Alongside city and state officials, representatives for the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz on Tuesday announced details for the 15th annual International Jazz Day, a month of jazz programming culminating in a globally broadcast concert at the Lyric Opera House on April 30. Herbie Hancock, 85, anno unced a partial lineup in a pre-taped video message during the announcement at the Chicago Cultural Center. Those performing this spring include saxophonist Melissa Aldana; pianist and bandleader John Beasley; trumpeter and composer Terrence Blanchard; singers Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gregory Porter and Diane Reeves; guitarist Bobby Broom; drummer Teri Lyne Carrington; composer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier; bassist Christian McBride; and, in Hancock’s words, “a few very special surprise” guests. Among the headliners with Chicago ties are Renee Fleming, operatic soprano and formerly a creative consultant at Lyric Opera; pianist and 2023 Tribune Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz Jahari Stampley; Chicago-based singer Lizz Wright; and trumpeter Marquis Hill and vibraphonist Joel Ross, both of whom are from Chicago. During Tuesday’s press conference, Herbie Hancock Institute president Tom Carter said he expects this year’s International Jazz Day to be the organization’s largest yet. (Hancock could not attend in person, having been scheduled to perform at a memorial for architect Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, where he lives.) “All eyes will shine here on the city of Chicago,” Carter said. Hancock was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 2011 and promptly set to work on organizing the first International Jazz Day in 2012. The event remains a joint effort between UNESCO and the Washington, D.C.-based Herbie Hancock Institute, formerly the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. “All 194 nations of the world supported this. No abstentions, no votes against it,” Carter said. “It was an endorsement of America’s music, and how jazz unites the world.” Chicago was announced as the 2026 host city last spring. Previous hosts have included Paris, Havana and Istanbul. The last American city to host International Jazz Day was Washington, D.C., in 2016. Singer Kurt Elling speaks at the Chicago Cultural Center, Jan. 20, 2026, where the performer lineup and programming for the UNESCO International Jazz Day 2026 in Chicago was announced. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) Singer Kurt Elling — whose career began in Chicago, and who returned to the city in recent years — was a key early advocate for bringing the event to Chicago, especially to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. He and Hancock will act as co-artistic directors for the 2026 iteration. “Jazz Day has been all over the world, but almost never in the United States. And the home for jazz is right here,” Elling told the Tribune. Elling and other civic leaders founded the Chicago Jazz Alliance, a nonprofit helmed by former EXPO Chicago president Tony Karman, to organize a formal bid to host the event. Governor JB Pritzker also gave the campaign an essential push when he cold-called Herbie Hancock Institute president Tom Carter on the heels of last year’s iteration, in Abu Dhabi, asking him to consider Chicago for Jazz Day 2026. “This is going to be an incredible celebration of an art form that helped shape America’s cultural heartbeat,” Pritzker said during Tuesday’s press conference. Hancock and Elling say they had always hoped that International Jazz Day would come to Chicago. The city is internationally recognized as a crucible for the art form, from Louis Armstrong’s presence here in the 1920s to the influence of the South Side’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) on the international avant-garde. Speaking at the press conference, Mayor Brandon Johnson paid homage to that history, citing Chicagoans like Ramsey Lewis and Nat King Cole. Mayor Brandon Johnson laughs after Tom Carter, president of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, tells him Herbie wants the mayor to play drums with him, during a press conference at the Chicago Cultural Center, Jan. 20, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) “The evolution of jazz music is proof positive of our city’s unique spirit,” Johnson said. “We are ready to showcase that spirit to the world as we host International Jazz Day.” Hancock himself changed the genre forever through his maverick forays into jazz fusion in the 1970s. But he first learned about jazz through a student talent show at Hyde Park High School — now Hyde Park Academy High School — in the 1950s. “Something clicked for me,” Hancock said in the video message. “Jazz opened doors for me to creativity, to self-expression, and to freedom. And that is exactly why we celebrate International Jazz Day.” Tuesday’s announcement included programming details for the week of the April 30 All-Star Global Concert, with further concerts earlier in the month still to be announced. The Jazz Institute of Chicago will also host jazz club tours the evening of April 27, and April 28 has been designated “Neighborhood Jazz Night,” with organizations bringing nine performances to spaces on the city’s South and West Sides. To honor Hancock’s jazz origin story, the Hyde Park Academy High School will host a special tribute concert on the morning of Wednesday, April 29. After the All-Star Global Concert, further concerts on May 1 and 2 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and Chicago Symphony Orchestra will bring the event to a close. The All-Star Global Concert, always scheduled for April 30, will be broadcast in 190 countries. Previous All-Star concerts have been viewed by hundreds of millions of viewers. Complete programming for International Jazz Day will be announced at a later date. But the All-Star Global Concert may have an unexpected guest musician. After Johnson teased that he was ready to sit in for the concert during his remarks, Carter followed up. “Herbie told me privately to tell you to get your sticks out,” he told the mayor, to laughter. Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.   ...read more read less