Curating shows and bringing people together is “borderline addictive” to Steven Head.
Never before in his time as the manager of Pulp Arts, a recording studio, or in other roles had he curated a weeklong event. But Head, producer of the New Horizons festival, thought it was time the Gainesville jazz scene be celebrated.
“I felt like it was just almost self-evident that there is such an incredible music community here, specifically a jazz one,” he said. “It felt like I was connecting the dots on things that are already strong and existing.”
The first annual New Horizons festival, dedicated to jazz and adventurous music, will take place Feb. 23 through March 1 at various locations in downtown Gainesville. It will feature over 15 artists — both local and out-of-town musicians — and build up to a concluding performance by the prolific drummer, composer and producer Makaya McCraven.
Though Head said it was a sprint to put together the festival — the idea came together toward the end of fall — New Horizons was born out of relationships he and Pulp Arts have taken years to build.
Acknowledging that punk and hip-hop typically dominate the Gainesville music scene, Head said he hopes to shine a brighter light on local jazz musicians through New Horizons. But the artists in the lineup cannot be defined by any one genre or culture.
From an improvisational performance by Mike Khoury, a Palestinian American composer, to a film screening of “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” an Oscar-nominated documentary, the New Horizons festival is ripe with diversity.
“A lot of the programming that I curate and Pulp Arts presents often dips into the avant garde,” Head said. “So it's just an opportunity to potentially present new forms of music to people who might not be exposed to them.”
Head said New Horizons presents an opportunity for the community to tap into venues where high-level jazz programming occurs regularly, like Baby J’s Bar and The Bull, both located downtown.
Fusion and funk band Dionysus, which dubs its genre “astro jazz funk,” will be on the bill Feb. 28 at one of those jazz hotspots. The band has worked with Pulp Arts in the past, and it sought the studio’s help to record several music videos. Saxophonist Jose Piñeiro admires the “coalition” Pulp Arts has created in Gainesville.
Though Dionysus has played big events like the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival and Suwannee Hulaween, 34-year-old Piñeiro is excited to be playing an intimate, “jazz-club-esque” set at one of the band’s favorite venues, Baby J’s Bar.
As an improvisational saxophonist, Piñeiro embraces the experimental style of music that New Horizons celebrates. He compared music to gastronomy, saying a musician might choose to elevate their sound as a chef would their cuisine.
“This whole adventurous genre … is more so in the line of like, ‘How do we make sonically invigorating music?’” he said.
Another of the festival’s artists, Mike Baggetta, doesn’t think of his own music in terms of genre. Head said Baggetta is one of Gainesville’s greatest guitarists and best kept secrets.
Having traveled the world with his craft, both solo and with his punk-jazz super group mssv, 46-year-old Baggetta has resided in Gainesville for the past four years. It’s unreal to him that such a small town can have as impactful a resource as Pulp Arts.
His global success didn’t come from playing it safe. Baggetta insists on taking risks and being dangerous while playing his instrument.
The guitarist will perform on Feb. 25 at Loosey’s Downtown. He hopes Gainesville locals who attend his set and the rest of New Horizons will get out of their own comfort zone.
“I do think letting people know that the festival involves musicians that are taking chances in their music, doing things that are maybe a little bit left of mainstream, is a great opportunity to get people to come out and hear and experience things that they might not be used to,” he said.
Contact Isabel Kraby at ikraby@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isabelgkraby.
Isabel is the The Alligator's Spring 2026 music reporter. She is a junior studying journalism at UF and is from Ormond Beach, FL. In her spare time, she loves going to concerts, crafting and practicing guitar.
