Mindi Abair’s - I Can’t Wait for Christmas

You’ve seen the saxophonist/vocalist as the featured saxophonist on American Idol, sitting in with Paul Shaffer on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Roots on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. You may have seen the Florida native moonlighting on tour with Duran Duran and Aerosmith. The two-time Grammy nominee has consistently topped the Billboard Contemporary and Blues charts, and in 2019, 2020, and 2021, she was nominated by the Blues Music Awards as the Best Instrumentalist: Horns.

If somehow you missed all of that, you’ve surely seen her as the high-stepping, hard-playing saxophonist in A Peter White Christmas. She returns to The Lyric with her own show, I Can’t Wait for Christmas, and brings along some of her friends for a night of Christmas classics and smooth jazz hits.

With Abair on this tour will be Rebecca Jade, named the Smooth Jazz Network’s Breakout Artist of the Year and JazzTrax’s Debut Artist of the Year in 2022; Andréa Lisa, a South African-born, New Zealand-trained singer, guitarist, composer, and producer who has collaborated with Jonathan Butler, Kirk Whalum, and Kool & the Gang; Xavier Gordon, an exciting new voice on the jazz scene as a pianist, songwriter, producer, and performer; Arthur Thompson, Abair’s longtime drummer, who was voted Breakout Artist of the Year in 2023 by the Smooth Jazz Network; and Darryl Williams, who brings smooth-jazz firepower. His debut album, That Was Then, earned praise from JazzTimes.

The self-described “Christmas dork” said the holiday has always been important to her. “Growing up, my family would get together for Christmas every year,” she said. “My grandmother would cook oyster stuffing and rhubarb pie, and we’d play and sing together. I still make rhubarb pie every year in her honor. My grandmother gave me great advice early on: ‘If you play the piano, you can be the life of any party!’ She was an opera singer and would sit and play piano and sing Christmas songs. My father would take over and play more rock/blues/jazz/ versions of the songs and we’d all sing. Of course, I’d pull out my sax and play along. What an amazing way to grow up, with music surrounding me and weaving into my life so seamlessly.”

Abair has taken her love for Christmas to a new level, with her 2024 release, I Can’t Wait for Christmas, a 10-song collection on Pretty Good for a Girl Records of holiday classics that take listeners straight to the heart of the holiday season, blending timeless classics with fresh, soulful originality.

You’re cordially invited to come early for the separately ticketed pre-show Wine and Jazz Tasting Experience, hosted by Abair and her husband, Eric Guerra. While pouring their company’s www.WINEandJAZZ.com wines, Guerra gives a master class in wine tasting while Abair pairs each wine style with a live performance song.

It’s always an event when Mindi Abair takes the stage, and this year, she can’t wait for Christmas. Can you?