COUNTDOWN 2027 COLTRANE FESTIVAL III: “The John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman Songbook” with special guest Nicholas Bearde & the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring Vincent Herring & Eric Scott Reed

*PLEASE NOTE: All 6:00PM and 8:00PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows

$25.00 / $40.00 / $50.00 / $55.00 – Tue

Nicolas Bearde – vocals

Vincent Herring – alto saxophone

Eric Scott Reed – piano

Gerald Cannon – bass

Willie Jones III – drums

“Within Bearde’s ‘buttery baritone’ are equal parts Lou Rawls and Johnny Hartman with a trace of Nat King

Cole.” – All About Jazz

“Herring fuses instrumental mastery with equal and unified parts of jazz’s holy trinity of heart, mind, and

soul.” – WNPR

“Eric Scott Reed has been a pianist of fiery passion and soulful finesse.” – WRTI

Vocalist Nicolas Bearde is the special guest of the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed for a night celebrating the songbook of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. Recorded in a single day in 1963, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman remains one of the most beloved jazz vocal albums ever made. Bearde, a San Francisco favorite and longtime member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra, has long carried a torch for Hartman, and JazzTimes calls him “a richly impressive amalgam of Bill Withers and Billy Eckstine.”

The Countdown Festival Quartet brings together two Smoke favorites. Alto saxophonist Vincent Herring is one of the most powerful voices on the scene today. The New York City Jazz Record says he “has firmly established himself as one of his generation’s masters,” and The New York Times notes that he “projects his sound in a strong, centered beam.” His latest Smoke Sessions release, Split Decision, a live summit with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander recorded at Smoke, prompted DownBeat to call the pair “two of the finest saxophonists on the jazz scene,” and made The Times of London’s mid-year list of the best jazz albums of 2025. Pianist Eric Scott Reed, a veteran of Wynton Marsalis’s septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, is “one of my very favorite pianists,” according to the late, great Ahmad Jamal, and All About Jazz says he has “fully established himself at the forefront of jazz pianists.” With bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Willie Jones III rounding out the rhythm section, it’s a hard-swinging band that anchors Smoke’s holiday week of special guests.