About

The Queer Jazz Collective was formed in February 2025 and finds its home at Henrietta Hudson, the longest continually operating lesbian bar in the country located in New York City’s West Village. We are a collective of queer musicians who aim to foster an environment where we can explore musical expression through a queer perspective and create art vulnerably as our authentic selves.

As the queer community faces an increased amount of stressors and attacks on our rights, we maintain a precious space for queer joy, expression, and community. To that end, we host a welcoming jam session for queer musicians in New York. Jams are an integral part of a healthy jazz scene, yet queer musicians often experience exclusion from these spaces. Whether the exclusion is intentional or not, we are proud of the safe community we have been able to cultivate and participate in.

The Queer Jazz Collective is organized by Edith Hazel, Calvin Kaleel, Norah De Chant, and Caro Moore.

Music

Our performances feature current queer artists’ musical projects and showcase queer music history, weaving in inspiring and rarely told stories of LGBTQ+ jazz musicians like Ma Rainey and Billy Strayhorn. We highlight lesser-known artists and compositions in order to shed light on the often erased contributions of queer musicians to jazz history.