(NEWARK, NJ) -- Friends of Symphony Hall along with Smooth Jazz New Jersey team up to bring adult contemporary music to the newly renovated Terrace Ballroom housed in Newark Symphony Hall. On Saturday, December 6, 2025, they present "An Evening of Smooth Jazz" with Gerald Albright and special guest Bradford Hayes Quartet. Doors are at 6:00pm.
Get ready for an unforgettable night of smooth grooves and electrifying jazz with Grammy-nominated saxophonist Gerald Albright and his band, one of the most celebrated and soulful voices in contemporary jazz. With his signature sound and high-energy performances, Albright has captivated audiences worldwide—sharing the stage with icons like Anita Baker, Quincy Jones, and Whitney Houston, and topping the Billboard Jazz charts with multiple No. 1 albums. From funk-driven jams to romantic ballads, his live show delivers musicianship, charisma, and pure groove.
Tickets range from $70-$85 and are available for purchase online. Newark Symphony Hall is located at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Albright was already an accomplished saxophonist by the time he enrolled at the University of Redlands, but he switched to bass after he saw Louis Johnson in concert. A few months after graduating from college, he joined jazz pianist/R&B singer Patrice Rushen, who was in the process of forming her own band. Later, when the bassist left in the middle of a tour, Albright replaced him and finished the tour on bass guitar.
Playing both sax and bass, he became the consummate session and touring musician in the 80s, working with everyone from Anita Baker, Ray Parker, Jr., Atlantic Starr, The Temptations and Maurice White to Les McCann, Teena Marie, the Winans and Whitney Houston.
He launched his solo career in the infancy of what became the smooth jazz format, with Just Between Us in 1987 and has been a core part of the genre with chart-topping albums, countless radio hits and as a member of many all star tours, including Guitars & Saxes and Groovin’ For Grover. In the late 90s, he fronted a big band for and toured with pop star Phil Collins and did a dual recording with vocal great Will Downing called Pleasures of the Night. Between his last two Grammy-nominated solo albums Pushing The Envelope (2010) and Slam Dunk (2014), he enjoyed hit collaborations with two huge hits – 24/7 with guitarist Norman Brown and Summer Horns by Dave Koz and Friends (including Mindi Abair and Richard Elliot), which were also Grammy-nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Albums. He toured with Brown and Summer Horns, and most recently has been on the road with South Africa gospel/jazz singer and guitarist Jonathan Butler. Albright’s other albums whose titles perfectly reflect their flow include Smooth (1994), Groovology (2002), Kickin’ It Up (2004) and Sax for Stax (2008).
Because Albright’s musical muse has taken him to so many fascinating locales along the contemporary R&B/urban jazz spectrum, he’s joyfully defied easy categorizations.
“Top to bottom,” Albright says, “Whether in concert, listening to my music over the radio or CD player, I always want my listeners to be taken on a musical journey with different textures, rhythms, chord progressions and moods. I want people to know where I’ve been and where I’m going, and to let them hear that I’m in a really good place in my life.”
Born as the Salaam Temple in 1925, Newark Symphony Hall has been the home of almost a century of arts and culture in what is now New Jersey’s oldest and largest arts and entertainment venue.
Shortly after its introduction into Newark’s cultural nightlife, the Salaam Temple – quickly nicknamed “The Mosque” by visitors who crossed its threshold – began to draw diverse audiences and became the epicenter of Brick City’s live entertainment scene.
The invention of talking pictures, vaudeville acts and symphony orchestras made way to include a robust cinema where audiences could enjoy the grandeur of the latest film in style. During the Great Depression, it survived the hardship of the economic downturn with new management determined to see the Mosque bolster the city’s spirit and embody her resilience. The Griffith Music Foundation, helmed by Lena Donaldson Griffith, owner of the Griffith Piano Company, recognized the power of the arts to foster the community and turned the Mosque into the powerhouse artists and entertainers of all backgrounds were eager to add to their tours.
Whether you preferred classical music (New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein) or opera (Marian Anderson, Placido Domingo, Jerome Hines), ballet (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, The New Jersey Ballet Company) or piano virtuosos (Victor Borge, Van Cliburn), rock ‘n roll (The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones) or R&B (Aretha Franklin, The Temptations), gospel (James Cleveland, Kirk Franklin) or songs from the Great American Songbook (Judy Garland, Tony Bennett), anyone and everyone has performed at the Hall.
With too few venues in New Jersey offering live nationally recognized Smooth Jazz and R&B artists, the creation of Smooth Jazz New Jersey now exists. The mission is to bring live nationally recognized contemporary Jazz and R&B music to venues in New Jersey.
