San Jose Jazz Summer Festival: ’25

V.Iyengar, Editor-in-Chief
📍 Silicon Valley, USA

The August 8th-10th weekend saw the beginning and end of the 35th edition of the San Jose Summer Jazz Festival. 

This event, founded in 1986 by San Jose Jazz, has grown to become a vital part of the artistic and cultural scene of San Jose, showcasing some incredible musical talent. Read about some of this year’s acts below:

Common

Common, or Lonnie Rashid Lynn, is an American musician born in Chicago, IL. Over the course of his illustrious career, he’s won several impressive accolades, including three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. As a musician, he is one of the most famous conscious rappers, and is known for his intelligent, powerful, and poetic lyrics which often address social and political issues. Sonically, Common’s music has strong jazz influences, as he often samples jazz music and employs jazz-inspired production methods. Beyond his music career, he is also a best-selling author and an accomplished actor. 

PJ Morton

PJ Morton, like Common, is one of the many huge names in music and jazz who have come to play in San Jose at this festival. Morton is the recipient of five Grammy awards and is most well-known for being the keyboardist of the band Maroon 5. Outside of the band, he is an accomplished solo musician who released his first studio album, Gumbo, in 2017, which ended up earning him 2 awards at the 60th Grammy Awards. Morton carries a deep love and appreciation for jazz music, and he is currently working to restore the historic Central City home of jazz pioneer Charles “Buddy” Bolden.

La Marisoul and the Love Notes Orchestra

La Marisoul and the Love Notes Orchestra is a solo project started by Marisol Hernandez, the lead singer of the Grammy-winning band La Santa Cecilia, a band which makes music that fuses American/Western and Latin musical styles. Her project reinterprets classic Latin American boleros and American standards, and showcases her powerful vocals in a setting outside the band. The project includes a debut album, La Marisoul & The Love Notes Orchestra (Vol. 1). This group is notable for the incredible vocal and musical talent of Marisol Hernandez as well as their fusion of latin American musical traditions such as boleros with American jazz standards.