Election season is upon us again.

I do not need to enumerate what is at stake to you, dear readers of this column. With fencing already erected around the White House and the Capitol, in hopes of heading off another national trauma like January 6, it’s all too obvious to us in the capital just how intense the next few weeks are going to be. 

Amid the uncertainty of the coming days, the music will continue to provide the real heartbeat for this town, bolstering us even as the nights darken into winter. One could rally their spirit the day before Election Day with saxophonist Brad Linde and his traditional New Orleans jazz band, at a live show and nationwide simulcast called “Truth is Marching In,” after the Albert Ayler tune. You could join globe-trotting violinist Dave Kline and the honorable gentleman — and harmonica player — from Virginia, Sen. Tim Kaine, at Blues Alley on Nov. 14 for what they’re calling an “after party.” One might also go to stir and warm the soul with vocalist, activist and vocalese maestro George V. Johnson at the United Methodist Church’s Wesley Campus on Nov. 23. 

Some notable futurists and visionaries will be playing in town in November. Outkast star and new age musical experimenter André 3000 will perform works from his first solo project, New Blue Sun, at the Kennedy Center on Nov. 9. There’s also the showcase of the 2025 Strathmore Artist in Residence class on Nov. 13. 

In the meantime, hold each other close and consult the full D.C. jazz calendar for all other jazz needs this month. 

BRAXTON COOK

Friday, Nov. 1, 8:00 p.m.
Songbyrd (tickets)
[view on calendar]

Saxophonist Braxton Cook, a D.C.-area native, transferred from Georgetown University to Juilliard and hasn’t looked back since. After committing to a life in music, he toured for years with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah. Now a solo artist, he credits Adjuah’s genre-blurring approach as a key inspiration for his own sound, rooted in Grover Washington Jr.’s accessible jazz-R&B of the 1970s and ’80s, the haunting-yet-captivating modern R&B of Frank Ocean, Kenny Garrett’s virtuoso riffing, and Adjuah’s trap-jazz fusions. Cook returns to D.C. in support of his new EP, My Everything.

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM TRIO

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 8:00 p.m.
The Barns at Wolf Trap (tickets)
[view on calendar]

South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (originally known as Dollar Brand) is a key architect of modern jazz in his home country. As a member of the Jazz Epistles in the 1950s, he was one of the first musicians to bring bebop to a South African context. From there, Ibrahim built an eminent career ranging across the broader Black musical tradition, and working with lions of the cutting edge like Archie Shepp, Hamiet Bluiett, Cecil McBee and Max Roach, as well as younger members of the contemporary South African scene. His touch at the piano is warm, spiritual, strong and inviting all at once. Here he performs selections from his 2024 album 3 with a trio featuring multi-reedist Cleave Guyton and bassist Noah Jackson.

ADAM O’FARRILL’S STRANGER DAYS / SARAH HUGHES & STEVE ARNOLD

Thursday, Nov. 21, 7:00 p.m.
Rhizome DC (tickets)
[view on calendar]

The 30-year-old, Brooklyn-based trumpeter Adam O’Farrill is a scion of a musical dynasty. His grandfather was the Cuban composer and bandleader Chico O’Farrill, and his father is the popular Afro-Cuban pianist and organizer Arturo O’Farrill. While his forefathers focused on the music of their Cuban heritage, Adam O’Farrill stays close to the forefront of New York jazz and creative music, whether in the company of contemporaries like Mary Halvorson (in her Code Girl band) or with his own group, Stranger Days, which bends convention to explore O’Farrill’s wily compositions.

Saxophonist Sarah Hughes is a definitive staple of the D.C. and Baltimore jazz scenes. A potent improviser with ears that amplify her creativity, Hughes is as likely to light up a club with serious swing as she is to delight audiences with thunderbolts of free expression. Her comfort across styles makes her music rare and exciting. She finds an ideal musical partner in bassist and composer Steve Arnold, a frequent presence around the D.C. music scene who can swing with straight-ahead groups or thunder through electric bass lines in the lauded jazz-punk group Fiasco. Arnold’s own music, particularly with his band Sea Change, is searching and expansive, drawing on rock and folk influences as well as jazz. Hughes and Arnold play here as a duo.

ROBERT GLASPER

Sunday, Nov. 24, 8:00 p.m.
Howard Theater (tickets)
[view on calendar]

It’s impossible to spend much time in the jazz world circa 2024 without hearing the name Robert Glasper. The pianist and bandleader grew up worshipping the work of keyboard masters like Ahmad Jamal and Herbie Hancock, then cut his teeth alongside icons in the Soulquarians era of the early 2000s, like Bilal and Common. He’s equally as comfortable laying down punchy, post-bop takes on jazz standards as he is crafting sensuous, spiritual grooves, in a style of jazz-R&B fusion that he helped establish with his plugged-in band The Experiment in the late 2000s and early 2010s. 

He returns to the U Street Corridor for a rare appearance at the legendary Howard Theater just days ahead of Thanksgiving.

MARTA SANCHEZ

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Blues Alley (tickets)
[view on calendar]

Madrid-born, Brooklyn-based pianist Marta Sanchez walks the tightrope of contemporary bop and the more creative side that makes up the balancing act of the forefront of modern jazz. Whether with her reliable quintet – praised in the New York Times by CapitalBop’s own Gio Russonello as “one of the most consistently satisfying bands in contemporary jazz” – or her trio, Sanchez’s music is inquisitive and open-ended. Listen to that latest trio record, Perpetual Void, and you can hear a restless-yet-mediative, seeking impulse in her compositions, as well as a clear drive to jostle up the piano-trio dynamic. Here, Sanchez performs in a format she hasn’t been heard in as often: solo.

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