Preview: Tyreek McDole at A Place for Jazz; Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

Tyreek McDole closes the season at A Place For Jazz Friday, the only singer in the series and its youngest performer. His band, like all but one other artist this season, features a saxophonist.

Tyreek McDole. Photo provided

Now 25, McDole is even younger than (saxophonist!) Sarah Hanahan, 28. A Haitian-American Florida resident, McDole, like Hanahan, has gained attention in the jazz world through significant awards.

Photo provided

At just 18, McDole won as Outstanding Vocalist at the Jazz at Lincoln Centers 2018 Essentially Ellington Competition. This opened the door to collaborations with fellow emerging stars pianist Joey Alexander (22), plus young veteran trumpeters Theo Croker (40) and Maurice Brown (44); and established stars alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, bassist Rodney Whitaker, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and more.

In 2023, he stepped up among such his-generation jazz vocal talents as Samara Joy, Cyrille Aimee and Lucia Gutierrez Rebolloso as winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

In addition to jazz festivals in Newport, Monterey, Marciac and Nice, he has performed in top clubs including Blue Note New York, Salle Pleyel, Nublu, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Ronnie Scott’s, Birdland Jazz Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.

Like Hanahan, his debut album won Downbeat magazine respect; “Open Up Your Senses” earned four stars there, plus No. 1 honors in Jazz Week.

Caelan Cardello. Michael Hochanadel photos

McDole sings Friday with pianist Caelan Cardello who played AP4J with Hanahan Oct. 3, saxophonist Dylan Band (not to be confused with Bob Dylan’s band…), bassist Daniel Finn, and drummer Gary Jones III. During her set, Hanahan announced Cardello’s return with McDole, suggesting the singer might not cut the pianist as loose to solo as she does. We’ll see… 

In this AP4J season of saxophones, only guitarist Peter Bernstein’s band lacked a saxophone player while the quartets of David Murray (Sept. 5) and Sarah Hanahan starred saxophonists in the lead role and Leo Russo’s Sextet (Oct. 17) featured two, both leader Leo and his son Lee.  

McDole sings Friday at 7:30 p.m. at A Place for Jazz in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium, SUNY Schenectady County Community College music department. $25 www.aplaceforjazz.org