From NOLA to NYC, Jazz Gets Jump on January

By Michael J. West I Jan. 6, 2026

Rachel Therrien’s Latin Jazz Project will play at this year’s JEN Conference.
(Photo: Courtesy Rachel Therrien/JEN)

If the New Year is a time of resolutions, of renewed commitments, the jazz industry wastes no time in holding its denizens to those commitments. The first full week of 2026 represents one of the busiest of the year for those in the business of jazz, with three conferences and three festivals taking place in just the cities of New York and New Orleans.

New Orleans gets the jump, with the 17th annual Jazz Education Network Conference beginning on Jan. 6 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. For four days, JEN offers research presentations, panels, a poster session, clinics and workshops, many of them providing continuing education credits for students and educators.

In addition, the conference is packed with performances by student, community and professional ensembles — including the JENerations Jazz Festival, running parallel with the conference and featuring more than 1,400 elementary, middle, junior high, high school, community and college musicians.

New York’s industry action starts a day later. Jazz Congress 2026 takes place Jan. 7–8 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Midtown Manhattan. Whereas JEN is an educational conference, Jazz Congress is a professional one, with its workshops, panels, multimedia presentations and networking opportunities oriented toward artists, managers, producers, presenters, journalists and radio programmers. This year’s conference also features a keynote address by actor, New Orleans native and jazz champion Wendell Pierce.

At the conclusion of the Jazz Congress begins Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Unity Fest, also taking place at the titular center Jan. 8–9. Those two nights comprise 22 concerts at JALC’s Appel Room, Rose Theater and Dizzy’s Club, with performances as well in the Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Atrium. The headliner of the 2026 festival is the Afro-Caribbean jazz band Kes, which will perform two concerts (one on each night of the festival) with guest appearances by Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles.

Winter Jazzfest, one of the most popular and anticipated events in the jazz world, begins Jan. 8 with concerts multi-headline concerts at Greenwich Village’s Le Poisson Rouge and the East Village’s NuBlu. Events continue through Jan. 13, with a closing performance that features saxophonist Isaiah Collier. However, the festival’s highlight is its two-night “marathon,” with dozens of short performances packed into multiple venues in Greenwich Village and the East Village in Manhattan (Jan. 9) and Williamsburg in Brooklyn (Jan. 10). Major attractions of the Manhattan marathon include vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and saxophonists James Carter, David Murray and James Brandon Lewis; Brooklyn offers vibraphonists Sasha Berliner and Joel Ross, flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Nicole Mitchell and drummer Luke Stewart.

Finally, Jan. 9 sees the opening of the five-day annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), held at the New York Hilton Midtown. The annual gathering of presenting, booking and touring professionals includes plenary, learning and pitch sessions, professional development gatherings, consortia meetings, a live mentor exchange, and on Jan. 11 the annual APAP member meeting. DB