Happy New Year! Twenty twenty-five gets off to a strong start at Takoma Station, where Jazz Kitchen Productions has booked a five-star line-up for the month of January. One of their shows is in the main list below, but each Saturday of the month features a first-rate D.C. artist: Akua Allrich and the Tribe on Jan. 4, saxophonist Lyle Link on Jan. 11 and the still fresh Brad Linde New Quartet on Jan. 25. 

Westminster Presbyterian will have you covered with a pair of first-rate saxophonists in the weeks leading up to its big 26th anniversary celebration of “Jazz Night in D.C.” on Jan. 24 – more details will come on that later this month. Antonio Parker hits D.C.’s jazz church with a group of fellow veterans like pianist Vince Evans, bassist James King and the Blackbyrds’ Keith Killgo on Jan. 10. Then, Herb Scott leads a cast of younger lions on Jan. 17. 

In weekly gig news, Dave Manley’s regular Monday hit at the Artemis “After Dark” has ended. However, he’ll start up the series again at Adams Morgan’s Legacy Hifi on Jan. 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (also Inauguration Day for the new administration). 

For all other live jazz needs in 2025, consult the full D.C. jazz calendar. 

JANEL LEPPIN’S ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH

Friday, Jan. 3, 7 p.m.
Rhizome DC (tickets)
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Janel Leppin is one of the District’s finest bandleaders, harnessing a nuanced sensibility for both composition and improvisation that produces restless, complex sonic textures ranging from lush and beautiful to sharp and arresting. She’s widely respected in the DMV for her work leading her Ensemble Volcanic Ash, and as half of the power duo Janel and Anthony (with guitarist Anthony Pirog). 

She’s joined here by her Ensemble Volcanic Ash, an arrangement of some of the best improvisers in D.C., including Pirog, alto saxophonist Sarah Marie Hughes, tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Larry Ferguson. The group’s music ranges from lush soundscapes indebted to Alice Coltrane to frenetic, experimental anthems in the vein of Abdul Wadud.

The group’s two sets at Rhizome will be recorded for potential future release.

SULLIVAN FORTNER TRIO

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Blues Alley (tickets)
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Sullivan Fortner’s most recent album, Solo Game, revealed the virtuosic New Orleans-born pianist (and occasional, stirring vocalist) to also be a deft experimenter with electronic sound and production. A quick-thinking improviser who’s usually dashing in multiple directions at once, Fortner is also often seen alongside the stupefying vocalist Cécile McLorin, or in bands led by instrumentalists like Melissa Aldana and Peter Bernstein.

Here he plays with his working trio of Tyrone Allen on bass and Kayvon Gordon on drums, as part of Blues Alley’s series this month of piano trios on Tuesdays.

MARC CARY QUARTET

Saturday, Jan. 18, 7 p.m.
Takoma Station (tickets)
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A percussionist, transcendentalist, digital-age storyteller, sonic healer: Marc Cary is a pianist, but he doesn’t seem like only that. Cary, 55, grew up in D.C. and started out playing in go-go bands while studying at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. As he’s risen on the jazz scene, he’s kept hip-hop and go-go at the heart of his sound, while reaching out to musics from across the globe, especially India and West and Southern Africa.

To celebrate his birthday, he plays here with a quartet and special guests from the jazz and go-go scenes.

ESPERANZA SPALDING

Sunday, Jan. 26, 8 p.m.
Warner Theater (tickets)
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If contemporary jazz has its own David Bowie – a musical polymath undergoing constant evolutions in sound and presentation – it is Esperanza Spalding. The bassist, vocalist and composer hit the scene with a trio of albums in the late 2000s that ranged from bossa nova to chamber music and reworkings of the standards. In more recent years, she’s written an opera with Wayne Shorter, put out a funk-rock concept album and taught music at Harvard. Most recently she released an album in 2024 with the celebrated Brazilian guitarist and songwriter Milton Nascimento. 

In this special show at the Warner Theater, Spalding will perform songs from across her repertoire as well as new work alongside a small group of two musicians and two dancers.

KENNY BARRON TRIO

Friday, Jan. 31, 7 and 9 p.m.
Kennedy Center – Terrace Theater (tickets)
[view on calendar]

NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron is a paragon of bop piano, with a career spanning 50 years; he carries the torch for the hard bop masters he came up under and has honored throughout his life. that to a sharp trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and (former CapitalBopper) Savannah Harris on drums.

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