5 D.C. jazz picks for February 2026
First things first, Happy Black History Month!
I do not know that I have the words to properly express the outrage many of us here at CapitalBop — and judging from social media, many of you in the D.C. jazz community — feel watching President Donald Trump’s continued degradation of the Kennedy Center. After purging the board, adding his name to the building (litigation still pending) and overseeing a flood of artist cancellations, Trump announced on Feb. 1 that the Center will close on July 4 for renovations for two years. Let’s hope something of the space that meant so much to many of us remains.
But the community remains strong, and the music continues. BHM 2026 kicks off with one of those great maestros of golden, lyrical tone: trumpeter Thad Wilson. He starts the Black History Month celebrations at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Feb. 6 with a strong quintet of fellow local veterans like saxophonist Marshall Keys and bassist Michael Bowie. Akua Allrich takes the “Jazz Night in D.C.” pulpit later this month, on Feb. 20, with what might be the ideal line-up of her Tribe: Lyle Link on saxophone, Samuel Prather on keyboards, Kris Funn on bass and Tyler Leak on drums. Saxophonist Paul Carr, who is busy as ever with this month’s jam-packed Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival (more on that below), will also honor one of the great historical figures of the D.C. jazz scene — vocalist Ronnie Wells, who founded the East Coast Jazz Festival — on Feb. 27.
If you want a grand remix of Black American Music history — a fresh blend of modern and traditional across styles — there’s drummer and producer Makaya McCraven at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Feb. 21. Before him is another great icon of the history, and its manifold reinterpretations: former AACM chair and flutist Nicole Mitchell at Georgetown University on Feb. 20.
For all other jazz needs during Black History Month, please consult the full D.C. jazz calendar.
MAIMOUNA YOUSSEF: REMEMBERING THE LEGENDARY WOMEN OF SOUL AND R&B
Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Blues Alley (tickets)
[view on calendar]
Singer Maimouna Youssef, also known as Mumu Fresh, blends soul, jazz, hip-hop and her ancestral Afro-Indigenous musical traditions. Her compositions range from slow, pensive R&B ballads to rhythmic Afrobeat inspired tracks.
Here she performs a tribute to legendary women in soul and R&B, including selections from Angie Stone and Roberta Flack.
MID-ATLANTIC JAZZ FESTIVAL
Friday, Feb. 13 – Sunday Feb. 15
Bethesda Marriott (tickets)
[view on calendar: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3]
The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, the annual offering of some of the region’s and the nation’s best straight-ahead jazz acts, is back for its 17th year of programming. This year, executive director Paul Carr is focusing on the centennial celebrations of the titanic figures of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Some highlights include:
Friday, 10 p.m. – Gary Bartz
NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz has been an icon of the spiritual jazz movement since the early 1970s. Alongside his trailblazing group NTU Troop, Bartz has shaped a signature sound that pairs dynamic composition with funky, soulful grooves and inventive free-jazz improvisations. Here, he performs a tribute to John Coltrane.
Saturday, 10 p.m. – Jason Marsalis
The youngest of five standard-bearing musicians in the Marsalis family, Jason Marsalis is best known as a lithe and driving drummer, but he doubles as a vibraphonist with a formalist bent: precise, fastidious, athletic. Here he presents a reimagining of Miles Davis’s landmark, highly influential modal bop masterpiece Kind of Blue.
Sunday, 4:30 p.m. – Leigh Pilzer and Jen Krupa
Leigh Pilzer, arguably the city’s top baritone saxophonist, is a longtime fixture in top DMV big bands like the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra as well as her own small combos.
Trombonist Jen Krupa plays with several bands in the DMV area, serving as lead trombonist of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and member of the U.S. Navy Band Commodores Jazz Ensemble and DIVA Jazz Orchestra. Her big band sound offers rich horn melodies layered over driving swing rhythms.
KURT ELLING: IN THE BRASS PALACE
Friday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m.
The Music Center at Strathmore (tickets)
[view on calendar]
The widely celebrated vocalist Kurt Elling isn’t heavy on filigree or melisma, but he’s got his own ways of smearing icing all over a vocal line. With tremulous vibrato and an audible simper in his voice, Elling always puts his own stamp on the tune, whether a well-worn standard or a gem from popular music’s bygone eras.
Here he leads the debut of Strathmore’s new in-house jazz orchestra. The 17-piece ensemble — composed of seasoned names from across the East Coast, including a healthy dose of military band members — will perform selections from Elling’s 2026 album, In the Brass Palace.
ESPERANZA SPALDING
Friday, Feb. 20, 8 p.m.
The Birchmere (tickets)
[view on calendar]
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 the late Wayne Shorter, put out a funk-rock concept album and taught music at Harvard. After releasing a 2024 album with the celebrated Brazilian guitarist and songwriter Milton Nascimento, spalding has since focused on building a creative retreat center, Prismid Sanctuary, in her hometown of Portland, Ore.
Here, spalding will bring a unique configuration of two musicians and two dancers to perform work from her archive as well as unreleased material.
JOEL ROSS
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Blues Alley (tickets)
[view on calendar]
Joel Ross has been on the scene for just under a decade, but has already shaped an expressive sound that is true to his generation. In 2019, the vibraphonist-composer issued his highly anticipated Blue Note debut, KingMaker, to eruptive critical acclaim. The album won an Edison Award, and landed on many critics’ best-of-the-year lists. NPR named it the number one debut album of the year, calling Ross “a crown prince of jazz.”
Five albums on, Ross has expanded his musical worldview, drawing on elements of contemporary post-bop, the large ensemble works of Ornette Coleman, hip-hop, gospel and Chicago improvisational music. His newest album, Gospel Music (which came out Jan. 30 via Blue Note), sees Ross channel his church upbringing into the modern jazz space, as he will at Blues Alley.
DC, DC jazz, jazz, Washington
