Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
The lineup for one of San Francisco’s most anticipated summer celebrations, the North Beach Jazz Festival, Aug. 7-11, has been set. This year’s talent roster includes Michael Bluestein, Richard Howell, Mingus Amungus, Ledesi with Anibade and Vivendo de Pao among others.
Now in its eighth season, the festival will kick off with the return of Jazz On Grant, a free, neighborhood-wide celebration featuring a variety of the Bay Area’s best local jazz talent performing in bars, cafes, restaurants and other venues throughout San Francisco’s North Beach district. The festival will present their popular Latin Jazz Series Aug. 8, followed by Taste Of New Orleans on Aug. 9 at Broadway Studios (435 Broadway Street) in North Beach. The event will culminate with the Jazz & Heritage In The Park outdoor concert series on Saturday and Sunday in Washington Square Park.
Founder and producer Alistair Monroe and co-producer Herve Ernest created the North Beach Jazz Festival in 1995 as a vehicle for celebrating the legendary jazz history of San Francisco, and for introducing jazz of all types to a new generation of listeners. Since then, the festival has become one of the nation’s most up-and-coming musical gatherings, and has hosted top talent such as Carlos Santana, Pharoah Sanders, Carl Craig, Bill Somers, Roy Ayers, Ray Obiedo, Pete Escovedo, Kermit Ruffins and Pancho Sanchez. Although the festival has grown significantly since its debut eight years ago—last year’s festival hosted more than 60,000 people—the North Beach Jazz Festival has purposely maintained a distinctly grassroots, homegrown feel by consistently featuring local talent, and by incorporating the neighborhood’s unique jazz history and culture into the festivities.
“This is definitely not your father’s jazz festival,” Monroe says. “The North Beach Jazz Festival is as much about promoting talented jazz musicians as it is about hosting a great party in one of the city’s most dynamic and storied neighborhoods. Our purpose is to bring people together to celebrate the cultural heritage of this city, North Beach in particular.” The North Beach Jazz Festival strives to keep programs inexpensive and accessible to fans of all ages. The Jazz On Grant and Jazz & Heritage In The Park events are both free and open to all ages, while tickets to the Latin Jazz Series and Taste Of New Orleans events at the Broadway Studios are $15 ($18 at the door) and available to those 21 and over. Tickets can be purchased at Tickets.com or may be purchased free of surcharge at the North Beach Jazz Festival Store and Gallery. (2801 Leavenworth St. in the Cannery, 415-771-2061.)
For more information about shows, artists, venues and performance schedules for this year’s North Beach Jazz Festival, go to www.nbjazzfest.org.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
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