Jazz Forum’s 8th anniversary season of the club continues through October and November with an inspiring lineup that spans jazz greats, international voices, and community favorites. From trailblazing trumpeter Philip Harper and soulful pianist Cyrus Chestnut to Brazilian rhythms with Duduka Da Fonseca and Abelita Mateus, the schedule brims with artistry. With concerts ranging from intimate vocal sets to adventurous quartets, along with jam sessions that keep jazz’s improvisatory spirit alive, Jazz Forum offers something for listeners of every generation.
All shows are at the Jazz Forum Club, 1 Dixon Lane, Tarrytown unless otherwise noted.
October 3-4: Philip Harper Sextet
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
From first tasting fame as one of the ‘80’s “Young Lions” and co-leader of the acclaimed Harper Brothers Quinet, trumpeter Philip Harper has always kept great company.
He apprenticed with organ master Jimmy McGriff, then spent two years with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Following the Harper Brothers, he played with giants Benny Golson and Cedar Walton and joined the Mingus Big Band. He’s made over 50 recordings and constantly tours both here and in Europe.
October 4 – November 22: Jitterbugs: Jazz for Kids
2025 Fall Program -8 Saturday Mornings Education
Classes 9:30AM & 11AM
Tickets: $200 + $20 fee
Jitterbugs is an early childhood education program for families with young children, 18 months to 4 years old. Classes are based on playful interactive activities, encouraging the children to participate and learn. We also invite guest artists to widen your child’s horizon of what jazz is and can be.
The Jitterbugs program dives into various jazz themes, including the history of the music, important musicians, instruments and different jazz eras of the past. Let’s play, sing and learn together!
October 5: Alexis Cole & Her Trio
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $30 + $2.50 fee
Jonathan Schwartz called Alexis Cole “one of the great voices of today,” an assessment that proves more true with each passing year.
For over two decades, through 14 albums – including a forthcoming recording she’ll be previewing – Alexis has inhabited standards, especially blues and ballads, in the manner of Sarah Vaughan and Anita O’Day. She’s also an innovative jazz educator via jazzvoice.com, and an early mentor to Grammy-winner Samara Joy at SUNY Purchase.
October 5: Open Jam Session hosted by David Janeway Trio
Concert: 8PM
Listeners $10, Participants $5, Students w/ID Free admission
Join us for our monthly Sunday night jam session, welcoming seasoned musicians and enthusiastic newcomers for an evening of spontaneous jazz improvisation.
October 10-11: Cyrus Chestnut Trio
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $40 + $3.00 fee
Time magazine calls Cyrus Chestnut “the best jazz pianist of his generation.” An acclaimed trio leader, accompanist and big band veteran, Cyrus has also begun performing with classical groups such as the Cecilia Chorus of New York and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
His robust technique and soulful style speaks to his twin influences: deep gospel roots and swinging hard bop. Cyrus’ new album Rhythm, Melody and Harmony was praised as “a remarkable recording” by The Jazz Word.
October 12: Pablo Mayor Folklore Urbano Trio + Ivan Renta
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
A foremost champion of the sounds of his Colombia homeland and the Caribbean, multi-talented pianist Pablo Mayor has been writing, producing, and promoting exciting music for nearly three decades, recording four albums with his Folklore Urbano Orchestra and touring internationally with his big band and trio.
His compositions and arrangements have been widely-used, including by Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, which included Pablo’s “Mercado en Domingo” on their Grammy-winning 2014 album Offense of the Drum.
October 17-18: Lew Tabackin Quartet
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
Well-known for his award-winning big band work with wife Toshiko Akiyoshi, including 14 Grammy nominations, Lew Tabackin’s small group settings have become marvelous jams, showcasing both his tough tenor sax sound and his expressive flute mastery.
While his tenor is hard-driving, his flute mesmerizes in the manner of Asian classical music. Without copying or emulating jazz legends of the past, Tabackin has absorbed elements into his style, ultimately creating his own original sound and aura.
October 19: Diálogos Duo/Samba Legends Louis Arques & Richard Boukas
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Two virtuosos, guitarist/composer Richard Boukas and clarinetist Louis Argues, make up Diálogos Duo, the preeminent duo specializing in cutting-edge Brazilian music.
Arques conquers complex melodies and syncopated rhythms while Boukas provides rich guitar accompaniments, capturing the essence of samba, choro, bossa nova, baião, frevo, marcha, maracatu, and valsa.
They’ll be featuring their SAMBA LEGENDS suite – a century of tributes to Jobim, Toninho Horta, Chico Buarque, Cartola, Paulinho da Viola, Noel Rosa and Dorival Caymmi.
October 24-25: The Best of Ann Hampton Callaway
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $40 + $3.00 fee
Don’t miss “The Best of Ann Hampton Callaway,” the new show by the Tony-nominated singer-songwriter. Callaway dazzles us with highlights from her hit shows “The Streisand Songbook,” “Ann Hampton Callaway Sings the ’70s,” “The Linda Ronstadt Songbook,” “To Ella with Love,” “From Sassy to Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project” and “Finding Beauty: Inspired Classics and Originals.”
Come see why Jazz Times calls her the “… superbly intelligent, singularly creative pop-jazz stylist who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Streisand, Ronstadt, Shirley Horn, and Dianne Reeves…”
October 26: Malika Zarra Quartet
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Like nothing you’ve ever heard, Moroccan-born, France-raised, New Yorker Malika Zarra is an internationally celebrated jazz jewel, her pioneering sound uniting cultures.
Singing in multiple languages, Malika blends the polyrhythmic music of North Africa with her sophisticated improvisational modern jazz approach, producing a soulful, layered sound that transcends borders. The Guardian calls Malika “captivating, with a soft voice and a hushed style of scat singing that makes it sound like she is casting a spell.”
October 31-November 1: Edmar Castaneda Quartet
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
An unparalleled virtuoso on the harp, Latin Jazz Grammy nominee Edmar Castañeda blends jazz and folk music from his native Columbia and neighboring Venezuela, making his harp sound like a bass, guitar, piano or percussion instrument.
He expands the instrument’s classical boundaries with amazing technique while possessing a magnificent sense of swing. Downbeat calls his new record Viento Sur, “delightfully refreshing, soulful, original, acoustic music, propelled by Latin rhythms, ensemble panache and individual brilliance.”
November 2: Abelita Mateus Trio
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Singer, pianist, São Paulo native Abelita Mateus is in the vanguard of the next wave of soulful, hypnotic 21st Century Brazilian music. Her 2017 debut album Vivenda made the jazz chart’s Top 25.
DownBeat wrote that her 2018 record Mixed Feelings “shows off an impressive ability to synthesize the sounds of her Brazilian home with jazz.” Abelita plays with the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience and has performed with giants like Paquito D’Rivera and Eric Alexander.
November 2: Jam Session hosted by David Janeway Trio
Concert: 8PM
Listeners $10, Participants $5, Students w/ID Free admission
Join us for our monthly Sunday night jam session, welcoming seasoned musicians and enthusiastic newcomers for an evening of spontaneous jazz improvisation.
November 7-8: Houston Person Quintet Birthday Bash!
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $40 + $3.00 fee
He’s the reigning Poet Laureate of the Tenor Sax and amazing 90-year-old Houston Person has been a torchbearer of soul jazz since his groundbreaking 1966 album Underground Soul.
He’s released over 85 albums since and appeared on nearly 150 more, including his featured role on Joe Alterman’s new recording Brisket for Breakfast (Live). MakingAScene.org observed, “The phrasing and melodic choices Houston makes are always perfectly soaked in the blues, and soulful like cornbread with pot-liquor.”
November 9: Aimée Allen Quartet
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Aimée Allen has been named on DownBeat Critics Poll as a “Rising Star jazz vocalist,” and is the recipient of a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant to create new music for her trio with François Moutin and Tony Romano.
November 14-15: David Amram @ 95!
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
We always proudly welcome David Amram, the Renaissance Man of American Music. This distinguished composer, musician, conductor and author celebrates his birthday with us again alongside special guests and some surprises in a program he calls Jazz: A Passport for All Music with Global Roots.
Musical compartments vanish for David, whose works and performances cross fearlessly back and forth between the classical and jazz worlds, as well as Latin jazz, folk, television, and film music. Amram is a founding board member of Jazz Forum Arts.
November 16: Alexa Torres Skilicorn Quartet
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Alexa is a Latinx improvising violinist with a background in jazz. Musically, she seeks to cultivate improvisational and compositional styles which are both historically and personally rooted, embodying a dialogue between tradition and innovation in modern improvised music.
November 21-22: Dave Stryker Group
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
Any performance or recording by guitarist Dave Stryker and his group inevitably delivers on the promise of high energy jazz magic.
A Jazz Forum favorite, Stryker and his trio – organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter – will be joined by longtime friend, adventurous saxophonist Troy Roberts, who played at Jazz Forum with Joey DeFrancesco’s group as well as with Dave’s band. Stryker’s latest release, Groove Street was lauded in DownBeat which gave it 4 stars, praising its “laid-back swing and high-spirited interplay.”
November 23: Roni Ben-Hur Quartet
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
Among his generation’s top jazz guitarists, Roni Ben-Hur’s gorgeous tone and fluidity graces both straight ahead jazz and Brazilian styles with subtle brilliance.
Grammy-winning guitarist Russell Malone says that, “Everything Roni does is beautiful. He has the magic touch.” Just back from performing in Cuba.
November 28-29: Duduka Da Fonseca & Quarteto Universal
Plus Special Guest Maucha Adnet
Shows: 7PM & 9:30PM
Tickets: $35 + $2.75 fee
For decades, Rio-born drummer Duduka Da Fonseca has been a leading drummer/band leader of Samba Jazz, the exciting blend of Brazilian rhythms and American jazz.
The four-time Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated drummer has played on over 200 albums and has led or co-led over 20 of them.
November 30: Purchase College SUNY Vocal & Instrumental Showcase
Shows: 4PM & 6PM
Tickets: $25 + $2.25 fee
The top students in the renowned jazz program at SUNY Purchase will put their formidable talents on display in this special showcase.
