Jazz at The Betsy Hotel - Traditional to Fusion, Multicultural and Experimental Live Music
Updated: Aug 2, 2022
Check out The Betsy Hotel if you’re looking for a night of great Jazz on Miami Beach with a side of great food created by international award-winning Chef Laurent Tourondel @ LT Steak and Seafood. The Betsy is an art-forward hotel located in Miami Beach that has been honored by Travel + Leisure as one of the world’s best – and it’s one of Sofla’s best places for Jazz.
Carole Ann Taylor sings on 3rd Thursdays every month @ The Betsy and is the community curator of The Betsy's Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival
The Betsy’s Jazz program is the longest continually running regional jazz series, featuring live performances 9 times a week – from 6 to 11 PM Sunday thru Thurs, 6 to 12 AM Fri and Sat, and from 11 AM to 4 PM Saturday and Sunday. It’s where audiences will find performers that define the diversity of jazz piano as a genre - from traditional to fusion to multicultural and experimental. Through duos and trios are featured too, during COVID the Hotel’s Steinway has been a perfect solo safe-haven for jazz piano virtuosi wanting to keep their fingers limber.
The Facade of The Betsy Hotel, located on Ocean Drive.
Danny Mixon - legacy award-winning jazz pianist - performed for International Jazz Day at the Betsy in 2022.
“The Betsy Hotel is, hands down, my favorite place to play. Sometimes when the place gets rocking, I look up from the piano and see people dancing,” noted Australian-Israeli pianist Tal Cohen. Cohen is a regular in The Betsy’s lineup, along with more than a dozen other global pianists who play in a curated rotation. “Singing at The Betsy is like coming home.”, shared vocalist Carole Ann Taylor who holds court monthly on Third Thursdays in a special set of standards between 7 to 9 PM - performing regularly with pianist Brian Murphy, founder of the Miami Jazz Cooperative.
John Coltrane Quartet - by Leonor Anthony, from SOUNDS OF FREEDOM - on exhibition at The Betsy Hotel 2022
The Betsy’s Jazz program includes an annual festival held during National Jazz Month every April that celebrates the historic connections between South Florida and the national historic jazz circuit. The Betsy’s (April 2022) Jazz Festival featured award winning legacy pianist Danny Mixon with Grammy-nominated spoken word artist Rebecca Butterfly Vaughns, as well as Miami hometown jazz heroes Melton Mustafa, Jr., LeNard Rutledge, and Nicole Henry. In August 2022, The Betsy will highlight Latinx jazz pianists Olegario Diaz and Edgar Pantoja in 11 events. See thebetsyhotel.com for specific dates/times for these events.
The Color of Jazz (an exhibition of Jazz record covers) was exhibited at The Betsy in 2017, to celebrate the great photographer Pete Turner. This vivid image, shot in Africa by Pete Turner graced the cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave album.
Jazz is celebrated in other ways at the hotel as well. The exhibitions program, led by Betsy co-owner Lesley Goldwasser, recently featured an exhibition of work by Pete Turner, a photographer who revolutionized jazz album cover art and collaborated with John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Oliver Nelson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and so many others. Another featured exhibition with a link to jazz was the work of Miami-artist Leonor Anthony in a collection called Sounds of Freedom.
The Betsy's Steinway is situated adjacent to LT Steak and Seafood so that patrons can enjoy dinner and drinks. The Betsy's Canine Executive Officer (Betsy Ross) often stops in too.
The Betsy Hotel’s memorably designed inside and outside spaces also play host to rotating art and photography exhibitions across nine public galleries, an artist residency program, classical music pop-ups, a large library, and curated in-room book collections. Special design touches include an orb-shaped sky bridge (hailed as a groundbreaking piece of Miami Beach public art), and a sculptural Poetry Rail honoring wordsmiths from Langston Hughes to Muhammad Ali. The Betsy is family owned and operated by the Plutzik Goldwasser Family – and located at 1440 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach. @thebetsyhotel.com @jazzatthebetsy
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