Sarasota Jazz Festival Kicks Off March 17

March 10, 2025 | Sarasota

The Sarasota Jazz Festival kicks off March 17 for a week-long celebration of the 45th anniversary of The Jazz Club of Sarasota.

The Festival opens with the Jeremy Carter Band at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 17, at the Court Cabaret at Florida Studio Theatre.

The week of live jazz continues on at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, with the Jazz Trolley Pub Crawl in downtown Sarasota, featuring 12 great bands at 12 great venues:
Barbara King Quartet at Art Ovation Hotel
Hot Club SRQ at VOCO Hotel
Panama Drive at Wolfies
Melanie Massell at Fogartville
Eddie Kinder Ensemble at Lefty’s Oyster & Seafood Bar
Eddie Tobin & Friends at Brevardi’s Salute’
Anne & Mark Burnell at Pie on Main
Sarasota Fusion at LQ on Main
Don Heck Trio at Cask & Ale
Mark Moultrip Trio at Molley’s Pub
Barbara Jordan Quartet at Evie’s Tavern
The Barker Project at Rafferty’s.

Trolleys start at the Van Wezel Parking Lot and make a continuous route for “hop-on, hop-off” passengers throughout the evening.

The Festival Main Stage performances will be held from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. March 20 -22 at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, 801 N. Tamiami Trail, featuring major jazz headliners each night.

Thursday, March 20: The Emmett Cohen Trio featuring vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa and jazz trumpeter and educator Terell Stafford. Cohen is a master of straight-ahead jazz, bebop and stride piano. He
tours nationally and internationally and hosts a weekly streaming show, Emmett’s Place, from his New York apartment with guests artists which began during Covid and is watched by
millions of viewers.

Friday, March 21: Tony Monaco, Jazz Organist, and Eric Alexander, Saxophonist, composer and educator, with James Suggs, Trumpet, and Paul Gavin, drums. Monaco is a jazz organist in the tradition of
Jimmy Smith and Joey DeFrancesco. Alexander, saxophonist, composer and educator, has recorded over 20 jazz albums as a leader. Suggs and Gavin are both top area musicians. Suggs teaches at
University of South Florida. Gavin, also from Tampa, is a teacher, composer and arranger, and serves as Artistic Director of the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective.

Saturday, March 22: Marcus Miller, jazz bassist, composer, arranger and leader of a contemporary jazz ensemble, plays to sold-out crowds and is a returning to the Sarasota Jazz Festival for the second time. Miller plays jazz, jazz fusion, R& B, rock, funk, and smooth jazz and has played on over 500 recordings, appearing on albums by such artists, as Michael Jackson, Beyonce. Herbie Hancock, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Wayne Shorter,Frank Sinatra, George Benson, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Grover Washington Jr., Chaka Kahn and LL Cool J.

Opening Acts feature favorite players from the area:

Thursday, March 20: Gustav Viehmeyer Trio with Joscho Stephan. Gustav Viehmeyer plays guitar and focuses on a mix of jazz, folk, blues and Gypsy Fusion – in particular the music of Django Reinhardt. Joscho Stephan is a
German jazz guitarist specializing in Gypsy Jazz.

Friday, March 21: MJR Latin Project led by Mauricio Rodriguez is a band that revives the Latin Jazz scene with original compositions fusing Latin rhythms and jazz. Rodriguez , a well-known Cuban
bass player and composer, created this band to celebrate the Latin Jazz tradition.

Saturday, March22: Thomas Caribassi formed the Samba Jazz group in 2005, following his time playing drums with Brazilian pianist Manfredo Fest and traveling to Brazil to immerse himself in the music. His broad
jazz experience includes years of working with the legendary Kenny Drew Jr. and other notable jazz artists. In addition, Tom recently retired after more than 20 years as Director of Photography and Digital
Imaging at the Ringling College of Art & Design.

For more information and how to buy tickets, go to sarasotajazzfestival.com. Free student tickets are avaiable, thanks to generous donors who want to support students’ interest in jazz, the original American musical art form.

Music director of the 2025 Festival is Terell Stafford, renowned in the Jazz world as a performer, leader and educator. Stafford is a professional jazz trumpet player and current director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music
and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has played with Mccoy Tyner, Christian McBride, John Clayton, Steve Turre and on stages. such as Carnegie Hall and the Tonight Show. He has also worked with the Juilliard School’s
jazz program and Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program. Tnis is the second year he has served as music director for the Sarasota Jazz Festival. He is also performing with the Emmett Cohen Trio.

The Jazz Club of Sarasota began as the brainstorm of Hal Davis, who retired to Sarasota in 1978 with his wife, Evelyn. Hal was president of a Manhattan advertising agency and began his public relations career at CBS. He handled top talent like the big bands of the era and managed Benny Goodman’s tours of Asia, Europe and the Soviet Union. When he came to Sarasota, he saw that there was an orchestra, opera and theatre…but something was missing -JAZZ! So he and
Evelyn invited people over to listen to music in their Pelican Cove apartment – and that was the beginning! Soon the jazz fans overflowed the Davis living room, condo meeting room and eventually a bank community room ..and the
Jazz Club of Sarasota was born.

In 1980 the club’s first concert was held in Holley Hall, featuring Bucky Pizzarelli, a good friend and one of the world’s best known jazz guitarists. Bucky brought his 18-year-old son,John, and they launched the new club before an uaidnece of 280 people. (Today John is a leading guitarist and vocalist in demand all over the world.)

By 1981, The Club was ready for something bigger , and the first three-day festival was presented featuring some of the top jazz performers of the time.

And…that’s how it happened!

Forty-five years later, the Jazz Club of Sarasota is one of the largest jazz organizations in the country and produces over 100 events a year, including Monday night Jazz Cabarets at Florida Studio Theatre, Jazz at Two concerts on Fridays at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 – 2 concerts during the year, Free Monday Night Jazz Jams and workshops at Selby Library, two concerts presented at Centennial Park in Venice, sponsored by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, a scholarship program for students involved in University jazz studies and Jazzlinks, a touring education program for 11th grade students in Sarasota and Manatee Counties.