From Thursday to Sunday, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival hosted over 80 performances across over 20 different venues in the Twin Cities. 

The festival’s main stage was in Mears Park in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood. Many of the other venues were located nearby.

Dayna Martinez, who is in her first year as the executive director of the festival, said she wanted to find new venues within walking distance of the festival’s main stage that were willing to allow free entry to jazz festival attendees. 

Martinez said a priority was to showcase a diverse lineup. Musicians of various ages, genders, ethnicities and experience levels shared the festival’s stages.

The festival was musically diverse as well, featuring an array of different styles including salsa acts, hot-club groups, big bands and even R&B singers. Martinez said she worked with local jazz curators to select artists for the festival’s lineup. 

“It feels like I’m throwing a giant party out in the park and it’s just a really good feeling when you see people having a good time and enjoying themselves and coming together to listen to some fabulous music,” Martinez said. 

Kavyesh Kaviraj played on the main stage Saturday with his quintet, and said the festival organizers did a great job of selecting diverse artists who “represent the world and what it looks like.”

Kaviraj said he played at the festival for eight years as a part of local acts, and this was his first year performing original music. Aside from his performance and promoting his first album, releasing in July, Kaviraj said he was excited to see some of his students from the Walker West Music Academy take the stage before him.

“It wasn’t too long ago that I was a student myself,” Kaviraj said. “I’m very inspired by what beautiful originality comes out of them.”

Kaviraj was not the only artist returning to the festival. Salsa del Soul, a group specializing in music from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, who first played at the festival in 2003, performed at the 5th Street Stage in Mears Park on Saturday. 

“We’re always honored to be included,” Shai Hayo, one of the group’s percussionists said. “We like to support the community, we like to support our peers, and we like to be able to represent some of the musical talent that’s available in our cities. And also, it’s just fun.”

Before Salsa del Soul’s set, Avant Garde, a multidisciplinary production and entertainment company, performed their first show. 

Chadwick Phillips, founder and CEO of the Avant Garde, said he was honored to perform at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. For the show, Phillips wanted to create a “high-energy, amazing, classic moment in time right there on that stage.”

The Avant Garde’s performance, hosted by Phillips, featured two local singers, Jordan Avent and Jackson Hurst, who performed songs ranging from Michael Jackson to OutKast. A group of individual musicians came together and brought elements of jazz improvisation to the set, including a shredding guitar solo during a cover of the song “Killing Me Softly With His Song”.

The festival also featured contemporary jazz musicians, like JC Sanford, whose electric quartet used effects unfamiliar to jazz music, like distortion. Although he played at previous editions of the festival, this was Sanford’s first time playing it with his electric quartet.

“I like the idea that there’s music everywhere,” he said. “There’s just all these different venues, there’s a mix of the big acts that come from out of town and mixed with all the local players.”