Fillmore Jazz Festival 2026
- Sunday, July 5, 2026
- Calvary Stage: Fillmore at Jackson
- Time: 1:00-2:30
James Washington, one of the Bay Area’s most distinctive improvising pianists, known for his soulful touch and genre-defying artistry, brings his deeply personal approach to spontaneous composition to the Calvary Stage.
First appearing on the San Francisco scene in 1968, Washington has spent decades developing a musical voice that moves fluidly between jazz, classical music, and free improvisation. His playing reflects both rigorous musical study and a lifelong exploration of the masters and the mystics.
Washington’s influences are broad and deep. In his younger years, he studied at Berklee College of Music under Madame Chaloff, and the New England Conservatory with Third Stream pioneer Ran Blake. From Blake and the Third Stream tradition, he inherited a belief that music can transcend conventional boundaries between jazz and classical forms, composition and improvisation, discipline and intuition.
The influence of the Black Mystery Schools and other esoteric traditions can be felt throughout his work, which often treats improvisation not as self-expression but as a practice of attention—a way of listening for something larger than oneself.
His appearance at the Fillmore Jazz Festival offers audiences a rare chance to experience one of the region’s most original musical voices.
In this one-time-only event, renowned Bay Area choreographer collective The Straw Dogs join to translate his mystical musical energy into the physical, in a responsive, spontaneous dance performance that will never be repeated.
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