Inaugural San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Fest Connects So. Cal & Baja

By DownBeat I Oct. 2, 2024

Cindy Blackman Santana will be among the performers at the inaugural San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival.
(Photo: Courtesy Cindy Blackman Santana)

While politicians proclaim crisis on the U.S. and Mexico border, one jazz producer sees perfect harmony. On Oct. 4–6, the inaugural San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival launches with a lineup that should make border crossings the most popular activity of the weekend.

The festival, being produced by San Diego Jazz Ventures, will feature concerts across the Southern California/Baja California region, focusing on the area’s musical comaraderie and expansiveness.

“We launched San Diego Jazz Ventures in 2020 with the goal to create a major jazz festival that would be binational in scope,” said Dan Atkinson, festival founder and executive director. “To me as a native San Diegan, our location on the border, adjacent to the increasingly vibrant city of Tijuana, is a unique asset that opens a world of opportunities for people who live and work here. The designation of our two cities as the World Design Capital provided the catalyst to bring our vision for the festival into reality, with the collaboration of some very essential partners from both sides of the border.”

This year’s lineup focuses on musicians who have deep cross-border ties, like San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos’ sextet featuring pianist Gerald Clayton, Rolling Stones saxophonist Karl Denson and Dizzy Gillespie drummer Ignacio Berroa. The lineup also includes Mexico City-born, New York-based vocalist Magos Herrera, whose Aire project combines her jazz quartet and San Diego’s Hausmann String Quartet; Tijuana’s Nortec Collective; Cindy Blackman Santana; and Latin jazz/funk band Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.

Ensenada trumpeter, composer, educator and bandleader Ivan Trujillo, an artistic advisor to the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, also will be featured with his band.

The music takes place at the California Center for the Arts Concert Hall in Escondido, Tijuana’s Avenida Revolución and Quartyard in downtown San Diego’s East Village.

For more information, visit sdtjjazz.org. DB