January 12, 2027
Collective radiance

ABOUT

The theme of this year's Winter Jazzfest, Collective Radiance, revolves around the belief that a community of musicians and listeners creates something greater than the sum of its parts, a shared energy that sustains the whole ecosystem around it. While Winter Jazzfest has always reflected the New York City jazz scene, in 2027 we open our stages to the communities that sustain the music in cities across the country, inviting artists to bring the energies of their spaces to New York audiences. This evening celebrates music communities whose shared commitment to the arts radiate far beyond their birthplaces, as vital elements of healthy collective live-music ecosystems.

Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble (Chicago)
Chicago artist Damon Locks founded the Black Monument Ensemble in 2015. The multigenerational group of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists blend free jazz, gospel, electronics, sampling, and spoken word in an immersive live experience. Making their NYC debut, they bring music from acclaimed International Anthem albums including Where Future Unfolds and Now. The group will feature Angel Bat Dawid, Dana Hall, Arif Smith, and other TBA.

Jimetta Rose presents METTASUN (Los Angeles)
A South Central Los Angeles native raised on church choirs, Jimetta Rose is a singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer whose warm, spiritual voice has shaped LA’s soul, jazz, and hip-hop scenes. Mettasun is her solo opus, inspired by the interplanetary mythologies of Sun Ra and dedicated to Arkestra vocalist June Tyson. Through her interpretations of Sun Ra classics like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Springtime Again,” she adds her voice to the Afrofuturist tradition, offering a jazz- and gospel-tinted vision of radical hope and Black joy. 

Victor Campbell (Cuba, New Orleans)
Born in Camagüey, Cuba, pianist Victor Campbell trained at the National School of the Arts and moved to New Orleans in 2019. He has since absorbed the city’s many musical styles into his own virtuosic, joyful voice, blending Havana and New Orleans. Chucho Valdés has predicted he will revolutionize Cuban jazz piano.

aja monet (NYC, Miami, Los Angeles)
Brooklyn-born poet and lyricist aja monet calls herself a “surrealist blues poet.” The youngest ever winner of the Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam, she earned a Grammy nomination for her debut album when the poems do what they do. Her new album, the color of rain, co-produced with Justin Brown and Meshell Ndegeocello, moves between jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R&B with guests including Georgia Anne Muldrow and Novena Carmel. Rather than reciting over fixed arrangements, she works in close conversation with the music, adjusting her phrasing and cadence as the compositions shift. A longtime community organizer and co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio, an arts collective in Miami, she carries on the tradition of poets working alongside social movements for change.

This evening is presented in association with Jazz Generations Initiative and Dada Strain