Dee Dee Bridgewater, Tigran Hamasyan, The Bad Plus, Aja Monet kick off Melbourne International Jazz Festival artist announcements

Jazz greats descend on Melbourne this October.

Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) today offers a tantalising first glimpse of its 2026 program, setting the stage for ten days of extraordinary music from 16–25 October. The initial lineup brings together five globally acclaimed artists whose work spans jazz, experimental improvisation, and poetic expression, promising a festival that is as diverse as it is daring.

Melbourne International Jazz Festival

When: 16 – 25 October

Where: Various Venues Melbourne

Performance Dates

Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater returns to Melbourne for the first time in a decade, presenting a special duet performance with pianist and composer Helen Sung at Hamer Hall on 24 October. A towering figure in modern music, Bridgewater’s four-decade career has seen collaborations with legends such as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, and Dizzy Gillespie, alongside a Tony Award for The Wiz and honours including the Doris Duke Artist Award and NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. Sung, a Guggenheim Fellow, brings her own virtuosic command, fusing jazz and classical traditions with elegance and nuance. Together, they promise an intimate evening traversing eras and genres, from the Great American Songbook to works by Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, Michel Legrand, and Paul Simon.

Armenian pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan returns with his latest release, Manifeste, a work that fuses jazz improvisation, progressive rock intensity, and the spiritual depth of Armenian folk traditions. Renowned for his technical brilliance and emotional range, Hamasyan will perform at Melbourne Recital Centre on 23 October, offering a window into his singular musical imagination.

Meanwhile, The Bad Plus, a seminal force in 21st-century jazz, mark their final Australian performances on 21 October as part of a worldwide farewell tour. Known for fearless experimentation and genre-defying creativity, the group—featuring founding members Reid Anderson and Dave King alongside guitarist Ben Monder and saxophonist Chris Speed—will close a 26-year legacy of innovation and reinvention at Melbourne Recital Centre.

Brooklyn-born surrealist blues poet aja monet makes her Melbourne debut on 22 October at Max Watt’s, performing with her acclaimed trio. A product of New York City’s legendary Lower East Side poetry scene, monet became the youngest winner of the Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam at 19 and has since emerged as a formidable bandleader and collaborator. Her work fuses poetry, social justice, and music with fierce honesty, exploring themes of love, femininity, and Black resistance.

Finally, GRAMMY Award-winning pianist and composer Kris Davis brings her extraordinary trio—joined by bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake—to The Jazz Lab for a four-show residency on 19 and 20 October. A luminary of New York’s contemporary jazz scene, Davis has been named DownBeat Pianist of the Year three times in the last five years and collaborates with a who’s who of modern jazz, from John Zorn to Esperanza Spalding.

With more artists set to be announced, MIJF 2026 promises a bold, boundary-pushing celebration of jazz and improvised music, highlighting the world’s most visionary performers across intimate and iconic Melbourne venues.

Tickets to attend Melbourne International Jazz Festival go on sale via melbournejazz.com at 11am, Thursday 21 May.