Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band at the Kravis Center: A Landmark Night of Jazz in West Palm Beach

# Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band at the Kravis Center: A Landmark Night of Jazz in West Palm Beach Some concerts are just concerts. This one is a piece of jazz history walking onto a South Florida stage. On **Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.**, vocalist **Julia Keefe** brings her **Indigenous Big Band** to **Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center** in West Palm Beach — part of the Kravis Center's **PEAK Series**, the lineup reserved for performances that are artistic, innovative, and provocative. The New York Times called Keefe *"a songbird of a jazz vocalist."* On October 22, you'll hear exactly why. ## The essentials - **What:** Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band — Kravis Center PEAK Series - **When:** Thursday, October 22, 2026 — 7:30 p.m. - **Where:** Dreyfoos Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 - **Tickets:** From **$40.25** — via kravis.org or the Kravis Center Box Office at 561-832-7469 - **Who it's for:** All ages — jazz devotees, big-band lovers, and anyone who wants a genuinely different night out in Palm Beach County ## Why this night is worth the drive to West Palm Beach **The band itself is the headline.** The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band is Keefe's flagship project — an ensemble built to celebrate the diversity and vitality of Indigenous artists in jazz, featuring what the Fisher Center at Bard calls a *"who's who"* of Indigenous bandleaders working today. This is not a tribute act or a novelty booking. The band headlined the **Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center** in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2024 — one of the most prestigious stages in American jazz. **Keefe's résumé is the real deal.** Keefe (Nez Perce) has performed internationally for more than two decades. She has headlined marquee events at the **Kennedy Center** and the **Smithsonian Museum** in Washington, D.C., and has opened for 20-time GRAMMY Award winner **Tony Bennett** and GRAMMY Award winner **Esperanza Spalding**. She grew up in Kamiah, Idaho, on her Tribe's reservation, began competing at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival as a young singer, and won **Outstanding Vocal Soloist** in the alto division there in 2007. **There's a South Florida chapter to her story.** Before the Kennedy Center and New York, Keefe earned her bachelor's degree in music — graduating with honors in 2012 — from the **University of Miami's Frost School of Music**. She later completed a master's at Manhattan School of Music in 2019. A Frost alumna headlining Dreyfoos Hall is a homecoming worth showing up for. **The mission gives the music extra weight.** Keefe's life's work is the revival and honoring of **Mildred Bailey**, the legendary Coeur d'Alene jazz singer whose understated style helped shape how jazz vocalists sing to this day — and who has never gotten the mainstream credit she earned. Keefe leads the campaign for Bailey's induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center, and her 2024 release *The Mildred Bailey Project* features this very big band. When this ensemble plays, you're hearing a century of Indigenous jazz history — and its future — in the same set. ## What to expect on the night Expect a full big-band sound in one of Florida's finest concert halls: brass, reeds, a swinging rhythm section, and a vocalist out front who treats every standard like it was written yesterday. The PEAK Series exists for exactly this kind of booking — work that pushes a familiar form somewhere new. If your jazz diet has been mostly background playlists and hotel-lobby trios, a 7:30 p.m. set from a band like this will reset what you think a big band can do. ## Insider tips for the Kravis Center 1. **Make a downtown night of it.** Dreyfoos Hall sits at 701 Okeechobee Blvd, steps from the Clematis Street and Rosemary Square dining scene. Book an early dinner downtown, then walk the night off after the show — Thursday nights in downtown West Palm Beach are lively without the weekend crush. 2. **Arrive early and unhurried.** Give yourself at least 45 minutes before the 7:30 p.m. downbeat. Downtown traffic and garage lines build fast on performance nights, and Dreyfoos Hall is a room you want to settle into, not sprint into. 3. **The $40.25 starting price is the value play of the Kravis fall season.** Comparable Dreyfoos Hall headliners this season start well above that. If you've been waiting for an affordable first Kravis night, this is it — but PEAK Series shows draw a knowing crowd, so don't wait until show week. 4. **Dress smart-casual and bring a layer.** West Palm Beach evenings in late October are mild, but concert halls run cool. You'll be comfortable either way indoors — another reason this Thursday-night indoor pick beats rolling the dice on an outdoor lawn show. 5. **New to jazz? Start here anyway.** Keefe is an educator as well as a performer, and this project was built to welcome listeners into a story most of us were never told. You don't need to know the standards to feel this band hit. ## Get tickets Tickets start at **$40.25** through the Kravis Center — online at kravis.org or through the Box Office at **561-832-7469**. One night only: **Thursday, October 22, 2026, 7:30 p.m., Dreyfoos Hall.** Jazz history doesn't come through Palm Beach County every week. When it does — led by a Frost School alumna carrying Mildred Bailey's legacy with a full big band behind her — you go.