Vibrant sights and sounds head to Hudson Jazz Festival

Early October might be the best time of the year to drive around New England and the Hudson Valley. There’s a chill in the air, cutting the humidity which has a tendency to reappear sporadically after its summer residency. There are more harvest festivals and apple-picking opportunities than you could shake a gourd at. And the trees put on a spectacular show with their multicolored foliage.

Summer might be known as festival season, but Hudson, New York is striking while the leaves are hot. The annual Hudson Jazz Festival takes place the first weekend of October, looking to pair the vibrant autumnal foliage with some vivacious jazz.

The festival takes place throughout Hudson Oct. 2 through 4, with pop-up performances it calls “Sounds Around Town.” Locations range from the farmers market to the Amtrak station, with more traditional venues peppered in. The headliners, however, will all head to Hudson Hall.

Hudson Hall itself has a robust history, serving as Hudson’s first City Hall before being used as a bank, a police station, a library and, most famously, an opera house. Built in 1855, it’s New York State’s oldest surviving theater and has at times housed paintings by Frederic Church and Sanford Gifford. Writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson have taken the stage, as have prominent political figures including Susan B. Anthony and Teddy Roosevelt.

In 2017, the building was restored and reopened as Hudson Hall. During the festiva,l the hall’s main stage will feature a lineup of performers from all corners of the jazz world. Cuban-born, Grammy-winning drummer and composer Dafnis Prieto and his high energy band, Sí o Sí Quartet, will perform on Friday night. Prieto, who is also a MacArthur Fellow, has been called “one of the most impressive musicians in New York jazz” by the New York Times.

On Saturday, the main stage will slow things down a bit. Fulbright Scholar and award-winning South African vocalist Vuyo Sotashe and acclaimed pianist Chris Pattishall will delight in the early show. The duo has been performing its intimate brand of slow, smoky nightclub jazz to rave reviews and released “Invocation, its first EP, earlier this year.

Vocalist Shenel Johns will close out the festival’s main stage on Sunday, Oct. 4.Provided

Closing out the festival’s main stage on Sunday is energetic vocalist Shenel Johns. It will be a night of multiple Johns — or Jons — as she’ll be accompanied by Jon Thomas on piano, Jonathan S. Muir-Cotton on bass and Jonathan Barber on drums. In 2025, the award-winning Hartford-born singer made her debut with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as the featured vocalist for Wynton Marsalis’ commissioned piece “Afro”. After the premiere, she accompanied the ensemble as it performed the piece on a tour throughout Africa.

To see the full lineup of musicians and get your tickets for the main stage performances, visit hudsonhall.org.