Erik Jekabson Quintet

Far more than an essential creative catalyst on the Bay Area jazz scene, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Erik Jekabson has played a key role in bringing the region’s deep talent pool into the national spotlight. The founder and driving force behind the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, he’s built a welcoming sonic laboratory that’s inspired a steady flow of new compositions and arrangements from its creatively roiling ranks.

He has performed at SFJAZZ in numerous formats as both leader and sideman, but to fully experience Jekabson’s beautifully burnished sound there’s no better vehicle than his all-star Quintet — a band he introduced on 2017’s Erik Jekabson Quintet (Wide Hive), which the Mercury News named as one of the year’s best jazz releases.