Thursday night's choices for me are all artists I've never heard before and range from jazz titans to those pushing the envelope a bit. By Thursday, I'm getting pretty tired, too, so I decided to stay away from a trio in Max's, opting for something more unique (and loud, I expect).

At the RIJF you are confronted with so many options. Some are imposed on you by timing, some by lines, some by sheer accident after hearing raves about an artist you didn't even have on your radar. But, you have to make the choice. So, you do you, but if you're interested, here are the artists/groups I am aiming to hear on the seventh night of the 2025 RIJF (I've included links so you can check their page on the RIJF site yourself, where you will find links to music, video, etc.):

• No Kilbourn for me on this night, so starting out with the George Colligan Quartet. Pianist (actually, multi-instrumentalist...) Colligan is also a composer, educator, and has recorded over 40 albums as a leader. He was also for a time a blogger, like yours truly, until putting his blog Jazz Truth on hiatus in 2016. Colligan has over 130 sideman credits playing with artists like Cassandra Wilson, Ravi Coltrane, Buster Williams, and Don Byron, and was a recipient of DownBeat’s Critics Poll in 2015 (the last year he was at the RIJF). Colligan’s compositions feature intricate harmonies, unexpected turns, and emotional depth. He blends tradition with a modern, exploratory edges and because he plays other instruments, Colligan brings a broader musical perspective to his piano. The George Colligan Quartet will be on the Montage Music Hall stage at 6:00 and 9:30 pm.

• Saxophonist Gary Bartz has a rich, soulful tone and spirit of adventure, which have made him stand out and apart in the jazz scene for over 60 years. Bartz made his bones playing with Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. In the late 1960s, he joined McCoy Tyner’s Expansions band and in 1970 joined Miles Davis’s call to play electric jazz and was featured on Davis's Live/Evil album. Bartz later founded NTU Troop—a boundary-breaking ensemble blending funk, soul, African folk, and post‑bop jazz. More recently Bartz has been working with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge for their Jazz Is Dead series, and the jazz-funk band Maisha. Finally, last year Bartz was named as a NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. RIJF Producer Pick Bartz has not appeared at the festival before, at least as a leader. Gary Bartz and his band will be blowing into the Temple Theater at 7:00 and 9:15 pm.

• To stretch my ears a bit more, for my last stop on Thursday I'm heading over for Salami Rose Joe Louis, a Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label-mate of Thursday's headliner in the Big House, Thundercat (who I would have loved to catch this year, but I'm a Club Pass denizen...). The soundscapes that multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Olsen (the real name of the woman behind Salami Rose Joe Louis) weaves with her voice and her beloved Roland MV8800, which is nicknamed “Funfunfun," along with her band can run from mesmerizing to a funky groove. If she's bringing a band like the one on this recent live concert on YouTube recorded for Seattle station KEXP, it should be a great show. Salami Rose Joe Louis is going to be hitting the stage at The Duke at 7:30 and 9:45 pm.

While I've made my choices, there are often artists who I wish I could hear as well but can't due to timing or other reasons, or perhaps others who might be a better fit for you. For one reason or another you may want some alternatives, so here they are:

• I saw Veronica Swift perform at the 2019 RIJF and on Thursday I wanted to go in different directions, but Swift is a versatile, blending jazz standards, vocalese, and daring genre crossovers—opera, rock, funk, and blues—all under her self‑described “transgenre” approach. Plus, she is an entertainer through and through. You can't miss with her, even if I'm going to. Veronica Swift will be gracing the stage in Kilbourn Hall at 6:00 and 9:00 pm.

• I think I remember hearing pianist Ehud Asherie play at an RIJF, but he apparently hasn't appeared at the festival as a leader yet but perhaps as a sideman with artists he's worked with, who include Eric Alexander, Roy Ayers, Peter Bernstein, Jesse Davis, Bobby Durham, Vince Giordano, Wycliffe Gordon, Scott Hamilton, Ryan Kisor, Jane Monheit, Catherine Russell, Ken Peplowski, and Clark Terry. Asherie has been described in the New Yorker as "a master of swing and stride” piano. The Ehud Asherie Trio will be playing at Max's at Eastman Place at 6:15 and 10:00 pm.