5 D.C. jazz picks for May 2025
If you notice, things are looking a little different around here. 2025 marks 15 years of CapitalBop, and we are marking the milestone by revamping our web presence. Hopefully you find this fresh web landscape more streamlined, newly engaging and increasingly informative.
We will continue to celebrate – more on that to come.
In the meantime, the scene is bustling as spring starts to ramp up to summer. There are at least three artists in the D.C. jazz orbit celebrating album releases this month. One is featured in our list below. The other two – both pianists – will perform at Blues Alley as part of the storied club’s new “Emerging Artists” showcase series on Mondays. First up is José Luiz Martins, bringing his buoyant Chick Corea-meets-Brandon Coleman funk project Odyssey Mixtape on May 5. Then Philly-based, one-time DMV pianists James Fernando and his trio celebrate a new project on May 19.
Some favorite artists also return throughout the month. Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap as well as CapitalBop’s own alumna Savannah Harris help anchor the two nights of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center on May 9 and 10. Vibraphone modernist Stefon Harris returns with his electric Blackout band to Blues Alley on May 22 and 23 for the first time in several years. And Stanley Clarke returns to the District on May 31 after a rain-out at the D.C. Jazz Festival in September with his band ‘N Forever, reimagining his catalog from Return to Forever.
Jojo also continues to experiment with its new format for Fridays and Saturdays, with an early 5:30 set followed by a late (for D.C.) set that kicks off at 8. For May’s early sets, bassist Obasi Akoto will lead a quartet starting at 5:30 on Fridays. On Saturdays, the vocalist Loide will lead a trio at 5:30 from May 3 to 17 and then Anna Lisa Kirby will lead her own vocal group at 5:30 for the last two Saturdays of the month.
Lastly, it would be nice for the scene to come out to Westminster Presbyterian Church on May 2 as Elijah Jamal Balbed honors his mother Maryam, a musician and arts advocate, who passed away last year. For all other jazz needs, consult the revamped and full D.C. jazz calendar.
BEN WILLIAMS: “BETWEEN CHURCH & STATE”
Friday May 2, 7:30 p.m.
Duke Ellington School of the Arts (tickets)
[view on calendar]
Bassist and composer Ben Williams is one of the District’s star ex-pats, often appearing on bandstands with New York City’s elite (think Pat Metheny, Terence Blanchard, Stefon Harris… the list goes on). Williams’ own sound as a leader is still always evolving — he’s recently started iterating on Neo-soul as a vocalist — but all of his music is clearly shaped by the contemporary modern jazz world he plays in, and his facility and confidence on upright and electric basses is impressive.
Williams returns to his alma mater to premiere his newest record, Between Church & State.
PARILAMENT FUNKADELIC FEAT. GEORGE CLINTON
Wednesday May 14, 7:00 p.m.
9:30 Club (tickets)
[view on calendar]
The names “George Clinton,” “Parliament” and “Funkadelic” have been central to funk and Black American Music for almost 40 years. Clinton, now 83, still leads his collective through brash, pounding funk and grooves that will turn any room into a massive dance party.
Here, Clinton and his merry band of revelers bring the party to the 9:30 Club in what has become somewhat of an annual affair
KENNY RITTENHOUSE ENSEMBLE
Thursday May 15, 5:00 p.m.
Smithsonian Art Museum (free registration)
[view on calendar]
Kenny Rittenhouse has led ensembles of various sizes around the DMV for two decades, and is a member of many others (including the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra). Rittenhouse specializes in hard-bop a la the Jazz Messengers iterations of Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan, and his groups deliver swinging takes on the standards and the members’ originals.
Here, Rittenhouse leads his quintet – the Kenny Rittenhouse Ensemble – as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s breezy “Take Five” jazz series.
MARTA SANCHEZ TRIO
Saturday May 17, 7:30 p.m.
Takoma Station Tavern (tickets)
[view on calendar]
Madrid-born, Brooklyn-based pianist Marta Sanchez often walks a tightrope between contemporary bop and the more creative sides of modern jazz. Whether with her reliable quintet – praised by CapitalBop’s own Gio Russonello as “one of the most consistently satisfying bands in contemporary jazz” – or her trio (which recently featured CapitalBop alumna Savannah Harris on drums), Sanchez’s music is expansive and searching. Listen to that latest trio record, Perpetual Void, and you can hear that restless yet mediative, seeking impulse in her compositions, as well as a clear drive to jostle up the piano trio dynamic.
She performs here with a trio.
CAROLINE DAVIS/JANEL LEPPIN
Monday May 19, 7:00 p.m.
Rhizome DC (tickets)
[view on calendar]
Alto saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis cut her teeth in Chicago, in jams hosted by the likes of straight-ahead master Von Freeman and players more rooted in an AACM school of thought. Davis’s flexibility and imagination as an artist are prominently displayed on her 2016 LP, Doors: Chicago Storylines, and with the dreamy electro-jazz of Heart Tonic and the digital vortex of Alula.
Janel Leppin is one of the District’s finest bandleaders, harnessing a nuanced sensibility in both her compositions and improvisations that produces restless, complex sonic textures, which range from lush and beautiful to sharp and arresting. She’s widely respected in the DMV area for her work leading her Ensemble Volcanic Ash, and as half of the power duo Janel and Anthony (with guitarist Anthony Pirog).
Together, the pair will weave through a series of solo and duo sets at Rhizome.
