More than 75 musicians and performers will take the stage across three indoor venues throughout the weekend of November 20th-22nd for the Suncoast Jazz Festival at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater. The schedule includes nightly jam sessions and a lineup that moves easily from swing and traditional jazz to Brazilian music, as well as the Great American Songbook, New Orleans jazz, blues and Sunday gospel.
The mix has been part of the event’s appeal since it began in 1990 and now, in its 36th year, the festival continues to make room for both the familiar and the unexpected.
Professor Cunningham and his Old School
This year's lineup brings three notable artists to the festival for the first time. John Pizzarelli, the celebrated guitarist and vocalist, has built a career around the Great American Songbook, bringing jazz standards to new audiences with his trio and an engaging performance style. One of the most acclaimed clarinet players of her generation, Anat Cohen is an eagerly anticipated addition to the festival. She has been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007 and has been recognized at the top of DownBeat's clarinet polls. Pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton has released more than 20 albums and toured internationally, drawing on the classic jazz tradition while developing a sound that is distinctly her own.
Festival Director Joan Dragon says the three artists will each bring something different to the event.
“We want to bring the best to the festival,” she says. “John is a charismatic walking encyclopedia of the Great American Songbook, Anat brings virtuosity to the table and Champian is an emerging dual threat: a great pianist and a wonderful singer.”
Diego Figueiredo
Other headliners include Grammy-nominated Brazilian guitar virtuoso Diego Figueiredo, world-renowned clarinet/sax player Ken Peplowski as well as Jason Marsalis and Chuck Redd, two acclaimed musicians who play both the drums and the vibraphone. Other returning fan favorites include Adrian Cunningham and Dave Bennett, as well as the bands Tom Rigney and Flambeau and Professor Cunningham and His Old School.
Florida talent is an important part of the weekend, with James Suggs, La Lucha, Nate Najar, Daniela Soledade, James Wall, Theo Valentin, Simon Lasky, Allison Nash and the Al Downing Trio sharing the bill with artists from around the country and beyond.
At right: James Suggs with Wycliffe Gordon
“We also utilize our local musicians in a way you don't see anywhere else,” Dragon explains. “Every year, we put several of our local jazz artists on stage to perform alongside some of our international jazz stars.”
She points to La Lucha and Suggs as two local musicians who have gone on to record, tour or collaborate with A-list artists after making those connections.
That eclectic mix is sure to create some of the festival's most interesting performances, bringing musicians together in exciting combinations and nightly jam sessions where they can let loose and improvise.
The festival's next generation will be represented by jazz bands from Tarpon Springs High School and the Osceola County School for the Arts.
“This year we have invited two of the best high school jazz bands in the country to perform,” Dragon says. “Amazingly, both bands are from Central Florida.”
Both bands made the 2026 finals of the prestigious Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition at Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York City, with Osceola taking first place. They will also participate in a master class led by Redd.
“This is the future of jazz,” Dragon says. “To keep history alive, you have to educate the youth and give them opportunities.”
Perhaps it is the diversity of talent that makes the Suncoast Jazz Festival so compelling. Jazz here isn't presented as a single sound or a fixed idea: it is something that keeps changing and evolving, depending on the players and the audiences.
As Dragon puts it, “We will always pay tribute to the roots of jazz, but we have to keep the experience relevant to younger audiences.”
Visit suncoastjazzfestival.com for more information.
