These 25 Performers Could Shape Jazz For Decades

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Veronica Swift has both a historical connection to the music and a desire to expand its artistic purview.

(Photo: Giancarlo Belfiore/Umbria Jazz)

​Welcome to our enthusiastic, optimistic look at the future.

Below, DownBeat presents short profiles of two dozen musicians who, like Veronica Swift, have the potential to shape the direction of jazz in the decades to come. DB

Yazz Ahmed

Fabian Almazan

Lakecia Benjamin

Theo Croker

Yussef Dayes

James Francies

Nubya Garcia

Morgan Guerin

Jazzmeia Horn

Shabaka Hutchings

Jimmy Macbride

Makaya McCraven

Camila Meza

Hedvig Mollestad

Nduduzo Makhathini

Adam O’Farrill

Junius Paul

Tomeka Reid

Alfredo Rodríguez

Joel Ross

Christian Sands

Veronica Swift

Luke Stewart

Camille Thurman

Kuba Więcek

These stories originally were published in the November 2020 issue of DownBeat. Subscribe here.



  • Roy_Haynes_by_Michael_Jackson_2012.jpg

    “I treat every day like it’s Thanksgiving,” said Roy Haynes.

  • John_McLaughlin_by_Mark_Sheldon.jpg

    John McLaughlin likened his love for the guitar to the emotion he expressed 71 years ago upon receiving his first one. “It’s the same to this day,” he said.

  • Lou_Donaldson_by_Michael_Jackson_2015.jpg

    Lou Donaldson was one of the originators of the hard bop movement in jazz back in the 1950s.

  • Zakir_Hussain_2011_Symphony_Center_copy.jpg

    “Watching people like Max Roach or Elvin Jones and seeing how they utilize the whole drum kit in a very rhythmic and melodic way and how they stretched time — that was a huge inspiration to me,” Hussain said in DownBeat.

  • ART7087_Mike_Stern_by_Sandrine_Lee_72dpi_RGB_PR8391_copy.jpg

    “I love doing ballads,” Mike Stern says. “It’s just a part of me, some part of emotionally how I feel sometimes.”


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