Montavilla Jazz Festival 2026 Opening Night: PJCE presents Rebecca Sanborn’s Shadow Work w/ North Pole Studio’s Rhythm & Hues
PJCE presents: Rebecca Sanborn’s Shadow Workwith North Pole Studio presents: Rhythm & Hues feat. John Niekrasz, Kennedy Verrett, and Maria E. Olaya Montavilla Jazz Festival 2026 opens with a powerful double bill celebrating large-ensemble composition, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the creative voices of Portland artists. The evening begins with Rhythm & Hues, a collaborative project from North Pole Studio that pairs musicians with visual artists with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Musicians John Niekrasz, Kennedy Verrett, and Maria E. Olaya respond to original artwork by North Pole Studio artists Adam Richards, Joni Smith, and Davis Wohlford, transforming visual expression into newly created music. The night continues with Rebecca Sanborn’s Shadow Work, presented by Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. A large-ensemble work exploring dreams, identity, and the journey toward wholeness, Shadow Work began as a cycle of late-night compositions written while Sanborn’s young daughter slept. Developed over several years and arranged for PJCE by Douglas Detrick, the project has evolved through live performance, collaboration, and a large-scale recording process involving a wide network of musicians. Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
LEATHER AND LACE: A Tribute to all things Fleetwood and Stevie
Leather and Lace returns to the Alberta Rose Theatre for a full weekend of shows celebrating the iconic music of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. Featuring many beloved songs, the production showcases some of Portland’s most vibrant voices, an eight-piece band, and lush five-part harmonies. The evening is elevated by special dance performances, including aerialists, lyra hoops, burlesque, and drag, creating a fully immersive, theatrical experience. Now in its eighth year and fourth year at Alberta Rose, Leather and Lace has become a Portland favorite. ✨ Presented by Acoustic Minds ✨ This is a partially-seated show, so you can dance!! Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardianReview our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
LEATHER AND LACE: A Tribute to all things Fleetwood and Stevie
Leather and Lace returns to the Alberta Rose Theatre for a full weekend of shows celebrating the iconic music of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. Featuring many beloved songs, the production showcases some of Portland’s most vibrant voices, an eight-piece band, and lush five-part harmonies. The evening is elevated by special dance performances, including aerialists, lyra hoops, burlesque, and drag, creating a fully immersive, theatrical experience. Now in its eighth year and fourth year at Alberta Rose, Leather and Lace has become a Portland favorite. ✨ Presented by Acoustic Minds ✨ This is a partially-seated show, so you can dance!! Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardianReview our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
LEATHER AND LACE: A Tribute to all things Fleetwood and Stevie
Leather and Lace returns to the Alberta Rose Theatre for a full weekend of shows celebrating the iconic music of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. Featuring many beloved songs, the production showcases some of Portland’s most vibrant voices, an eight-piece band, and lush five-part harmonies. The evening is elevated by special dance performances, including aerialists, lyra hoops, burlesque, and drag, creating a fully immersive, theatrical experience. Now in its eighth year and fourth year at Alberta Rose, Leather and Lace has become a Portland favorite. ✨ Presented by Acoustic Minds ✨ This is a partially-seated show, so you can dance!! Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardianReview our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
Carolyn Wonderland with special guest Kelly’s Lot
Carolyn Wonderland, with her dynamic guitar playing, formidable songwriting, and pure Texas vocals, has more than earned her reputation as a fiercely independent artist. Wonderland plays original, bluesified, cosmic soul music, mixed with heavy doses of Tex-Mex and riff-fueled rock ‘n’ roll. She has been performing professionally since the age of 15 and has led a colorful and adventurous life. On the road her entire career, she’s played with icons from Townes Van Zandt to Levon Helm, from Buddy Guy to Hubert Sumlin, from Bob Dylan to John Mayall, all while writing her own story. On her new Alligator Records album, Truth Is, Wonderland, with her vividly detailed, instantly memorable songs, reflects on the world with honesty and righteous conviction. Wonderland’s bold and insightful songs tell common-sense truths that, in her words, “need to be told.” They are driven by her sometimes savage and other times gently melodic guitar fingerpicking, along with her full-throated yet still vulnerable vocals. As for the album’s brutally honest subject matter, Wonderland says, “There’s always hope and we’re still here for each other, but at some point, you have to sing about the elephant in the room.” With Truth Is, Carolyn Wonderland stakes her claim among the most influential roots music voices today, delivering the blues’ honest truth to all who will listen. Her courageously empowering music packs an emotional wallop, with every track on the album performed with a rare intensity that is welcoming and ultimately uplifting. “She’s something else,” Bob Dylan once said to Ray Benson. “She should be nationwide.” California roots/blues band Kelly’s Lot opens the show. Minors ok with parent/guardian Review our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS.
Blues in the Gorge Guitar Masters
Experience these blues and fingerstyle guitar masters ahead of their week of instruction at Menucha Retreat for Blues in the Gorge. Alvin Youngblood Hart The cosmic American love child of Howlin Wolf and Link Wray! Known as a “musician’s musician,” Alvin Youngblood Hart’s praises have been sung by everyone from Bob Dylan to Brit guitar gods Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor. A devout follower of the “no barriers” approach carved out by veteran performers like Gatemouth Brown and the late/great Doug Sahm, Hart aims to delight the masses and points to challenge the so-called blues purists. Vance GilbertVance was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. Starting out hoping to be an R&B and jazz singer once at college, there he discovered his affinity for the storytelling sensibilities of the acoustic singer-songwriter thing. Word spread like wildfire about Gilbert’s stage-owning singing and playing, and Shawn Colvin invited him to be special guest on her 1992 Fat City tour where he took much of America by storm and by surprise. 30+ years into his career, the songwriter’s influence can be felt all over the contemporary Folk and Americana realm as he has helped pave the way for many of the BIPOC artists who have followed. Bill Kirchen From performing with his Who Knows Pickers jug band in Ann Arbor High School’s senior talent show (also on the program: the future Iggy Pop), to birthing the Americana genre with the original “hippie country band,” Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, this affable Austinite has been everywhere, man, flying alongside some of the planet’s coolest cats — including the Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, and Lowe’s old protégé, Elvis Costello. Mary Flower Mary Flower is a brilliant fingerpicking guitarist in the roots blues/ragtime/early jazz tradition. She is a prodigious talent whose seasoned skills earned her the Far West Folk Alliance “Best of the West” award in 2025. She was inducted into the CO.Music Hall of Fame in 2019 for her work with The Mother Folkers.She is a long-time teacher who recently celebrated twelve years of “Blues in the Gorge,” her own guitar intensive. She’s made fourteen recordings that document her profound command and love for blues guitar. It’s entirely appropriate that Jorma Kaukonen called her “a national treasure in your own backyard.” Minors ok with parent/guardianReview our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
Booker T Jones
From an early age, Booker T. Jones—“one of the legends of soul music” (The New Yorker)—was captivated by the magic of melody, rhythm, and harmony. So magnetic was the attraction, in fact, that by the time he turned sixteen, he was, incredibly, already a working musician with a hit song to his name. As part of the first house band for Stax Records, he formed the category-defining group Booker T. & the MGs, whose first recording, “Green Onions,” was an international sensation, selling more than one million copies and winning a place among Rolling Stone’s top five hundred songs of all time. Not stopping there, Jones continued to push soul music’s boundaries, refining it to its essence and then injecting it into the nation’s bloodstream. From midcentury Memphis, where the brutality of segregation was a stark backdrop to the loving, supportive family and community in which he was raised, to the creative hotbed of Beale Street, the Harlem of the South; from his early friendship with figures such as Maurice White (who went on to form Earth, Wind, and Fire) to the complicated dynamics of the racially mixed MGs—Jones not only was a witness to revolutions but also wrote their soundtracks. His musical legacy includes enduring compositions such as “Time Is Tight,” “Hip Hug-Her,” and the often sampled “Melting Pot” and collaborations with the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave—and later Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Carlos Santana, and Willie Nelson. Nearly five decades later, Jones’s influence continues to help define the music industry, but only now is he ready to tell his remarkable life story. Time is Tight is the deeply moving account of how Jones balanced the brutality of the segregationist South with the loving support of his family and community, all while transforming a burgeoning studio into a musical mecca. Booker T. Jones is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and arranger. Best known as the front man of the band Booker T. & the MGs, he has worked with countless award-winning artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has earned a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Along with the band, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Jones continues to record and tour internationally, both as a solo artist and as head of Booker T.’s Stax Revue. Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS
Johnny Franco and His Real Brother Dom in THE DO EVERYTHING SHOW
São Paulo native, Johnny Franco is shaking up the Portland scene with his charm and charisma. Join him and his real brother Dom for their iconic and hilarious brand of entertainment- including but not limited to songs. Minors ok with parent/guardian Review our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS.
Masters of Hawaiian Music with George Kahumoku, Jr, Led Kaapana and Jeff Peterson
Masters of Hawaiian Music features three of the most popular musicians from Maui’s renowned “Slack Key Show,” sharing Hawai‘i’s unique “slack key” –- open tuning — guitar styles that traces its roots to 19th-Century paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) culture.Growing up in rural Hawai’i, slack key masters George Kahumoku, Jr., Led Kaapana, and Jeff Peterson were immersed from childhood in Hawaiian music and culture that brought family together with entertainment, learning, and joy. All are multiple Na Hōkū Hanohano (Hawaiian “Grammy”) Award winners.Four-time Grammy winner Kahumoku, called “Hawai‘i’s Renaissance Man”—he’s a, vocalist, storyteller, songwriter, author, teacher, sculptor, farmer, and chef. Kaapana is a National Heritage Fellow, unsurpassed in his guitar picking style, with rascal good humor, one of Hawai’i’s most influential musicians. Peterson is a star of the current generation enlivening slack key traditions, known for his versatility from slack key to classical, jazz to film soundtracks. Minors ok with parent/guardianReview our venue FAQ here
Fan Halen
Rock.It Boy Entertainment of America presents, FAN HALEN! Known as “The World’s Most Authentic Tribute to Van Halen”, FAN HALEN sets the stage for a night with Dave, Eddie, Alex and Michael with a true-to-life tribute to not only the band but the spirit of an era! No other tribute looks or sounds closer to the real thing! You won’t believe your eyes or ears when you come to a FAN HALEN show as you’ll feel like it’s 1984 all over again! From the look of the band, the choreography, the note-for-note reproduction of the greatest rock songs ever written to the sonic energy of the performance, nothing is overlooked…in other words, while FAN HALEN is on stage, they are Van Halen! With a songbook including “JUMP!”, “PANAMA”, “HOT FOR TEACHER”, “UNCHAINED”, “AIN’T TALKIN’ BOUT LOVE”, “RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL”, “DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY”, “YOU REALLY GOT ME”, “ERUPTION”, and “I’LL WAIT” to name just a few, So-Cal based FAN HALEN has become a global phenomenon playing to enthusiastic crowds for more than a decade. For more about FAN HALEN visit: fanhalen.com. Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS.