NJPAC Prepares for Latin Jazz Weekend

  I  

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark will host a Latin Jazz Weekend, Oct. 26-28, which will kick of the venue’s Alternative Routes season.

On Oct. 26 at 8 p.m., Cubanoson and DJ Danny Ramirez will provide dance music with the help of Cultural Explosion Dance Company, New Jersey’s largest Latin dance company and dance school, providing salsa lessons.

On Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m., multireedist Paquito D’Rivera will perform with his sextet for the New Jersey premiere of music from his newest album, Funk Tango, the first album on his own label, Paquito Records. An Artist-in-Residence at NJPAC, D’Rivera has won eight Grammy Awards, most recently for Best Classical Recording.

New Orleans-based trumpeter Irvin Mayfield will lead Los Hombres Calientes on Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. to close the Latin Jazz Weekend with jazz, Afro-Caribbean and New Orleans inspired rhythms.

njpac.org.



  • KP2_Print_copy.jpg

    ​Peplowski first came to prominence in legacy swing bands, including the final iteration of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, before beginning a solo career in the late 1980s.

  • John_Hammond_courtesy_johnhammond.com.jpg

    Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.

  • Screenshot_2026-02-03_at_5.17.03%E2%80%AFPM_copy.jpg

    ​“I play what I want and what I like,” said Andrew Cyrille. “I use my knowledge artistically and professionally.”

  • Wynton_Marsalis_by_Frank_Stewart.jpg

    Marsalis will, if he chooses to use it, have a strong voice in perpetuating his vision through a role in choosing his successors.

  • Lettuce_by_Sam_Silkworth_2026_copy.jpg

    Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall