2025 San Jose Jazz Festival

On a beautiful sunny Sunday, I had the pleasure of taking Kayla and Micah to the San Jose Jazz Festival. The festival is held over three days in downtown San Jose. There are three main outdoor stages in the plaza, and many nearby indoor stages. We arrived around 1:30 pm and set ourselves up on the lawn with a good view of the main stage but plenty of shade.

The first band up were The Headhunters. They played a competent set, but we weren’t inspired. The shade was started to disappear, so we headed to an indoor theater.

First, we watched Mohini Dey, a blazingly fast electric bass player from India. She was very noisy but full of energy. Then we checked out Toninho Horta, who is a famous Brazilian guitarist. Unfortunately, the sound was very muddy in the space where he was playing and it was hard to enjoy. Our final indoor set was the best of the show. We really loved Vincent Herring’s “Something Else!” The super tight horn section grabbed our attention. The compositions were really interesting. And the musicians were all super talented. It was a great show.

For the last act, we went back to the main stage to hear Mavis Staples. Her gospel-inflected songs were fun and inspiring. However, her age seems to have restricted her singing range; her voice was not as strong as in the past.

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