Trombonist Steve Turre, a longtime member of the Saturday Night Live Band, is part of the lineup for the Maui Jazz and Blues Festival at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua. Courtesy photo

The Maui Jazz and Blues Festival is returning to Kapalua in late August with a stellar lineup of Grammy-winning legends, acclaimed artists and local talent.

“It’s exciting to bring the festival back to the west side for the second year in a row and celebrate this long tradition,” said festival founder Kenneth K. Martinez Burgmaier. “It’s a fantastic lineup, and we’re going to give some ticket giveaways for the Lahaina fire victims.”

Presented at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, from Aug. 31 through Sept. 6, artists performing include trumpet virtuoso Eddie Henderson, saxophonist Javon Jackson, trombonist Steve Turre, Grammy-winning accordionist Bruce Sunpie Barnes, saxophonist Jason Mingledorff, Chicago-based blues musician Joanna Connor and the acclaimed New Orleans band The Iguanas.

Living on Maui since the late 1990s, filmmaker and promoter Burgmaier has presented a range of jazz and blues, Hawaiian slack key guitar, ukulele and film festivals on Maui, Lanai and Hawaii Island. He produced the debut Maui Jazz and Blues Festival at the Grand Wailea Resort in 2011, with a lineup that included keyboardist and vocalist Les McCann, known as the godfather of funk jazz, and Kool & the Gang’s Skip Martin. Subsequent festivals were held at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and the Royal Lahaina Resort.

Over the years, the festival has drawn world-class jazz and blues performers from New Orleans legend Delfeayo Marsalis, Grammy-winning blues guitarist Chris Thomas King and Chick Corea bassist John Patitucci, to zydeco legend Wilson Savoy, “godfather of fusion” jazz guitarist Larry Coryell, and blues musician Joe Louis Walker.

Among the 2026 fest artists, Henderson is a jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player who came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band. Influenced by Miles Davis, the trumpeter worked with Pharoah Sanders, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, McCoy Tyner and Max Roach.

Saxophonist Javon Jackson and trumpeter Eddie Henderson perform at a past jazz and blues festival. Both artists are scheduled to headline the Maui Jazz and Blues Festival, returning to Kapalua from Aug. 31 through Sept. 6. Photo courtesy Martinez Burgmaier

A former member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Jackson has recorded over 150 albums with jazz greats including Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Lonnie Smith and Stanley Turrentine. His recordings include “Jackson Plays Dylan,” featuring the track “Gotta Serve Somebody” with vocalist Lisa Fischer, who will play the Maui Music & Food Experience festival Aug. 22 in Kaanapali.

Recognized as one of the world’s finest trombonists, Turre has consistently won both readers’ and critics’ polls in JazzTimes, DownBeat and Jazziz magazine for best trombone and for best miscellaneous instrumentalist (shells). With a career spanning over 40 years with the Saturday Night Live Band, he is a master of both the trombone and the conch shell. He has performed and recorded with such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Hancock, Van Morrison and Sanders.

Mingledorff is a Grammy-winning saxophonist who has worked with a diverse array of artists, from Aretha Franklin and Lady Gaga to Tony Bennett and Dr. John. He was a featured soloist in “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical.”

Along with producing festivals, Burgmaier is the founder of Hawaii on TV and Jazz Alley TV. In 1992, he decided to create a music television series that would focus on jazz and blues, along with world music.

The inspiration to produce a Maui festival came “from my travels around the world with my TV show to so many wonderful music festivals and I decided to start doing one on Maui,” he said.

His music documentaries include “B.B. King: The Blues and Jazz,” “Night School: An Evening with Stanley Clarke and Friends,” and “Kī Ho’alu: Keola Beamer,” which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

“It’s exciting to bring the festival back and finding a great partner like the Ritz is truly fortunate,” Burgmaier said of presenting weekly jazz and blues events at the resort.

Tickets will be available at MauiJazzandBluesFestival.com.