The LA Jazz Festival will spread across the city for 17 days in August, mixing dozens of free neighborhood concerts with a two-night beachfront finale that organizers hope will establish the event as one of the largest jazz gatherings in the world.
The festival, which runs from Aug. 7 through Aug. 23, announced an expanded lineup spanning free "Jazz in the Park" concerts, restaurant pop-ups called "Jazz After Dark," a Caribbean Street Carnival in Venice and a closing "Jazz on the Beach" weekend headlined by John Legend, Janelle Monáe, Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton and Raphael Saadiq. Terrace Martin was among the newest additions to the beach lineup.
Founder and CEO Martin Ludlow said the festival was designed to fill a gap he first noticed decades ago after moving to Los Angeles from Ohio. While impressed by the music at the city's existing jazz events, he was struck by how little of the art form's history was reflected in the world's biggest media market.
"Jazz really is the sound of freedom, and was created in a very painful moment in the life and time of the African American journey," Ludlow said. He traced the music's roots from Congo Square and pre-colonial Africa through the slave trade to the Caribbean and finally to New Orleans, "that melting pot," where the genre came together as "a true American made genre."
Ludlow said his research into international festivals revealed three common traits: they ran for multiple weekends, drew hundreds of thousands of people — more than a million in Montreal — and were often staged near major waterways. By comparison, he said, LA's existing offering drew about 18,000 people a day.
That led him to the coast, a decision he framed as both cultural and political. Ludlow described a long history of "coastal racial pushout," citing Bruce's Beach, where a Black family was driven from a resort to make way for the city of Manhattan Beach, and the former Ebony Beach Club in Santa Monica, which he said was seized through misused eminent domain.
"We were always denied access to those shores," Ludlow said, adding that more than 150 significant properties owned by people of color around the country were taken through similar tactics. Putting the festival on the sand, he said, was a way "to reclaim the coastline as the people's coastline."
The free Caribbean Street Carnival will transform Venice's historic Windward Circle into a four-stage celebration on Aug. 21, spotlighting African, Latin, Cuban and New Orleans traditions. Performers include Adekunle Gold, Tito Puente Jr., Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra and the Dafnis Prieto Sí o Sí Quartet.
Ludlow said Venice was chosen for its international character and its historical ties to New Orleans, noting that the neighborhood's original design team hired a Black New Orleans man to help plan the community modeled on the canals of Venice, Italy.
"All you have to do is walk through the streets of Venice on any given day, and you're going to meet people from Holland, Amsterdam, Belgium, Tokyo, Beijing, Cape Town," he said. "So what better place to harness that night."
The festival opens Aug. 7 in Leimert Park with Lalah Hathaway, Pete Escovedo and Chief Adjuah, among others. Fifteen free "Jazz in the Park" concerts on Aug. 8-9 and Aug. 15-16 will feature artists including Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles, Billy Childs and Mumu Fresh, while 20 free "Jazz After Dark" pop-ups will bring performers such as MonoNeon, Keyon Harrold and Gretchen Parlato into locally owned venues.
Ludlow said the beach setting is central to the experience, pointing to the coastline's status as one of the city's most iconic images and to the calming effect of the water. He described the opportunity for festivalgoers "to walk, take their shoes off, feel the sand under their feet, put on those summer outfits," and likened the event's potential to the acclaimed Montreal festival.
"It is the land of the Oscars. It is the land of the Grammys, and soon it'll be the land of the LA Jazz Festival as well," he said.
Airbnb is the festival's title sponsor, with Hennessy and Transitions Lenses signed as official marketing partners. StubHub is the official ticket marketplace. Tickets for the Aug. 22-23 Jazz on the Beach shows are on sale, and free reservations for other events are available at LAJazzFestival.com.
The festival will also host a Jazz Youth Camp expected to bring more than 2,000 students from across LA County into workshops and masterclasses.