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The Core represents everything essential about Asheville's jazz DNA distilled into five musicians who understand that the best ensembles aren't just collections of individual talents—they're alchemical reactions where individual voices merge into something greater than their sum. This quintet embodies the mountain city's unique musical ecosystem, where Blue Ridge authenticity meets sophisticated harmonic exploration, where the intimacy of local venues allows for the kind of musical risk-taking that transforms standards into personal statements. Named for their ability to get to the heart of every song they touch, The Core strips away musical pretense to reveal the emotional architecture beneath, proving that jazz at its best isn't about showing off—it's about showing up completely for each moment, each phrase, each possibility that emerges when five musicians breathe together in perfect musical democracy. In Asheville's thriving jazz scene, The Core stands as both inheritors of tradition and pioneers of what's next, reminding audiences that the most profound musical experiences happen when virtuosity serves vulnerability, when technique becomes the vehicle for something infinitely more human.

The Empyrean Trio ascends to the highest sphere of musical expression, where Sanders, Page, and Hall commune in the celestial realm of pure improvisation. Like ancient philosophers who believed the empyrean was the highest heaven—a place of fire and light beyond the physical world—this trio inhabits the ethereal space where earthbound genres dissolve into transcendent musical dialogue.

Their original compositions float between the terrestrial and the sublime, oscillating from groove-laden explorations that anchor listeners to the physical realm, to free-form adventures that lift consciousness into the empyrean heights of pure sonic possibility. Through jazz, rock, blues, and world music influences refined by years of improvisational alchemy, the trio channels the luminous fire of creative spontaneity.

In this rarefied atmosphere, Sanders' guitar becomes a conduit between the material and immaterial, Page's bass provides the gravitational pull that keeps the music tethered to human experience, while Hall's percussion creates the rhythmic cosmos in which their empyrean visions unfold.

The trio is excited to welcome Jacoozy keyboardist (and lifelong friend) Isaac McMurry for the second set.

Casey Driessen: Sunday Bazaar at Little Jumbo is a monthly residency on the 3rd Sunday where music spills out like treasures in a bustling market. Fiddle loops, wild grooves, sonic oddities, and vibrant rhythms mix together in a swirl of color and sound. Tease your tastebuds with expertly crafted cocktails and soak in the cozy, electric atmosphere. No two nights are alike—wander in, follow your ears, and see what you discover.

When a percussion philosopher assembles his laboratory of sound, the walls between rhythm and melody begin to dissolve. This is music as inquiry rather than statement—four sonic investigators treating Little Jumbo's intimate geometry as a place where questions sound better than answers.

One arrives carrying four decades of conversations between drum heads and the spaces between continents, his sticks having traced rhythmic philosophies from Cologne jazz clubs to circus tent reveries, from teaching halls where young minds learned to bend time to stages where time learned to bend itself. Another brings the gravitational architecture of four strings, building invisible foundations sturdy enough to let everyone else float. A third treats the violin like an open-ended hypothesis, proving that the most interesting discoveries happen when classical training meets a willingness to sound beautifully wrong. And the fourth channels bebop through the lens of political science, his eighty-eight keys reminding us that jazz has always been intellectual discourse disguised as groove.

This isn't a band playing repertoire—it's an ensemble treating the stage like a petri dish where grooves breathe, textures mutate, and curiosity compounds into something that couldn't exist in any single musical tradition. European improvisation meets Appalachian immediacy. Scholarly rigor meets street-level spontaneity. Cirque Du Soleil's theatrical surrealism brushes against Harvard's ivory tower sensibilities, all of it refracted through the prism of musicians who've learned that convention is just another variable to manipulate.

In a room where proximity breeds revelation and every frequency finds its frequency-responder, prepare for an evening where rhythm becomes hypothesis, melody becomes evidence, and four veteran explorers prove that after four decades of making music, the most exciting sound is still the one you haven't heard yet.

Two nights before Christmas, while most people are panic-wrapping presents and pretending their family dynamics are healthy, the Danny Iannucci Quartet will be at Little Jumbo doing something far more therapeutic: playing jazz. This is your chance to escape the tinsel tyranny, the forced cheerfulness, the annual reminder that your uncle has terrible political opinions, and the slow realization that you bought the wrong size sweater for everyone on your list.

Danny Iannucci anchors on bass with nearly two decades of Asheville groove wisdom. Dylan Hannan brings multiple reed instruments and the kind of harmonic understanding that makes other musicians nervous. Ryan Ptasnik once performed on a stage made from two pickup trucks at the base of Pik Lenin in Kyrgyzstan, so a Tuesday night in December should feel refreshingly low-stakes. Dr. Tim Fischer rounds out the quartet on guitar, proving that doctoral precision and street-level soul aren't mutually exclusive. Come for the bass lines. Stay because you forgot to finish your shopping anyway.

When Brian Felix sits behind a Hammond B3, something curious happens: the ghost of Jimmy Smith nods approvingly while Jimmy McGriff's ghost mutters "yeah, but can he fix the Leslie when it breaks?" Felix spent his formative years studying piano with Kenny Barron at Rutgers—which is a bit like learning carpentry from a master craftsman and then deciding to become a plumber. Different instrument, same devotion to the craft, equally likely to involve fixing things that leak.

After cutting his teeth in the relentless touring circus of OM Trio (sharing stages with everyone from Tower of Power to Umphrey's McGee, which is basically jazz education via trial by fire and funk), Felix took the scenic route through graduate school, earning a doctorate while pondering the eternal question: "What happens when rock becomes jazz?" The answer, it turns out, involves a lot of drawbars, a Leslie speaker that weighs more than most relationships, and the kind of bass pedal work that makes your chiropractor wince.

Now a professor at UNC Asheville—where he teaches everything from jazz theory to the Grateful Dead, because academic versatility is just a fancy term for "willing to talk about music until everyone else leaves the room"—Felix leads his organ trio with the understanding that the best music happens when you stop trying to impress people and start trying to make them feel something. His left hand walks bass lines, his right hand builds harmonic cathedrals, and somewhere in between, gospel church pews start swaying in jazz clubs.

This isn't nostalgia. This is a guy with a doctorate, two kids, and a very patient wife, proving that organ jazz still has something to say—even if that something occasionally requires an extension cord, a backup fuse, and a sense of humor about the whole enterprise.

Picture four monsters sharing a tub of Jiffy Pop over an open flame—that dangerous, beautiful moment when you're not sure if you're about to get perfectly popped kernels or a kitchen fire, but you're committed to finding out together. That's what happens when these four get in a room: controlled chaos, collaborative combustion, and the kind of musical conversation that happens when everyone's holding the pan handle at once.

The beauty of monster jazz is nobody's trying to be polite. There's no "after you" at the bridge, no gentle suggestions about dynamics, no passive-aggressive eye contact about tempo. Just four players who've spent enough time in the trenches to know that the best music happens when you stop being precious about your ideas and start treating the bandstand like a shared kitchen experiment. Some nights you get gourmet. Some nights you get scorched. Most nights you get something in between that tastes better than it has any right to, served with the kind of chemistry that only comes from musicians who trust each other enough to occasionally make terrible decisions together.

The Soul Jazz Revival rings in 2026

Velvet curtains between dimensions. Four sonic alchemists stirring champagne bubbles into galaxies. When the clock chases midnight and the year dissolves into pure possibility, there's only one question that matters: where will you be when the groove takes over? This is the moment when midnight stops being a deadline and becomes a threshold. When the rhythms don't just move you—they rewrite your molecular structure. Soul jazz as time travel, as prophecy, as that feeling you get when you realize the party isn't ending, it's just shapeshifting into something more beautiful than the architects of soul ever dreamed possible.

Five masters of the moment—Jacob Rodriguez's sax melting time and space, Quinn Sternberg's bass threading through dimensions, Joe Enright's drums painting rhythm as color, Alex Taub finding infinity between the keys, Andy Page's guitar weaving stories from Montreux to these mountains—converge to transform the countdown into something closer to levitation than celebration.

The room leans in. The walls remember. The future arrives at Little Jumbo. New Year's Eve. Where the revival isn't just musical—it's molecular.

The Core represents everything essential about Asheville's jazz DNA distilled into five musicians who understand that the best ensembles aren't just collections of individual talents—they're alchemical reactions where individual voices merge into something greater than their sum. This quintet embodies the mountain city's unique musical ecosystem, where Blue Ridge authenticity meets sophisticated harmonic exploration, where the intimacy of local venues allows for the kind of musical risk-taking that transforms standards into personal statements. Named for their ability to get to the heart of every song they touch, The Core strips away musical pretense to reveal the emotional architecture beneath, proving that jazz at its best isn't about showing off—it's about showing up completely for each moment, each phrase, each possibility that emerges when five musicians breathe together in perfect musical democracy. In Asheville's thriving jazz scene, The Core stands as both inheritors of tradition and pioneers of what's next, reminding audiences that the most profound musical experiences happen when virtuosity serves vulnerability, when technique becomes the vehicle for something infinitely more human.

Sanders, Boyd, Page & Hall distill the pure essence of improvisational expression, converging as alchemists of sound, transmuting musical elements into their most essential forms. This quartet embodies the philosophical concept of quintessence—the fifth element beyond earth, air, fire, and water—representing the fundamental substance from which all musical reality springs.

Their original compositions crystallize the essential qualities of diverse influences, oscillating between through-composed musical themes, groove-based soul explorations, traditional jazz-influenced pieces, Americana-inspired peaceful melodicism, world music influences, free jazz adventures, and occasional forays into cacophonous noise music. Through years of improvisational study, they've learned to access that rarefied space where genres dissolve into pure creative energy.

In this musical laboratory, Sanders' guitar becomes a conduit for universal vibration, Boyd's reeds channel the breath of consciousness itself, Page's bass provides the fundamental frequency of existence, while Hall's percussion creates the rhythmic heartbeat of the cosmos.

The Will Boyd Project isn't just a band—it's a spiritual reckoning delivered through reeds and rhythm, a sonic revival where the sacred traditions of the Black church collide with the revolutionary fire of jazz. Led by multi-instrumentalist and "mad sax man" Will Boyd, this ensemble transforms every performance into a joyful noise that honors the soul sax prophets—Eddie Harris, Hank Crawford, King Curtis—while pushing the movement forward with urgent, right-now energy.

From baritone sax sermons to bass clarinet benedictions, Boyd channels decades of soul tradition through every note, reimagining spirituals, hymns, and freedom songs with albums like Freedom Soul Jazz and Soulful Noise. This is music that's toured Japan, shared stages with Fred Wesley and Jeff Coffin, and graced PBS documentaries—yet still feels as intimate as a Sunday morning service in a Memphis sanctuary.

Joined by steady-grooving bassist Zack Page, thunderous drummer Micah Thomas, and the mountain magic of keyboardist Taylor Pierson, The Will Boyd Project proves that jazz has always been about liberation—musical, spiritual, and otherwise. Expect an evening where bebop meets the church pew, where virtuosity serves something bigger than technique, and where every song becomes a freedom song.

This isn't just a performance. It's a celebration. It's a sermon. It's proof that the future sounds like freedom.

Sanders, Boyd, Page & Hall distill the pure essence of improvisational expression, converging as alchemists of sound, transmuting musical elements into their most essential forms. This quartet embodies the philosophical concept of quintessence—the fifth element beyond earth, air, fire, and water—representing the fundamental substance from which all musical reality springs.

Their original compositions crystallize the essential qualities of diverse influences, oscillating between through-composed musical themes, groove-based soul explorations, traditional jazz-influenced pieces, Americana-inspired peaceful melodicism, world music influences, free jazz adventures, and occasional forays into cacophonous noise music. Through years of improvisational study, they've learned to access that rarefied space where genres dissolve into pure creative energy.

In this musical laboratory, Sanders' guitar becomes a conduit for universal vibration, Boyd's reeds channel the breath of consciousness itself, Page's bass provides the fundamental frequency of existence, while Hall's percussion creates the rhythmic heartbeat of the cosmos.

Casey Driessen: Sunday Bazaar at Little Jumbo is a monthly residency on the 3rd Sunday where music spills out like treasures in a bustling market. Fiddle loops, wild grooves, sonic oddities, and vibrant rhythms mix together in a swirl of color and sound. Tease your tastebuds with expertly crafted cocktails and soak in the cozy, electric atmosphere. No two nights are alike—wander in, follow your ears, and see what you discover.

When Snarky Puppy bandmates Chris Bullock and Justin Stanton—who've spent countless hours together since meeting in Texas in 2005—decided to bring their unique songwriting visions to Rio de Janeiro in 2023, they discovered something magical: Justin's compositions tended toward lighter sounds and feelings, while Chris's carried darker, sometimes sinister hues. The result became "Claro e Escuro" (Portuguese for "light and dark"), an album that celebrates the vibrancy of Brazilian culture while showcasing two decades of friendship, strong working rapport, and mutual respect between these five-time Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalists, composers, and producers.

Now these musical globetrotters bring their light-and-dark conversation to Asheville, anchored by two of the Blue Ridge's finest rhythm architects. Quinn Sternberg doesn't just play bass—he becomes the gravitational center around which musical solar systems orbit, his four strings serving as the invisible force that holds melody and rhythm in perfect harmonic balance, building rhythmic foundations so sturdy that horn players can stretch toward the stratosphere. Ryan Ptasnik brings his jazz-trained versatility from Wyoming high school bands to Central Asian opera houses to Asheville's vibrant scene, proving that the best drummers create the adaptable foundation that allows wildly diverse musical visions to flourish.

After Chris spent three months immersed in Rio's music culture, he brought Justin back for a week of tracking sessions where different configurations of musicians shifted the music's feel and groove—lending fire and spontaneity that now comes to life with Sternberg and Ptasnik as the rhythmic heart. Expect an evening where Asheville's own Chris Bullock (that's right—he started his musical obsession right here with Beach Boys and hip-hop cassettes) teams with Tennessee's Justin Stanton to prove that the most compelling musical conversations happen when saxophone meets trumpet, keyboards meet synthesis, light meets dark, and two of Asheville's most intuitive rhythm players make it all swing.

Sanders, Boyd, Page & Hall distill the pure essence of improvisational expression, converging as alchemists of sound, transmuting musical elements into their most essential forms. This quartet embodies the philosophical concept of quintessence—the fifth element beyond earth, air, fire, and water—representing the fundamental substance from which all musical reality springs.

Their original compositions crystallize the essential qualities of diverse influences, oscillating between through-composed musical themes, groove-based soul explorations, traditional jazz-influenced pieces, Americana-inspired peaceful melodicism, world music influences, free jazz adventures, and occasional forays into cacophonous noise music. Through years of improvisational study, they've learned to access that rarefied space where genres dissolve into pure creative energy.

In this musical laboratory, Sanders' guitar becomes a conduit for universal vibration, Boyd's reeds channel the breath of consciousness itself, Page's bass provides the fundamental frequency of existence, while Hall's percussion creates the rhythmic heartbeat of the cosmos.

When a bassist who's held down the low end for Stan Getz, Jim Hall, Chet Baker, and Mel Lewis walks into a room, the entire history of jazz walks in with him. Steve LaSpina doesn't just play upright bass—he channels four decades of New York City's most hallowed bandstands into every note, every walking line a direct connection between Little Jumbo's Monday night intimacy and the countless legendary sessions that came before.

LaSpina grew up marinating in dance band DNA in Wichita Falls, Texas, studied with Ray Brown (because if you're going to learn bass, you might as well learn from God), and then spent the better part of four decades becoming the kind of first-call player that legends call when they need someone who actually listens. This is bass playing as musical archaeology—every choice informed by decades of conversation with masters, every line both honoring tradition and pushing it forward.

For this quintet, LaSpina assembles some serious mountain firepower: Dr. Tim Fischer bringing USC-trained precision and genre-blurring audacity on guitar, Jacob Rodriguez channeling world-traveling saxophone wisdom from San Antonio street corners to Michael Bublé's Grammy stages, Alan Hall on drums (a four-decade veteran who's bent time behind Lee Konitz and Cirque Du Soleil), and Dr. Bill Bares on piano—Harvard's former NEH Distinguished Professor who turned a lip injury that ended his trumpet career into a keyboard calling that's reshaped jazz education across New England and now UNC Asheville.