COUNTDOWN 2027 COLTRANE FESTIVAL VI: Eddie Henderson with 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 / $60.00 / $70.00 / $75.00 – Fri

Eddie Henderson – trumpet

Vincent Herring – alto saxophone

Eric Scott Reed – piano

Gerald Cannon – bass

Willie Jones III – drums

“[Henderson’s] musical wisdom, gleaned during decades spent on the best jazz bandstands, informs every unerring note.” – DownBeat

“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

On Christmas night, trumpet legend Eddie Henderson is the special guest of the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed.

A member of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi band in the early 1970s, and a medical doctor to boot, Henderson is one of jazz’s true originals. The New York Times says his “deft feel and plush sound made him a central figure in the worlds of jazz-funk and hard-bop in the 1970s.” The Chicago Reader adds, “His progressive, assured, and imaginative improvisations roll out in a glorious sun-splashed tone… he seems to dance through his solos, balancing his quick clockwork technique with bursts of bluesy soul.” Now in his 80s, the eternally youthful Henderson is still making some of the most important music of his career.

The Countdown Festival Quartet is led by two Smoke favorites: alto saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed. The New York City Jazz Record says Herring “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. 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.