays at Public Studio House @3pm, then with The Crew at Floridian Social 6-10pm most Sundays. On the last Thursdays of the month, they play Horse & Jockey 7:30pm and James plays Sola Bistro & Wine Bar on occasional Wednesdays. Fiona Frensche plays JazzyPopANova at The Deck every other Thursdays as well as Taverna, Branzini, Corey Sunday Market monthly, downtown St. Pete’s Ruby’s Elixir, and Clearwater’s The Nash Keys.