The Hudson Jazz Festival returns to Hudson Valley for its ninth year, with performances starting September 26 and ending with the Hudson Jazz Festival October 2–4.
Started in 2018 as a part of Hudson Hall’s season, the festival returns with free performances at Hudson Hall, Hudson Amtrak Station, Pocket Park outside Mel the Bakery and other locations across the city. Built in 1855, Hudson Hall is the oldest surviving theater in New York State.
Curated by Bard College of Music professor and jazz pianist John Esposito, the concert series Sounds Around Town returns with Bard College jazz students and faculty and Hudson Valley musicians and artists putting on 16 free shows.
The series kicks off September 26 with morning performances from the Sivaan Barak Saacks Quintet and Miles Taylour Sweeny: Bad Times Trio at the Hudson Farmers Market.
“Sounds Around Town gives Bard’s emerging musicians the opportunity to perform across a wide range of settings and for very different audiences,” Esposito said. “That breadth of live experience is invaluable. They’re not adjacent to the festival, they’re part of its lineup, performing alongside established artists and helping shape the musical character of the weekend.”
Sounds Around Town leads up to three concerts at Hudson Hall October 2–4.
The weekend begins with family-friendly activities October 1. The Community Kick-Off will feature the Hudson Valley Maverick Jazz Camp Ensemble, Hudson High School Jazz Band and Flying Elements at Bard College at The Hudson Harmonic.
October 4 brings Lady Moon & Friends to The Half Moon for an afternoon family concert in celebration of French-born musician Ngonda Badila, also known as Lady Moon, and artist and illustrator Ntangou Badila’s children’s book Back to the Garden. The event will include art activities and an interactive banjo circle.
Dafnis Prieto and his Sí o Sí Quartet perform October 2. The Grammy Award-winning Cuban drummer and composer brings Afro-Cuban rhythms to jazz. The 7 p.m. show will be followed by a 9 p.m. Opening Night Afterparty featuring live music by bassist Tristen Jarvis and a DJ on the Skydeck at The Spark of Hudson.
Musical partners Vuyo Sotashe and Christ Pattishall come next on October 3 at 7 p.m.. Sotashe, a South African vocalist, and Pattishall, an American pianist and composer, will perform South African Xhosa hymns, music by Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder and selections from their 2026 EP Invocation.
Also on October 3 at 9 p.m., Park Theater will feature Grammy-winning French multi-instrumentalist and former member of Miles Davis’s band Mino Cinélu. As a celebration of Davis’s centennial, Cinélu will perform original compositions and share stories of working alongside the influential trumpeter.
Vocalist Shenel Johns closes things out at Hudson Hall October 4. Growing up in a Jamaican family, Johns’ vocals are shaped by jazz gospel and reggae. She has previously performed at the Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
“The festival is at its best when the entire city becomes a part of it!” says Hudson Jazz Festival curator Cat Henry. “This year’s artists bring exciting and diverse cultural perspectives to Hudson, and our partner events and Sounds Around Town give audiences more ways to encounter their work and experience the festival in the city’s creative spaces.”
View the full schedule here.
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