The Brandee Younger Trio will wrap up the next season of Jazz at All Saints’ in March 2026. (Photo by Erin O’Brien)
Last year, there was a new and exciting addition to Atlanta’s jazz scene, and Jazz at All Saints’ is building on a successful inaugural run with the announcement of its second season of artists.
The concerts will be held in the sanctuary of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Midtown (634 W. Peachtree St. NW), beginning at 7 p.m.
Up first, on September 12, is drummer Robert Boone Jr. and his quartet, who will celebrate the centennial of the birth of renowned drummer and social activist Max Roach (who was born in January 1924). Grammy Award-winner Boone is the drummer for the legendary Count Basie Orchestra and is a professor of jazz at Georgia State University.
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Nnenna Freelon. (Photo by Chris Charles)
The esteemed jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, a multiple Grammy nominee, headlines the November 14 concert, blending her own compositions, noted for deep emotion and quiet wisdom, with familiar selections from the jazz genre. Her latest projects — the album Beneath the Skin and the upcoming Duke University Press book Beneath the Skin of Sorrow — honor her late husband, Phil Freelon, lead architect for the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American Culture and History and Atlanta’s National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
South African trumpeter Darren English, who honed his bebop skills at Georgia State University, takes the stage on February 13. He’s a familiar face at Atlanta jazz festivals and recently completed a three-month tour of Europe, India and the United States.
The Brandee Younger Trio will perform on March 13. Younger is carrying on the harp’s role in modern jazz, inspired by the pioneering work of Alice Coltrane. Now the custodian of a harp played by Coltrane, one of the women who created the harp’s distinctive voice in jazz, Younger played it in a recent Carnegie Hall concert dedicated to the late virtuoso’s compositions. In 2022, she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.
The Jazz at All Saints’ Concert series was created by Atlanta jazz vocalist Virginia Schenck, its artistic director, assisted by All Saints’ Director of Music Scott Lamlein. Following each concert, Schenck conducts a Q&A session with the evening’s headliner.
“Getting inside the music, the artistry and creativity, is one of my passions,” Schenck said in a press release announcing the new season. “It’s part of our jazz education and our cultural heritage. Our intent for this series is to provide evenings of joy and soul in these challenging times, for we believe in the transformative power of jazz to bring people together in community and shared humanity.”
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