The BRIC JazzFest 2026, returning to BRIC House in Downtown Brooklyn Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17.
At the center of the festival is a tribute to Randy Weston led by Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, honoring one of jazz's most influential composers and a defining figure in the music's relationship to Africa and the diaspora.
Six-time Grammy winner, musician, composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill, has been championing Randy Weston's legendary music well before and after Weston's death in 2018. Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra will be on stage October 16 at BRIC JazzFest 2026.
You can SEE Doug Doyle's entire interview with Arturo O'Farrill below:
Now in its twelfth year, BRIC JazzFest has become an essential destination for jazz and music lovers, returning to its roots in freedom, exchange and improvisation while stretching outward across soul, R&B, funk, electronic music, rock, house, global rhythms and American standards. In alignment with BRIC's year-long curatorial vision of bringing “Radical Joy” to life, this year's festival aims to expand the circle of what's considered jazz music, and to welcome those who have yet to find their home within this tent. The lineup presents jazz as a collective experience, as regions to move through and music to dance to.
One of the other headliners at BRIC JazzFest 2026 is Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, producer and composer Bilal. Bilal, who grew up in the Philadelphia area, has strong roots in jazz. When Bilal was 13, his father would take him to the jazz clubs there and he got to see Terrence Blanchard, Kenny Kirkland and Jeff Tain Watts perform live. While at New York City's The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. On this first day at the New Schoo, he met pianist Robert Glasper and the two became friends and collaborators. You can hear Glasper on Bilal's latest record Adjust Brightness which was nominated at the 2026 Grammy Awards for ‘Best Progressive R&B Album.
You can SEE the entire interview with Bilal below:
Another headliner on October 16 is Japanese-born and Brooklyn-based trumpeter Takuya Kuroda. Kuroda is also excited to play at BRIC JazzFest.
While speaking from a concert stop in Korea, Kuroda told WBGO's Doug Doyle that the trumpet, in his opinion, is probably the most physical instrument to play and that you need to play everyday to be good on stage. Thus, the title of his most recent project Everyday, Kuroda's eighth studio record. Critics have described the work as a deliciously rhythmic enterprise and a triumph of genre-blending modern jazz that builds on and dives deeper into the hip hop and Neo-sound elements of his previous work.
Early in his carrer, Kuroda relocated to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music for a five-week summer program. . While at Berklee, Kuroda befriended upcoming jazz vocalist José James, who invited Kuroda to record with him.
Kuroda would then move to New York City, where he enrolled at the New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program, graduating in 2006.
In 2013, Kuroda signed with Blue Note Records and recorded his third solo album, the José James-produced Rising Son. Released in 2014, Rising Son featured a strong soul-jazz and hip-hop influence exemplified by the presence of several Roy Ayers compositions including “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” which featured James on vocals.
While speaking from a concert stop in Korea, Kuroda told WBGO's Doug Doyle that the trumpet, in his opinion, is probably the most physical instrument to play and that you need to play everyday to be good on stage. Thus, the title of his most recent project Everyday, Kuroda's eighth studio record. Critics have described the work as a deliciously rhythmic enterprise and a triumph of genre-blending modern jazz that builds on and dives deeper into the hip hop and Neo-sound elements of his previous work.
Other performers include Mohini Dey, Braxton Cook, Sparklmami, Marcus Gilmore, Melvis Santa presents Gata Jazz, Salin, Tyreek McDole, and Laura Anglade .
The festival culminates with Toribio & Bring Dat Jazz Orchestra’s special after-hours dance party, transforming the curatorial vision into a collective experience on the dance floor.
You can get more information about tickets and the two-day BRIC JazzFest 2026 here.
