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5 D.C. jazz picks for January 2026


Happy New Year! I hope you all got some rest during the holiday and end of year season, and have renewed energy to get out and enjoy D.C.’s live music scene in 2026.  January appears to offer a notably strong start for the D.C. jazz scene’s year (as many members of the CapitalBop editorial team…





What’s on the Calendar

Thursday, January 8

Jojo Restaurant and Bar – District of Columbia

Brian Settles Quartet

Tenor saxophonist Brian Settles can be found just about anywhere there’s jazz being played in D.C., comfortable at shaping the expansive vision of composers like Steve Arnold, leading the charged, Afro-Caribbean anthems of Reginald Cyntje or honking icy, haunting free…



Turn Pain Into Power


The theater at the Smithsonian was an uproar of musical and verbal rage. I was on stage with baritone saxophonist Fred Ho, members of his Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, and fellow poet Alma Villegas. Maybe we were performing Part Two of Turn Pain Into Power, Fred’s counter-quincentennial jazz opera opposing the 1992 celebrations marking 500 years…