Jazz at MOCA makes a museum a home for outdoor live music

The open-air plaza lights up on the last Friday of every month for Jazz at MOCA, a free concert series. ((Photo by Leo A Daly Architects, courtesy of MOCA)

Every final Friday of the month, the large open-air plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (MOCA) turns into a live music venue. Jazz at MOCA has been entertaining the community since 1999. Welcoming local and traveling musicians, it puts a spotlight on a genre that is the cornerstone of all music.

Headlining this month is Cuban flutist Magela Herrera. This will be the second time Herrera takes the stage at MOCA.

“I love MOCA,” says the musician joyfully. “It’s such a great venue and also the museum itself is amazing. It’s a wonderful place to play.”

Part of Herrera’s Friday night set includes a tribute to fellow jazz musician, Chick Corea, as well as some afro sambas and the traditional Cuban dance genre, danzón. “I learned that the audience at MOCA is really open to receiving Latin music, so I want to bring a little more of that and show that side of me,” she says.

Flutist Magela Herrera takes the stage at MOCA on Friday, July 31. (Photo by Jose M. Alconchel)

Born in Cuba, Herrera trained in Norway before moving to Miami in 2016. “The decision to move to Miami was easy… jazz is happening all over throughout the city. There is space for my art here and to grow as a musician,” says Herrera.

The first time Herrera performed at Jazz at MOCA in 2023, she remembers the warmth of the crowd. As soon as she finished her set, people from the audience approached her to engage in conversation. “(They) come up to you with different questions about your music or why you chose this tune or that song; they’re really involved.”

The venue itself allows for the intimacy between performer and audience. There’s a certain comfort level that’s hard to find anywhere else.

Longtime Jazz at MOCA talent booker, Kimberly Chmura, compares it to a more traditional, indoor jazz club. “It almost feels like a listening room, even though it’s outdoors,” says Chmura. “Everyone is there to just listen to the music, you can hear a pin drop.”

Jazz at MOCA brings local, national and international musicians to the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami for free monthly performances. (Photo by Daniel Bock, courtesy of MOCA)

Chmura has been booking performers for the monthly concert for the last 18 years. Throughout her nearly two decades with the museum, she says her favorite part of Jazz at MOCA remains the people.

“The audience is just so receptive and it’s a beautiful demographic of young to more mature ages,” Chmura says. “I like watching the people show up and how happy they are after the show to rush to the stage and talk to the artist.”

Chmura works closely with the museum’s Community Programs Manager, Arsimmer McCoy, to pick and plan performances. The pair are hoping to shake up a bit of people’s expectations of jazz with the lineup.

McCoy says, “I’m a huge Alice Coltrane fan, and Alice Coltrane is super experimental, super out-of-the box. So we’re looking to also bring in artists that fit into those dynamics. We have a jazz crowd that is looking for a traditional jazz sound, but I do believe they’re ready to hear some things that might not sound like jazz.”

Coming up at Jazz at MOCA: Kiki Sanchez, Latin pianist in August; musicians David Luca and Los Clasicos in September; Mike Gerber, blind and partially deaf pianist, will be performing in October; experimental jazz musician Christopher Williams will be coming in from New York in November; and closing out the year will be the Miami Big Sound Orchestra in December.

An interpretive dancer entertains during a previous Jazz at MOCA performance. (Photo by Daniel Bock, courtesy of MOCA)

Part of McCoy’s goal with Jazz at MOCA is to ensure it not only celebrates the art form, but it becomes a place where artists are vying to perform. “I want to make sure that jazz musicians in Miami and even those traveling through Miami know that there is a place for them here.”

The monthly concerts are free and open to the public. The museum plans to keep it that way while also working to raise funds to enhance the space for artists. More lights and better sound, says McCoy.

She jokes how her musician parents don’t understand much about what she does at the museum, “but they understand Jazz at MOCA.” Her father comes to every program.

“My favorite part of Jazz at MOCA is the jazz,” says McCoy with a smile. “The fact that I can hear jazz in the city and I get to see people up on that stage that look like me loving what they do and giving their all to the audience. It’s magic.”

WHAT: Jazz at MOCA presents Magela Herrera

WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, 770 NE 125 St., North Miami

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, July 31

COST: Free, RSVP via mocanomi.org encouraged

INFORMATION: (305) 893-6211 or mocanomi.org

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