San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival
About the Event
The San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, which debuted in 2024 with nearly $400,000 in seed money from Qualcomm co-founder Irwin M. Jacobs, will return in expanded form this fall for its third year at multiple venues on both sides of the border. The event will grow from three days in 2024 and 2025 to four days this year. Free concerts will take place in downtown Tijuana and downtown San Diego, along with a paid concert at California Center for the Arts, Escondido, for which tickets go on sale May 30 at sdtjjazz.org.
This year’s roster includes drum dynamo and five-time Grammy Award-winner Brian Blade with his genre-blurring group, The Fellowship Band, and Panamanian-bred piano great Danilo Pérez, who is a three-time Grammy-winner. Blade and Pérez were both longtime members of the late saxophone legend Wayne Shorter’s quartet. Pérez, who heads the Global Jazz Institute at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, will perform here with the SDSU Jazz Ensembles and the Ensenada-based La Covacha Big Band.
Also set to appear is 2022 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition-winner Lucia, a native of Veracruz. Lucia performed here at the 2025 festival with her jazz band. She is returning with a four-man son jarocho group that features her father, Ramón Gutiérrez, a keen musical improviser and master of the four-stringed requinto.
In addition, the festival will present San Diego and Tijuana performances by the seven-piece Mingus Dynasty, which features tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, pianist Helen Sung and Russian-born bassist Boris Kozlov. The band pays tribute to the music of modern jazz pioneer Charles Mingus and will perform some pieces from his classic 1957 album, “Tijuana Moods.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and UC San Diego music professor Anthony Davis is a lifelong Mingus fan. He has agreed to write a new piece for Mingus Dynasty to play at the festival, which is now seeking underwriting for what will be a world premiere if funding is found.
San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival on Facebook / Instagram
California Center for the Arts, Escondido on Facebook / Instagram
Artist Group Info
California Center for the Arts: Escondido
California Center for the Arts: Escondido
The California Center for the Arts, Escondido is situated on a 12-acre campus in downtown Escondido adjacent to Escondido City Hall and Grape Day Park. The campus is comprised of a 1,523-seat Concert Hall, a 406-seat Center Theater, a visual arts Museum, art and dance studios, and a Conference Center containing meeting and banquet facilities. Groundbreaking occurred on June 22, 1991. Since its opening on October 1, 1994, The Center has attracted more than one-million visitors through its performing and visual arts presentations, events in the Conference Center and education programs. Mission Statement: The mission of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido is to enrich the lives of all within its reach through the Arts and their power for community building and enhancement by providing diverse artistic, cultural, educational, social and entertainment experiences of the highest quality. Ticket Office Windows: - Tuesday - Saturday: Noon - 6 p.m. - Sunday: Noon - 5 p.m. Ticket Office Phones: - (800) 988-4253 - Tuesday - Saturday: Noon - 6 p.m. - Sunday: Noon - 5 p.m. Online Ticket Purchases: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
