Paul Gavin

Part piano genius, part stand-up comedian, part irresistible entertainer – Fats Waller was unlike anyone who came before him or after, and his music remains some of the most purely fun ever committed to recording.

Featuring a fabulous guest vocalist, the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective celebrates Thomas “Fats” Waller’s enduring catalog with a smile-inducing evening of rollicking piano, big personality, and the kind of pure joy that reminds you why you fell in love with live music in the first place.

Come ready to laugh, tap your feet, and leave grinning!

He wrote his first Motown hit at 13 and never stopped. Stevie Wonder’s catalog – spanning six decades of soul, funk, pop, and pure harmonic genius – contains some of the most joyful, life-affirming music ever put to tape, and it turns out jazz was hiding inside every note all along!

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective, joined by a featured guest horn player and vocalist, reimagines Stevie Wonder’s beloved songbook through a jazz lens. A summer night celebration of the man who proved that pop music and musical brilliance are not mutually exclusive.

Zach, Brandon and myself are bringing a show that's become a classic for the three of us to the Carrollwood Cultural Center. We'll be taking the tremendous energy and beauty of Duke Ellington and Count Basie's big band writing and cramming it into a trio.

Ellington and Basie are among Amerca's greatest composers and were principle in creating the modern big band jazz vocabulary. We'll be playing our interpretations of In a Mellow Tone, Caravan, Shiny Stockings, Splanky, Lil' Darlin' and more.

The three of us always bring the fire when we're together. We're going to bring the house down, and you've gotta be there for it!

Few musicians have shaped the sound of jazz across as many decades, or in as many directions, as celebrated jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter.

From his groundbreaking work with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis to the electric landscapes of Weather Report, Shorter’s compositions remain some of the most performed and beloved in all of jazz.

With a featured guest saxophonist, the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective honors Shorter’s timeless voice and extraordinary legacy.

Myself and six of my good musical friends will be presenting the music from one of John Coltrane's best known albums - Blue Train. This album holds some of the most exciting melodies and ensemble playing of the entire jazz catalog, and we're bringing it to the Carrollwood Cultural Center.

Coltrane is one of Jazz's most important performers and composers. His music has stood the test of time, and Blue Train is a among the best selling Jazz albums of all time.

The last time I played this music with these guys the audience gave a ripping standing ovation at the end and we achieved some truly transcendent musical moments. It's gonna swing hard, don't miss it!

Gershwin and Porter, Berlin and Kern, Rodgers and Hart – they wrote melodies so perfectly constructed that jazz musicians have been reinventing them for nearly a century and still haven’t exhausted their possibilities.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective, joined by a world-class vocalist, dips into the deepest well in American music for an evening of standards performed with the intimacy and spontaneity that only a live jazz trio can deliver.

From torch songs to up-tempo swingers, this special tribute to the “Great American Songbook” is a reminder that some songs were simply built to last forever.

A wizard of melody and improvisation, Chick Corea was equally at home in a quiet acoustic trio and at the forefront of the jazz fusion revolution – and he excelled at both.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective celebrates Corea’s adventurous improvisation, genre-crossing collaborations, and endlessly curious musical mind.

Experience the music of Chick Corea with the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective trio – an evening that proves great jazz knows no boundaries.

Every note of jazz traces its DNA back to one city – and the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective is going home.

From the second-line swagger of the streets to the smoky intimacy of Frenchmen Street at midnight, New Orleans has produced a sound unlike anywhere else on earth: jubilant and mournful, sacred and profane, impossibly funky and endlessly sophisticated all at once.

With an expanded lineup featuring two guest horn players and guitar alongside the trio, this concert recreates the full, rich texture of the Crescent City’s musical legacy – from Jelly Roll Morton, andLouis Armstrong to the Meters – all in one unforgettable evening that will make you feel like you’re standing on Bourbon Street with a drink in your hand and a brass band turning the corner.

A Charlie Brown Christmas & Holiday Classics III The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective returns for its most beloved annual tradition, pairing Vince Guaraldi’s timeless A Charlie Brown Christmas score – still the most perfect jazz holiday album ever recorded – with a charming program of Christmas classics reimagined through the warm, swinging lens of jazz.

With a wonderful vocalist joining the trio for an intimate, candlelit evening at the MACC, this is the holiday concert that feels less like a performance and more like gathering around the piano with old friends.

Bring the whole family!

No pianist in jazz history has traveled farther – from the meditative cool of “Maiden Voyage” to the funky soul of “Watermelon Man” to the electric invention of “Head Hunters” – and made every stop feel essential.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective, joined by two guest horns, charts the remarkable journey of Herbie Hancock, exploring the full breadth of his catalog across an evening that is at once a history of jazz’s evolution and a showcase for one of its greatest living legends.

Two jazz revolutionaries who never recorded together but who shared the same fearless spirit.

Charlie Parker rewrote the language of jazz with his lightning-fast alto saxophone, while Wes Montgomery redefined what a guitar could say using nothing but his thumb.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective brings both giants to life in a single explosive evening, featuring a world-class guest saxophonist and guest guitarist trading melodies, ideas, and inspiration across one of the most dynamic double-bill tributes in the Collective’s history!

When jazz plugged in, turned up, and found the beat, something irresistible was born.

Jazz Funk – the electrifying fusion of jazz’s harmonic sophistication with the deep, body-moving groove of funk and soul – produced some of the most exciting music of the 20th century, from Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters to Maceo Parker, Grover Washington Jr., and beyond.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective throws out the rulebook for one night, trading quiet introspection for raw, rhythmic power in a concert designed to get under your skin and stay there.

Featuring several special guest artists who live and breathe jazz funk, this concert will be the most danceable night in the history of Jazz at the MACC – and more proof that jazz has always known how to move you!

With his upswept trumpet, puffed cheeks, and irresistible charisma, Dizzy Gillespie was one of the most joyful forces in the history of American music — and also one of its most sophisticated harmonic innovators.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective brings in a trumpet virtuoso to lead this high-energy celebration of Dizzy’s bebop genius, his Afro-Cuban adventures, and his lifelong gift for making even the most complex music feel like a party.

In the spring of 1959, Miles Davis walked into a New York recording studio and, over the course of two sessions, changed music forever.

Kind of Blue – the best-selling jazz album of all time – replaced bebop’s complexity with something more open, more spacious, and more deeply human.

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective revisits this landmark recording in its 65th anniversary year, celebrating not just an album, but the moment jazz learned to breathe differently.

Oscar Peterson was called “the Maharajah of the keyboard” – a pianist of breathtaking speed, warmth, and swing who made the piano trio format feel like an orchestra.

Featuring a stunning guest pianist, the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective pays tribute to one of jazz’s true giants, recreating the intimate magic of Peterson’s legendary trio recordings.