Ahead of the full programme launch this August, Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) have teased their 2025 season with six headline performers.
The music line-up will feature the Australian live debut of five-time Grammy Award-winning jazz-R&B-gospel vocalist (including Best New Artist in 2023) Samara Joy as well as the return of living legend saxophonist Gary Bartz (who has collaborated with the likes of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy).Bartz will be joined by Melbourne's own Barney McAll for a late-night show of transportive spiritual jazz and boundless experimentation. A recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship, Smithsonian Legacy Award, and a UNESCO Artist for Peace, Panamanian pianist-composer Danilo Pérez will also feature at 2025 MIJF.
As will Australian jazz bassist-composer Linda May Han Oh; the current Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music, Oh will perform 'Invisible Threads', a new audio-visual work commissioned by MIJF that will premiere at Melbourne Recital Centre on the final weekend of the festival.
Two boundary-pushing forces from New York's underground scene, Melanie Charles feat. Ignabu & Paul Wilson Bae and WhoAllGonBeThere, will fuse jazz, soul and hip hop driven by deep grooves for an evening of freestyle fire and thunderous beats, unleashing the raw, soulful spirit of hip hop and jazz.
While Grammy Award-winning guitarist and composer, Bill Frisell returns to the MIJF stage with an intimate six-show residency at The JazzLab. From projects with fellow jazz luminaries John Scofield, Chick Corea, and Ron Carter to work with popular artists Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt and many more, Frisell seamlessly blends jazz with folk, rock, country, classical and avant-garde.
These additions join the already announced two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist, composer and bandleader Gregory Porter, one of the world's great modern jazz voices.
Tickets on sale from 3 July.
2025 Melbourne International Jazz Festival takes place at various locations from 17-26 October.
Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2025 Line-up
Sat 18 Oct - Danilo Perez @ Melbourne Recital Centre* matineeWed 22 Oct - Gary Bartz @ 170 Russell
Fri 24 Oct - Gregory Porter @ Arts Centre Melbourne
Sat 25 Oct - Linda May Han Oh @ Melbourne Recital Centre
Sat 25 Oct - Melanie Charles & WhoAllGonBeThere @ Max Watts
Sun 26 Oct - Samara Joy @ Hamer Hall* matinee
24-26 Oct - Bill Frisell @ JazzLab* six show residency
