Happy New Year! Infidels Jazz is growing every year, and we’re planning on making 2026 our biggest one yet. I wanted to share some of our plans for it with you…at least the ones I can talk about so far!

Our regular concert series are the lifeblood of the Infidels, as they focus on our local community and showcase the very best in Vancouver talent. Unfortunately our Knockouts series at All-City Athletics & our East Van Shuffle series at Hot Deli/Lido both ended in November, but we will be relaunching the EVS series at China Cloud on Main Street in March, which will essentially take the place of both of those series. China Cloud has been an integral part of the city’s creative jazz scene for 15 years, and we’re so happy to finally start presenting shows there. Our Pass the Hat series will move to the Heatley in January, and we will be launching a new big band series at the American in March. By then we'll have 11 regular series at 9 different venues: 

Frankie’s After Dark (Every Friday and Saturday night)

Sundays at Hero’s Welcome (Almost every Sunday afternoon)

Social Music at Hero’s Welcome (One Thursday a month)

VIFF Live at VIFF Centre (Not all VIFF Live shows are Infidels Jazz shows, but most of them are...these are at different times)

New Thing at the Zameen Art House (One Friday or Saturday a month)

Expression Sessions at the Zameen Art House (One Friday or Saturday a month)

Pass the Hat at the Heatley (One Monday a month)

Sea Legs at the Painted Ship (One Tuesday a month)

Trio’s At Meo Chinatown (Every Sunday Night)

Biggish Bands at the American (One Sunday evening a month)

East Van Shuffle at China Cloud (One Saturday night a month)

The venues we present in are getting bigger every year. We started presenting shows at the Hollywood & The Revue Stage in 2025, and we’ve got lots planned at those venues in the new year, plus concerts already scheduled at our regular larger venues like the Rickshaw, the Fox, the Pearl & Pyatt Hall.  We’re adding the American on Main Street to our regular rotation in 2026, and we are putting the finishing touches on concerts at some of the city’s biggest venues.  We’re also dipping our toe into theatrical productions, and you’ll see announcements about that very soon. 

We’re able to bring more international touring artists to Vancouver every year, and some of the artists we have scheduled in the new year include Kahil El’Zabar (For the third time!), the Sun Ra Arkestra, Tatsuya Nakatani, Orrin Evans, Fred Frith….and a bunch we can’t talk about yet. 

We’ve been partnering up with local community and commercial partners right from the early days of the Infidels, and some of the big shows we’re teaming up with them on in 2026 include Pat Metheny, Tortoise, Christian McBride, Haram, Ulysses Owens….and a bunch we can’t talk about yet. 

Our partnership with the VIFF Centre is expanding in 2026, and we already have 16 concerts scheduled there in the first five months of the year, featuring artists like Krystle Dos Santos, Vince Mai, Cousin Harley, Ardeshir Pourkeramati & Aram Bajakian. 

The Jazz world is celebrating the centenary of four Jazz icons in 2026, and Infidels Jazz has huge plans to focus on all of them: Miles Davis, Tony Bennett, Randy Weston & John Coltrane. We’ll be announcing our Miles Davis plans very soon. 

Infidels is expanding its reach outside Vancouver this year, and you’ll see us involved in various concerts and tours in other areas of BC, and beyond. 

We started a new relationship with the VJO Society in 2025, and that’s continuing in the new year. They will continue to support some of our programming like the New Thing, our Pass the Hat series, and our monthly jam sessions at Hero’s Welcome. If you’d like to support that work, please visit this LINK. These donations go directly to the VJO and will be used on specific partnerships with Infidels Jazz. The vast majority of Infidels programming continues to be self-funded, and the best way to support us is to go to concerts. 

I’ll be focussing on our record label in new ways in 2026, and currently we’ve got five albums being prepared for release. 

I get asked lots of questions about our future plans, and one of the topics I get asked the most about is Jazz Festivals. We’re excited to be part of Cory Weed’s Jazz at the Bolt for the fourth year this February, and will have some announcements regarding other festivals we’re part of (including one we’re co-founding!!!) pretty soon. 

Have a great 2026, and we look forward to seeing you at the concerts! 

Tim Reinert - Founder of Infidels Jazz

UPCOMING INFIDELS JAZZ HIGHLIGHTS