25/26 SCP Jazz features Herbie Hancock, a salute to Miles Davis and more

Familiar favorites and fresh blood provide the signature blend for the 2025/26 season of Symphony Center Presents Jazz series. On the lineup are Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman, a duo of Christian McBride and Brad Mehldau and the return of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis. There also will be tributes to Miles Davis and Marvin Gaye.

For the first time, two guest curators have been invited to extend the vision of discovery and adventure within the SCP Jazz series. The program from Kate Dumbleton of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival introduces two artists making their SCP Jazz debuts: saxophonist Nubya Garcia and the African-rooted Illinois native vocalist Somi, for an evening that transcends borders of musical category.  Bringing it all back home, Mike Reed, of the Pitchfork Music Festival and Chicago Jazz Festival, spotlights “Chicago Inspirations” within the city’s recent jazz legacy, including its educational mission.

Here’s the full lineup:

Christian McBride and Brad Mehldau, Oct. 10

Less is more, as any opportunity to hear these virtuosos in a rare duo setting is an experience to be savored. Bassist McBride and pianist Mehldau have developed their interplay within the rhythm sections of plenty of illustrious units. As bandleaders and composers, each has released a series of albums that have put them at the forefront of 21st century American jazz. (Both of them were featured artists in the stellar SCP Jazz 30th-anniversary series of 2023/24.)

Here they meet on common ground, as a duo, without a safety net.  A review of their duo set at the vanguard Big Ears festival in 2024 said they “gave a performance that was full of virtuoso flights and intuitive interplay,” while another review simply described their set as “exquisite.” 

McBride has won nine Grammys and served as the artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival. Mehldau has been called by Nate Chinen in JazzTimes “the most highly acclaimed jazz artist to have emerged in the last decade.”  Launching the season with such a highly anticipated duo sets the bar high or the rest of the season

Herbie Hancock, Oct. 26

The return of the homegrown keyboard titan marks the 85-year-old Hancock’s 15th appearance as part of the SCP Jazz series. A Chicago Tribune review of Hancock’s Symphony Center concert in March 24 suggests that he remains as commanding as ever in live performance. Acknowledging how much musical ground he has covered and for how long, the review said he “plotted the best path possible through that terrain. Smartly paced and brilliantly cast, the concert acknowledged Hancock’s ubiquity while resisting a best-hits road show.”

There’s a lot of terrain to survey. The classically trained pianist has been revered since the 1960s for his work in the classic Miles Davis Quintet. Also a composer of note, Hancock penned “Watermelon Man” and “Maiden Voyage,” which remain standards. Yet it wasn’t until he supercharged his electronics and synthesizers that he enjoyed breakthrough crossover success, first with the Headhunters and subsequently with the aptly titled album “Future Shock” (1983). It featured a hit single (and video) with the Grammy-winning “Rockit,”  which proved seminal for the emergent hip-hop culture.

Hancock would later earn a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2008 for “River: The Joni Letters,” in tribute to Joni Mitchell. That disc also earned another Grammy as best contemporary jazz album. He was subsequently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2016. His dynamic live performances have continued to feature older and newer music, acoustic and electric, from an artist who knows no boundaries.

Joining Hancock will be Terence Blanchard trumpet; James Genus, bass; Lionel Loueke, guitar and vocals, and Jaylen Petinaud, drums.

The Joshua Redman Quartet, featuring guest vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, Nov. 7

Since establishing himself in the early ’90s as one of the premier saxophonists of his generation, Redman has continued to nurture top talent within his bands (including Christian McBride and Brad Mehldau from this year’s series lineup). He recently announced that his next album, “Words Fall Short,” out on June 20, will introduce the new quartet of musicians: pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris and drummer Nazir Ebo. Both the album and the concert also feature guest vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa. She had joined Redman on his previous album, “Where We Are” (2023), as the first vocalist with whom he has recorded.

As an artist who continues to mix things up, Redman feels his musical aspirations remain the same. “My approach to bandleading is unchanged,” he said in announcing the new album and quartet. “Play with the best musicians I can find, virtuosos who have mastered all the different jazz vocabularies, but who are also great listeners and collaborators — who know how to express their individual brilliance through group improvisation and collective interaction.”

José James presents the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s I Want You with special guest Lizz Wright, Feb. 6

José James has been tagged a “jazz singer for the hip-hop generation,” but his inspirations run older and deeper. As he told NPR upon the release of last year’s “1978” album, “My three biggest influences are Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday and John Coltrane. And they were all very serious artists but very accessible.” 

This concert finds him paying tribute to Gaye in particular, with a “reimagining” of his 1976 album of seductive, sophisticated balladry. James will be joined by vocalist Lizz Wright, a kindred spirit who teamed with him on “Take Me Home” (2020). The performance should illuminate the jazzier dimensions of an album that was ahead of its time as a “quiet storm” landmark.

Nubya Garcia/Somi, March 13

Guest curator Kate Dumbleton, artistic and executive eirector of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, presents the series debuts of two artists expanding the international range of the musical lineup. British saxophonist Nubya Garcia has been lauded for her dreamy soundscapes that have a rhythmic insistence. She incorporates elements of reggae, drums and bass, acid jazz and electronic textures that bring the dance floor to the jazz scene.

Vocalist Somi was born in Illinois, to parents who had emigrated from Rwanda and Uganda. Mentored by Hugh Masekela, she infuses her music with social activism whlle providing a bridge to her African heritage.  A Grammy nominee for best jazz vocal album, she earned this notice from the New York Times: “African grooves, supple jazz singing and compassionate social conscience; she is both serious and seductive.” 

Miles at 100: Gonzalo Rubalcaba/“Unlimited Miles” with John Beasley, March 27

Anticipating the centennial of the birth of Miles Davis (May 26, 1926) this program presents a testament to the range of his music and its enduring influence. Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba will present a solo piano performance, underscoring the depth of the imprint of the piano in his compositions and in the interplay with so many stellar pianists in his groups.

Keyboardist John Beasley follows with “Unlimited Miles,” leading a sextet that surveys significant periods of Davis’ musical development, which have so profoundly influenced the directions of modern jazz.

Mike Reed’s Chicago Inspirations, May 1

Composer, drummer and guest curator Mike Reed puts a personal stamp on the thematic sweep of this concert’s billing. The founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, the programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival and the owner of the Constellation and Hungry Brain performing venues, Reed compiled a book about an inspired era of local jazz composition titled The City Was Yellow: Chicago Jazz and Improvised Music, 1980-2010.

He revisits that 2018 publication with his selections for a performance featuring saxophonist Geof Bradfield, directing a band of high school musicians from the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Jazz Links program, thus reinforcing that bloodline and legacy. Reed noted of the time period covered in the book: “It is unarguably the era of Chicago giants Von Freeman and Fred Anderson. Both tenor men began the 1980s incredibly respected yet largely under-acknowledged by the world beyond Chicago. However, in the streets of their own city, they commanded a cult-like status among their colleagues and encountered a never-ending supply of young musicians who were eager to curry their favor.”

The concert’s second set, “The Magic Box: Music inspired by Chicago bassist Fred Hopkins,” pays tribute to another underacknowledged Chicago giant — the late AACM bassist Fred Hopkins.  There will be new compositions from Henry Threadgill (who teamed with Hopkins in the Air trio) and Reed, who also be the drummer within the improvisational Chicago sextet.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, June 2

The series concludes with the return of the renowned New York jazz orchestra, led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The program is expected to include newly commissioned compositions, as well as classics by jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Marsalis and orchestra also will join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in its first performances of his Liberty (Symphony No. 5) on June 4-6.

Subscriptions go on sale April 30 at cso.org. Tickets for individual concerts will be available in August.