Even if the name of 66-year-old author, musical artist and historian Elijah Wald (elijahwald.com) doesn't necessarily ring a bell, chances are that you've experienced or at least heard of something he's associated with.
A recent example is the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (Searchlight Pictures), which starred Timothee Chalamet and was directed by James Mangold. The film was inspired by Wald's 2015 novel Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties (Dey Street/Harper Collins).
It's one of a dozen books by Wald, who started out as a globe-trotting, singing, finger-style guitarist specializing in folk interpretations and world music in the late 1970s before he embarked on his writing career. That more renowned side of Wald includes winning a Grammy Award in 2002 for his expert, roots music-themed liner notes to The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz.
Both of Wald's primary talents will be on display as he makes his first trip to the bottom of the Sunshine State to perform at the South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival in Davie on Jan. 31, then engage in performance and discussion with Florida Atlantic University professor Rod MacDonald at the school's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute campus locations in Jupiter (Feb. 3) and Boca Raton (Feb. 5).
"I've traveled to damn near every corner of the United States, but I've never been south of Tampa in Florida," Wald says by phone from his home in Philadelphia. "And travels in North Florida between Tallahassee and Tampa were mostly when I was hitchhiking. I also have relatives in South Florida to visit, so I'm really looking forward to the trip all-around."
Wald has even written a book about hitchhiking (Riding With Strangers: A Hitchhiker's Journey (Chicago Review Press, 2006) in addition to his wide-ranging selections covering multiple musical genres. Those include the Mexican-themed Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas (Harper Collins, 2002), Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (Amistad, 2005), and The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama (Oxford University Press, 2012). His latest offering is Jelly Roll Blues - Censored Songs & Hidden Histories (Hachette Books, 2024).
There are also a couple of album releases, notably Street Corner Cowboys (Black Rose, 2000), yet most of Wald's recordings and performance videos now appear on the hundreds-deep "Songobiography" on his website.
"We're living in a new world," he says, "and my musical blog posts reach so many more people than an album could. And the Dylan movie has done amazing things for my career. My best-selling book was Escaping the Delta before that movie, and my guess is that Dylan Goes Electric! has since surpassed it. So I'll probably play a couple Dylan songs at the festival, and maybe at the university appearances. Those will be mostly conversation with Rod, so I'll leave it up to him to pick some of the directions we go in, perhaps about my work, American folk music, and pop, blues and jazz."
A Complete Unknown wasn't the first film that a Wald book preceded. The Coen brothers' 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis (CBS Films) starred Oscar Isaac as a Greenwich Village folk performer in 1961, and was inspired by Wald's book about his mentor, Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street (Da Capo, 2005). Van Ronk (1936-2002) was Wald's co-writer after having been a seminal figure in New York City's folk revival, and the two had rubbed elbows with MacDonald as he also ascended through the scene there as a singer/songwriter during the 1980s.
"I attended New York University for one year from 1976 to 1977," Wald says. "But that was really specifically to study guitar with Dave Van Ronk, and that happened to be the college closest to him. When he said he was done teaching me, I left college. I was a freshman without a major, other than Dave. He was absolutely my deepest influence, not only on guitar but also as a writer and historian. He was probably the best-read, most intelligent human being that I've ever spent a lot of time with. And he was the one who said I should come back to New York more often when Rod was performing there in the '80s, which I did."
Another best-selling Wald book is the provocatively-titled How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music (Oxford University Press, 2009).
"I couldn't put it down," said the inimitable, gravel-voiced blues, folk and jazz singer/songwriter Tom Waits. "It nailed me to the wall. Not bad for a grand, sweeping, in-depth exploration of American music with not one mention of myself."
"I didn't get backlash from anyone who actually read the book," Wald says with a laugh. "Only from people who saw the title and didn't read it. John Lennon and Paul McCartney both made albums celebrating the rock 'n roll they grew up on, and that really ended when they released Revolver. The Beatles stopped playing live, and the music was taken off of the dance floor. I was doing a radio interview in New York after that book came out, and a woman called in and said, 'What he's saying is exactly how I remember it. By 1967, all the boys were in one room, smoking dope and listening to Sgt. Pepper, and all the girls were in another room, dancing to Motown.' I wrote that the Beatles destroyed rock 'n' roll, not ruined it. There's a difference. Everyone agrees that they created a new world. But when you do that, there are losers as well as winners."
A Cambridge, Mass. native with touring experience through locales from Belgium and Italy to Spain and Sri Lanka, Wald has sound reasoning for making the City of Brotherly Love his home.
"I've lived here about eight years now because of the cost benefit," he says. "I think it's by far the best urban environment for the money in the United States at this point. We have the museums and movies like Boston, New York City or San Francisco, but its way cheaper here than in any of those places."

If You Go
See Elijah Wald at 2:45 p.m. Jan. 31 on the Gator Stage at the South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival at Bergeron Rodeo Grounds, 4201 S.W. 65th Way, Davie ($42 for one-day ticket for members; $53 for non-members, 954-797-1181, sffolk.org); 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Dr., Jupiter ($35.20 for members, $44 for non-members, 561-799-8547, olli.fau.edu), and 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton ($35.20 for members, $44 for non-members, 561-297-3185, olli.fau.edu).

In 1975, a song titled "All That Jazz" debuted in the musical Chicago. Fifty years later, in regard to the South Florida scene, its title could be amended to "Jazz -- Is That All?" Without the few presenting venues and organizations here, and several of the artists who return every one to two years listed below, the genre would largely be missing in action for 2025-2026.
Jazz evolved out of the blues, America's other great audio cultural offering. Then Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the British Invasion morphed the blues into rock and roll, usurping jazz and blues as our nation's forms of popular music. Rock has largely devolved into various other offshoots of pop music since, and blues has stayed alive via many practitioners who can mimic at least parts of its feel. Even while lacking its authenticity, that's enough to fool most listeners.
But like demanding, European-derived classical music, jazz isn't easily mimicked. Even the best jam bands only scratch the surface of the genre's technical and theoretical prerequisites. Trumpeter Miles Davis went electric in the late 1960s and created fusion, which gave jazz a revived audience even as the genre's acoustic traditionalists fought against it. One was fellow trumpeter and Davis successor Wynton Marsalis, who's helped keep traditional jazz afloat from his 1980s "Young Lions" movement through his current guidance at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Still, outside of the Big Apple and a few other select metropolises in the United States, jazz remains an outlier. Tellingly, its artists are treated more like rock stars in Europe, lending irony to jazz being labeled, by some, as "America's classical music."

A rare crossover phenomenon in the jazz sphere, Louisiana-born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste has the pedigree of growing up in a New Orleans musical family. That, along with his relative youth (he's 38 years old), open mind, substantial talents and abundant personality, allow him to be taken seriously as a jazz artist while appearing on TV and collaborating with non-jazz performers like Prince, Willie Nelson, Alicia Keys, ASAP Rocky, Lenny Kravitz, and Ed Sheeran. Like another jazz-adjacent Big Easy artist and fellow 2004 New Orleans Center for Creative Arts graduate, Trombone Shorty, Batiste attended the Crescent City's famed springboard for jazz education. And his recording career was already well under way when he received his Masters degree from the Juilliard School in New York City by 2011. Along with his band Stay Human, Batiste led the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015-2022 before conducting the premiere of his composition American Symphony at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. A multi-Grammy Award winner, the gregarious singer, keyboardist, guitarist and composer's latest album is this year's Big Money, on which he also features R&B vocalist Andra Day, hip-hop artist No I.D., and heralded pop composer Randy Newman.
8 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222, $146-$643).

The tandem of Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo features two generations of guitar artistry. The 59-year-old Vignola has recorded and/or appeared on stage with the likes of Joey De Francesco, Jane Monheit, and Donald Fagen; formed his Django Reinhardt-inspired gypsy jazz Hot Club Quintet, and has a deep recording catalog under his own name. Some of those recent releases by the Long Island, New York native also feature the 41-year-old Raniolo, a rare guitarist who emphasizes rhythm playing over soloing. Also an actor, Raniolo has appeared in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and films by Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Woody Allen (Cafe Society). Vignola has published more than 20 instructional books and videos, and his Wednesday self-titled "Guitar Night" at the Birdland Theater in New York City is a popular showcase for guest stars and guitar possibilities. Those were in question after Vignola's 2017 all-terrain vehicle accident in which he was thrown into a tree and sustained serious injuries. Australian guitar icon Tommy Emmanuel, a friend and recording and performing partner to both Raniolo and Vignola, warned online that the elder guitarist might not be able to play again. Yet within a year of the accident, Vignola was back to performing in shows like this one.
7 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Arts Garage, 94 N.E. 2nd Ave., Delray Beach (561-450-6357, $45-$50).

Stanley Jordan Plays The Dead might seem like a misprint to anyone who recognizes its namesake guitar virtuoso but isn't deeply familiar with his versatility. The Chicago-born guitarist exploded out of the gate in 1985 with his Blue Note Records debut Magic Touch, named for his two-handed, guitar pick-free, pianistic tapping-and-touch technique. Original compositions, jazz standards and popular music covers (The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," Jimi Hendrix's "Angel") made Jordan a star in the music video era, from which he recoiled, eventually relocating to Sedona, Arizona and releasing everything from meditative music to computerized granular synthesis. In recent years, he's added a Hendrix tribute with bassist Greg Koerner and drummer Kenwood Dennard -- who's known for doubling on keyboards, sometimes simultaneously, and for his work with Brand X, Jaco Pastorius, and Pat Martino. For Stanley Jordan Plays The Dead, the same trio returns, augmented by keyboardist/guitarist Jesse Hiatt. The Grateful Dead was the seminal jam band from its late 1960s inception through the 1995 death of founding guitarist Jerry Garcia, the composer and improvising musician most responsible for jazz-tinged Dead classics like "Crazy Fingers," "Dark Star," "Terrapin Station" and "Blues for Allah."
5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Arts Garage ($60-$65).

In existence for nearly 50 years, New Orleans, Louisiana-spawned the Dirty Dozen Brass Band continuously proves to be the real deal. Launched in 1977 out of the city's Dirty Dozen Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which provided funeral arrangements for Black southerners who could rarely afford life insurance, the ensebmle's early experience included following funeral processions before it became the club's house band. Of course, Crescent City funerals don't just feature somber dirges, so this seven-piece lineup jubilantly offers a mix of second-line, traditional and bebop jazz; funk, soul and R&B music. "Best American Roots Performance" Grammy Award winners in 2023 for its song "Stompin' Ground," the group has two-dozen studio and live releases, and appears on additional recordings by everyone from Buckwheat Zydeco, the Neville Brothers, B.B. King, Dr. John, Terence Blanchard and the Manhattan Transfer to Elvis Costello, Gov't Mule, the Black Crowes, Modest Mouse, and Norah Jones. The music of saxophonist/vocalists Roger Lewis and Trevarri Huff-Boone, trumpeter/vocalist Gregory Davis, trombonist/vocalist Stephen Walker, sousaphonist Kirk Joseph, guitarist Takeshi Shimmura, and drummer Julian Addison always challenges audiences to stay seated.
7:45 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center ($65), 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Lyric Theatre, 59 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart (772-286-7827, $55).

Like sands through the hourglass, British smooth jazz group Acoustic Alchemy has continued on for 44 years in spite of several personnel changes, and made recurring recent stops in South Florida. The group's founding guitarists in 1981, nylon-string player Simon James and steel-string player Nick Webb, are no longer there, James leaving early and Webb dying of pancreatic cancer in 1998 after he and and new guitarist Greg Carmichael had become in-flight entertainment on Virgin Atlantic flights to and from the United States and guided the band to mainstream success. That started with Acoustic Alchemy getting a call from MCA Records, six weeks after sending the label their demo, to record their 1987 debut Red Dust and Spanish Lace. Carmichael spans the group's recording career; guitarist Miles Gilderdale replaced Webb in 1999 and has remained since. A recent health crisis forced Gilderdale off the summer touring schedule, during which he was subbed for by John Grant, Andy Abel, and native Floridian Nate Najar. On the group's latest release, the EP The Empire of Lights, Part One, Carmichael plays the nylon-string and Gilderdale the steel string and electric guitars, accompanied by keyboardist Jay Rowe and brothers Gary and Greg Grainger (bass and drums, respectively).
7 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Lyric Theatre ($55).

If the term "jazz flute" only conjures up mocking imagery of actor Will Ferrell playing one as news anchor Ron Burgundy in the nightclub scene from the film Anchorman, then you probably haven't experienced Nestor Torres. A native of Puerto Rico, the 68-year-old flutist moved to New York City with his family at age 18, studying classical flute there at Mannes School of Music before advancing to Boston to study jazz flute at the Berklee College of Music and further his classical studies at the New England Conservatory. Also adept at the Cuban charanga style, Torres' versatility has since earned him multiple Grammy nominations and a Latin Grammy Award. His collaborators include Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Gloria Estefan, Michel Camilo, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Dave Matthews, Kenny Loggins, and the Cleveland, Singapore, and New World symphony orchestras. Influenced by jazz flute forefathers Hubert Laws and Herbie Mann, classical masters Jean Pierre Rampal and James Galway, charanga stylist Richard Egues, and rocker Ian Anderson, Torres is always a major draw in South Florida. He has 14 recordings under his name to draw from, and will likely call on material from his most recent releases like Jazz Flute Traditions (2018) and Dominican Suite (2022).
8 p.m. Dec. 19-20 at the Arts Garage ($55-$60).

The guitar-and-vocal pairing of John Pizzarelli and Catherine Russell aims high, as in Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass high. That duo's studio releases -- Take Love Easy (1973), Fitzgerald and Pass...Again (1976), Speak Love (1983) and Easy Living (1986) -- set the gold standard for the jazz formula. Yet this duo's presentation is entitled "Billie and Blue Eyes," meaning Pizzarelli's additional capable vocals are likely to cover Frank Sinatra while Russell interprets Billie Holiday. Still no small feat, and 68-year-old New York City native Russell is built for the task. Also a keyboardist, guitarist, mandolinist and percussionist, she's both recorded and toured with Steely Dan and David Bowie, and her effortless vocal phrasing adorns a solo catalog bookended by her debut Cat (2006) and Send for Me (2022). The 65-year-old Pizzarelli is the son of famed swing guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (1926-2020), and started his own recording career in 1983 with the tongue-in-cheek I'm Hip (Please Don't Tell My Father). The younger Pizzarelli opened shows for Sinatra in the 1990s; has a scroll of other recordings under his name, and appears on albums by Paul McCartney, Rosemary Clooney, and James Taylor. His idol is Nat King Cole, as evidenced by his releases Dear Mr. Cole (1994) and P.S. Mr. Cole (1999).
7 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Lyric Theatre ($80).

The Yoko Miwa Trio seems to have found an unlikely house gig at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. The classically-trained Japanese pianist was scheduled to make her debut there in March of 2020 before COVID-19 canceled that show, but she's made up for it by appearing there every season since. Practically part of a new breed of crossover artists -- those adept at jazz and classical music -- Miwa wasn't expecting to be accepted upon her 1997 audition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, yet earned a full scholarship. While there, she became the pianist of choice for jazz vocal sensation Kevin Mahogany (1958-2017), and later became an instructor at the prestigious music school. Berklee has produced more recognizable names in jazz and pop music than any other such institution, and its students are so well-versed that a Monday pick-up Motown night at a Beantown venue like Wally's produces magic. With Miwa's longtime trio mates Will Slater (acoustic upright bass) and Scott Goulding (drums), the Boston Music Awards' 2019 "Jazz Artist of the Year" is likely to perform originals from her latest album, Songs of Joy (2021), jazz standards, and creative covers from her catalog like The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" and a medley of "You Never Give Me Your Money/Golden Slumbers."
8 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Arts Garage ($55-$60).

The Brubeck Brothers might be less famous if they had a different last name, sure, but the sons of late jazz piano icon Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) certainly aren't lacking in talent. Bassist, trombonist and composer Chris Brubeck and drummer Dan Brubeck know the significance of the legacy of their father, whose quartet with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello released one of the top, and top-selling, jazz albums of all-time in Time Out (1959). Later, the elder Brubeck joined sons Chris, Dan and keyboardist Darius Brubeck to form the New Brubeck Quartet. The brothers' current quartet's long-standing lineup features Chris and Dan Brubeck with pianist Chuck Lamb and guitarist Mike DeMicco, and is likely to play selections from its handful of albums (including its latest, LifeTimes) and the 17 released under Chris Brubeck's name since 1974. But the brothers also not only have a lifetimes' worth of experience playing together, but also knowing what audiences coming to a show that features their father's last name want to hear. The groundbreaking Time Out featured songs in odd time signatures, and Desmond's title composition and Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" surprised even its Columbia Records executives by making the album a hit.
7 p.m. March 4 at the Lyric Theatre ($55).

Perhaps obscured within the female jazz vocalist explosion since the 1990s is 62-year-old, Kansas-born Karrin Allyson. And not even Kansas City, but Great Bend, Kansas, Karrin Allyson Schoonover's starting point in what's since been a wayward route through an unpredictable career. She grew up in Omaha and attended the University of Nebraska, but on a classical piano scholarship. That led to her interest in jazz, which she decided to pursue in Minneapolis, Minnesota after graduating. Four years later, things came full circle when she moved to Kansas City and released her debut album I Didn't Know About You. After several more critically-acclaimed releases, Allyson moved to New York City in 1998 and hasn't had to look back. She's capable of singing in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese on original compositions or cover tunes, and her scat-singing, vocalese and crooning capabilities range from bebop, bossa nova, blues and ballads to the Great American Songbook, samba, pop, and other jazz standards. Her tribute releases have included John Coltrane, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Women's Suffrage, but for this Gold Coast Jazz Society presentation, Allyson likely wears her heart on her sleeve courtesy of her latest release, A Kiss for Brazil (2024).
7:45 p.m. March 11 at the Amaturo Theater ($65).

Australian guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel has transitioned from Outback unknown to a current torch-bearer for acoustic jazz guitar and beyond. The native of Muswellbrook, New South Wales took up the instrument at age 4, and became a professional musician at age 6 when his parents sold their home and took him on the road in a family band that included sister Veronica (lap steel guitar) and brothers Phil (guitar) and Chris (drums). Now 70 years old, Emmanuel was profoundly influenced by fellow guitar finger-picker Chet Atkins (1924-2001). A dual American and Australian citizen, Emmanuel appropriately lives stateside in Tennessee's Music City, where he once traveled to meet and record with Atkins on what would be his final release, the appropriately-titled The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World (1997). Primarily playing instruments made by Australian guitar manufacturer Maton, Emmanuel's oversized hands allow him to play simultaneous chords, melodies, harmonies and bass lines. He'll also occasionally play with a standard guitar pick, a thumb pick, or even a snare drum brush for percussive effect, so fans can expect anything on originals and covers from his appropriately-titled 1979 debut From Out of Nowhere to his latest release, Accomplice Two (2023).
7:30 p.m. March 23 at the Broward Center ($46-$162).

Unlike many current jazz groups led by women, the Grace Kelly Quartet is fronted by an instrumentalist. Which isn't to say that Massachusetts native Kelly doesn't sing, but that she's better-known for her versatile alto, soprano and baritone saxophone playing. Born in Wellesley and raised in nearby Brookline, MA, Kelly proved a prodigy, releasing her debut album Dreaming at age 12. And she didn't have to look far to find some of the best music schools in the world, studying in-state at the New England Conservatory of Music and then the Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2011 at age 19. Now age 33, her impressive and comprehensive list of studio and stage collaborators includes Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Questlove, and Lin Manuel-Miranda. With a guest teaching residency at Berklee, where she also became its youngest board of trustees member in 2022, Kelly also knows how to create a play on her name (the exact same as the late actress and princess of Monaco) while saluting a saxophone influence and legend. She and her rotating quartet members are likely to perform selections from her latest album, At the Movies: Grace Kelly With Strings, on which she performs film themes in memory of the 1950 album Charlie Parker With Strings.
7:45 p.m. April 15 at the Amaturo Theater ($65).