#holiday-concert

#holiday-concert

Co-founded by arranger, bassist, composer, producer and trombonist Adam Theis, Jazz Mafia is a Bay Area collective of top players, singers, composers, arrangers and even MCs. Launched in 2000, Jazz Mafia has been incredibly prolific, releasing more than 40 albums. The versatile ensemble has the chops and drive to tackle most any style, from the most out-there experimental jazz to traditional holiday favorites.

Multiple successive generations received their introduction to jazz through a beloved if unlikely source: the holiday television specials featuring Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters. Bay Area-based jazz legend Vince Guaraldi composed and played the music for several of those animated features; among the most treasured is A Charlie Brown Christmas, first broadcast in 1965 (and every year since then). Guaraldi's eminently tuneful and accessible music turned kids onto jazz without their knowing what was happening.

Shopping for the big Beatles fan in the family this season? Well, we've got a suggestion: Get that loved one (with impeccable musical taste) some tickets to see the acclaimed Beatles tribute act Rain doing its cool holiday show. Yes, it should be a totally Fab (Four) evening when Rain A Beatles Christmas Tribute hits the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on Dec. 23.

Vocalist and songwriter Ren Geisick was the 2010 recipient of an Ella Fitzgerald Scholarship. That same year, Downbeat Magazine named her Outstanding Undergraduate Jazz Vocalist. Reisick completed her studies and released her debut album, Ren, Love Song in 2017. Her second album, The Place I Planned to Go was released in June 2025. But for this City Lights Theater show-celebrating its 11 th year-Reisick and her band get into the holiday spirit with an assortment of classic holiday music, blending traditional melodies with updated, contemporary arrangements that bring together jazz, Americana and blues.

Grammy nominated pianist David Benoit is bringing his Christmas Tribute to Charlie Brown to the Montalvo Arts Center. Benoit was so moved by hearing Vince Guaraldi's score of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, that he knew what his future looked like, penning the last two decades of Peanuts specials. Along with his own originals and renditions of classics like "Carol of the Bells," and "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town."

Sleigh bells, make way for the saxophones. Tonight's annual Cool Yule concert at the Hammer Theatre will feature the San Jose State University Jazz Orchestra, along with members of the San Jose Jazz High School All-Stars, playing jazzy, swinging arrangements of holiday standards plus newer compositions. Conducting the musicians will be SJSUs Aaron Lington, a professor of music and himself a Grammy Award-winning baritone saxophonist.