NYC Winter Jazzfest 2025 Returns This January

2025 NYC WINTER JAZZFEST returns January 9-15, 2025, presenting The Full Spectrum of Jazz.

The overarching goal of NYC Winter Jazzfest has remained steadfast for two decades: to grow the audience for jazz, with a broad programming mission that speaks to the diversity of the New York and global scene, presenting the widest spectrum of what jazz can be. To that end WJF has hosted many of today's most fearless and creative musicians, who push boundaries and imagine new possibilities for our music scene and our world.

WJF 2025 will welcome Artist-in-Residence Makaya McCraven, drummer extraordinaire, groundbreaking bandleader and conceptualist, who will appear at NYC WJF with the following projects:

Nublu, Jan. 9: 

MAKAYA McCRAVEN, THEON CROSS, BEN LAMAR GAY

Manhattan Marathon, Jan. 10:

SPONTANEOUS COMPOSITION

Makaya McCraven improvises with Junius Paul, Matt Gold, Marquis Hill and Josh Johnson

Brooklyn Marathon, Jan. 11:

IN THE MOMENT/IN THESE TIMES

Makaya McCraven Ensemble performs arrangements of music from In the Moment for the breakthrough album's 10-year anniversary

Lineup: Makaya McCraven, Junius Paul, Matt Gold, Marquis Hill, Josh Johnson, Joel Ross, more TBA

Public Records, Jan. 14: 

INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF IN THE MOMENT WITH MAKAYA MCCRAVEN & GILLES PETERSON

A night of spontaneous composition with Makaya McCraven and musicians TBA, with DJ sets by Gilles Peterson

Prolific drummer, beatmaker and exploratory mixtape artist Makaya McCraven has been aptly called a “cultural synthesizer,” with a unique gift for collapsing space, destroying borders and blending past, present and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music. According to The New York Times, “McCraven has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz's vitality.” In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of his breakout album In the Moment with International Anthem, Makaya will perform two fully improvised shows that will be recorded in the spirit of his past albums: one full band show playing music from In the Moment and Universal Beings, and a rare improvised set by his working band on a big stage.

Makaya's history with Winter Jazzfest dates to its early years, first through the connection with the late, dearly missed Meghan Stabile and Revive Music as far back as 2009, well before being known worldwide. His 2015 release In the Moment marked the beginning of his ongoing relationship with International Anthem Recording Company, his creative home to this day. Both the label and that groundbreaking album, In the Moment, are marking their 10th anniversaries at this year's WJF.

“I've kind of themed my residency around that,” McCraven says. “The show at Public Records is an improvised, recorded set in the spirit of the In the Moment sessions. Then at Nublu it'll be a set with Theon Cross and Ben LaMar Gay—we've improvised now twice before, first on-air at Worldwide FM with Gilles Peterson, and then once at an International Anthem showcase in Berlin earlier this year, which was also recorded. This show will also be recorded and marks another step toward this becoming a potential ongoing project. At the Friday Marathon, we're going to play music from In the Moment, to some extent in the way I've toured it in the past, but probably also some pieces that were never arranged for the band before. The Saturday Brooklyn Marathon is with a larger band, but still an improvised set, which is rare.”

This mix of small venues vs. larger stage shows underlines the shapeshifting adaptability of McCraven's music itself. It harks back to watershed moments such as his appearances through Red Bull Music Academy, where he had the freedom to conceive of a big night with 12-13 artists, an approach that soon became the norm for him. From the start, his musical activities have always been truly grassroots, dating back to his pre-Chicago days in Western Massachusetts with the jazz/hip-hop group Cold Duck Complex, which opened for The Pharcyde, Digable Planets and the Wu-Tang Clan.

“One thing I'm proud of,” he says, “is if I do a gig in New York or wherever and Brandee [Younger] or Joel [Ross] or Marquis [Hill] see that I'm coming, maybe the ads are already out, Brandee will be like, ‘Hey, I'm in town and I'd love to just play with you guys.' And Joel is like, ‘Hey, I'm in town too, can I play?' And I'm like, you know what? F— it, everybody let's play. I'm really honored and humbled that these such talented and brilliant musicians want to play with me."

About NYC Winter Jazzfest

The NYCWJF has become a creative home for pathbreaking artists from the local NYC scene and globally, and a pivotal destination for arts leaders and cultural cognoscenti, hardcore fans and new listeners alike. The festival has grown at a rapid pace, from the original one-day single-location program to annual schedules putting as many as 150 groups (over 600 artists) on 20 stages throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Founded by New York concert impresario Brice Rosenbloom, NYCWJF has become the definitive all-inclusive jazz event that offers a “state of the union” of jazz and its many stylistic camps from avant-garde to post-bop, jazz-funk, fusion, hypermodern through-composed music and jazz-inflected world music. From party bands to ambient electronic groups to the most advanced compositional approaches – audiences sample everything the jazz world has to offer. As a destination event, attendees regularly travel from other states and countries to attend the festival. Many in the industry see it as jazz's answer to SXSW.