A PERSONAL WELCOME

Dear friends,

It is often the case that ideas begin quietly - formed in passing thoughts, imagined possibilities, only to fade with time. Yet, occasionally, when circumstances align, those same ideas take shape in the world. This festival is one such beautiful realization.

This journey began three years ago when my production company SM Festivals joined forces with BroadStage to co-found the Santa Monica International Jazz Festival. If you can remember back to 2023, we were all still pretty much in shock from COVID days. Then, seemingly right on the heels of that, just a couple years later we had the fires. Our community had been through a great deal of isolation and displacement. We needed to find each other again in public spaces and feel a sense of peace and belonging. Music has a great ability to cut through all the extra stuff - when we hear good music, it cuts right to the core and reminds us of who we really are. This festival, for me, fulfills my desire to make an environment more creative, with more happiness and more togetherness.

Jazz, as we call it, carries a rich and complex history rooted deeply in the blues. I believe the blues to be foundational to much of modern American music. Over time, the term “jazz” has become increasingly fluid and difficult to define in precise terms. For me, it lives wherever there is a strong spirit of improvisation, thoughtful composition, and a sense of play. It is as much a feeling as it is a form. The artists we bring together on our stages for this inaugural festival celebrate these ideas each in quite different ways – you won’t find any singular aesthetic ruling the day, but you will find truth in the spirit of the endeavor and deep commitment to discovery and originality. We will celebrate Miles Davis’ and John Coltrane’s centenaries, their massive contributions, and the vast array of ideas that have followed to which they opened the door.

My vision has always been to create a space where artists can perform for audiences who not only appreciate their work, but also carry that experience forward - sharing it, supporting it, and allowing it to grow. The relationship with a festival audience is unique for artists - most festivals carry the name of their location on their banner, because they are about the destination and the identity of the location where they take place. Ours is about Santa Monica, it is about our way of life. When I was starting out, and later throughout my career, I was profoundly shaped by my experiences on the festival circuit, and it has been vitally important to me to provide that platform here for artists, today and into the future.

I have lived near the Pacific Ocean for over 30 years. One of the things I love about looking out over it is the sense of no barriers, no stops - just infinite space - all of this is part of the ingredients in great jazz music. This is the key to why Santa Monica is home to me, and one of the many reasons why I want to make it a permanent artistic home to our festival.

A city can never have too many people who want it to grow, thrive, and become better and better for its people. I think as the festival grows—especially five years from now—it will naturally become part of the fabric of the city of Santa Monica. I want personally to thank all the artists and staff who worked tirelessly on this first edition of the festival to make it a huge success, and all the producing partners and sponsors who took this leap of faith with us. I’m already looking forward to the second year.

Yours – Stanley Clarke

Artistic Director, Santa Monica International Jazz Festival