The “cool” counterpart to Summer Fest, Winter Fest presents jazz, blues, Latin and related genres in intimate venues in San Jose from February 14 to March 1, 2020. Artists will be announced and tickets go on sale November 19.

A series of wintertime, Sunday afternoon jazz concerts was one of the first performance programs SJZ produced after its founding in 1986. In 2013, we refashioned it into a concentrated group of 20–25 events within a 20 day period. It was conceived as a reflection of Summer Fest, with its diversity of music types and audiences, but has always had a special bent towards experimentation by innovative young artists pushing the boundaries of what jazz can be.

In the last seven years, Winter Fest has presented  artists like José James, Charles McPherson, Thundercat, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Robert Glasper Experiment, Vijay Iyer Trio, Diane Schuur, Donny McCaslin, Kris Bowers, La Santa Cecilia, Mark Guiliana and many more. To see highlights of Winter Fests past, see our History page.