Photo by Valerie Chaparro
Audio By Carbonatix
“I don’t know where jazz is going,” legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk once said. “Maybe it’s going to hell.”
Well, the devil and the damned are gonna have to wait because the Montreux Jazz Festival just announced its third return to Miami from February 27 to March 1, 2026 — and early bird tickets for all three days are now on sale here.
The lineup is stacked even by the lofty standards of the previous two iterations of the festival and will include:
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Seven-time GRAMMY and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and composer Jon Batiste, who returns to the festival for the second time after an ecstatic, scorching headlining set at the inaugural edition of the fest back in 2024.
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and GRAMMY-winning producer Nile Rodgers will be on hand with CHIC, the funk-disco band he cofounded in 1972. Performances of smash classic singles such as “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah),” “Le Freak,” and “Good Times” seem likely.
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti, six-time GRAMMY-winning pop-rock icons TOTO will likely perform still-omnipresent hits like “Africa” and “Rosanna.”
Fusion star Trombone Shorty will be on hand with his band Orleans Avenue to lead the New Orleans Celebration, which you won’t want to miss: The surprise guests are always incredible. In 2024 I attended hoping to see Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame shred and ended up standing next to Will Smith just before he was recruited (with, it must be said, not much prodding) to rap a few bars — an unexpected validation of the Bad Boys: Ride or Die shoot.
DJ sets curated by local taste-making heroes at Dante’s HiFi.
Colombian electro-tropical innovators Bomba Estéreo, Cuban percussionist and singer Pedrito Martinez, and French-Caribbean soul-funk bassist and singer Adi Oasis are also all confirmed with more to be announced.
Founded to “bring the spirit of the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland to the vibrant heart of Miami,” the festival takes place waterfront at the Hangar at Regatta Harbour in Coconut Grove and has a well-earned and growing reputation for being one of the most interesting and unpredictable (in a good way!) jazz parties in the country.
Looking for a jazz fix between now and Montreux? Check out our list of the best live spots for jazz in Miami here.
Montreux Jazz Festival. February 27 through March 1, 2026, at The Hangar at Regatta Harbour, 3385 Pan American Dr, Miami; 786-866-9854; montreuxjazzfestivalmiami.com . Tickets start at $139 and are available via tixr.com .
