“Conceptually and musically, Winter Jazzfest pushes the genre forward. The event is a yearly retort to the story of jazz told as old growth woodland. Fresh blades of creativity live here and grow in the canopy of the music’s history. New ambition and a strident transformation is the chief attraction.”

“The marathons are just one component of the six-day-long Winter Jazzfest, which has become one of the most important annual showcases of new talent in jazz.”

“The Winter Jazzfest lineup reminds us there are people working hard and creating challenging, joyous and diverse music and plenty who want to see it happen. WJF also helped us prepare politically and emotionally for the coming Trump years by declaring a theme of social justice that permeated its literature and testimonials from its artists.”

“This year the Winter Jazzfest intensified the stakes with a presiding theme of social justice, which emerged organically out of the programming but then became a kind of directive.”

“The Winter Jazzfest — and specifically its two-night, dozens-of-artists-strong marathon — is programmed to show just how young and diverse the genre is.”

“...a weeklong bash showcasing both iconic elder statesmen and young innovative blood from across the jazz spectrum.”

“WJF demonstrated that traditional songs, played in traditional style, can be jazz’s strongest messenger.”

“The festival is about giving jazz artists a platform, and to further educate the masses about jazz’s continued growth with each successive generation of artists and listeners.”

“Over the past five years or so, a critical mass of jazz musicians...have begun making music tied explicitly to racial consciousness...It’s a throwback to a more socially radical time in jazz, when musicians were producing art linked to Afrocentrism, anti-colonialism, and the civil rights movement. Times have changed, but the issues have remained salient, as movements like Black Lives Matter push race relations back into the forefront of the national dialogue. This year the Winter JazzFest, which will close with a performance by Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, received so many performer submissions with a focus on racial and social justice that making the theme official was only natural.”