One of New York City’s most iconic jazz clubs is coming to Hollywood.
Blue Note Jazz Club, which operates venues worldwide, including in Milan, Italy; Honolulu; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; Napa, Calif.; D.C.; Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, will open a new club location on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in March.
The venue will offer an intimate atmosphere paired with programming similar to its East Coast counterpart and will feature jazz performances from celebrated icons, rising stars and genre-defying collaborations.
The layout boasts a main showroom with a 200-person capacity and a secondary “B Side” room with a 100-person capacity. A full-service kitchen with a beverage menu will welcome guests for brunch and dinner throughout the week.
Blue Note Jazz Club has also partnered with the LA Phil to create the newly named Blue Note Jazz Festival, formerly the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival. The festival will be presented by the LA Phil and kick off on June 14 at the Hollywood Bowl.
The full lineup is expected to be released on February 18, along with the complete Hollywood Bowl 2025 season announcement. Tickets for the two-day festival will go on sale in May at hollywoodbowl.com.
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“We are thrilled to join forces with Blue Note to launch the Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl,” said the LA Phil’s President & Chief Executive Officer Kim Noltemy in a press release. “This partnership represents a shared dedication to celebrating jazz and its extraordinary artists while continuing the legacy of world-class music at the Bowl. Together, we look forward to creating an unforgettable experience for jazz lovers in Los Angeles.”
The Blue Note Jazz Festival started in New York in 2011 and featured a month-long celebration of jazz throughout June. Other iterations of the festival have since started and include the Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa, Blue Note at Sea and The Black Radio Experience.
Programming for the festivals has been curated by Grammy Award-winning artist, composer and producer Robert Glasper, who is known for his blend of jazz, R&B and hip-hop. In 2022, Glasper curated the multi-day Napa festival. Past headliners of the Napa event have included performances by NAS, Mary J Blige, Chance the Rapper, and Maxwell. Blue Note Los Angeles plans to continue the venue’s partnership with Glasper, who will also curate the Los Angeles festival in June.
“I’m honored to partner up with Blue Note once again for what will be a significant cultural intersection for the Los Angeles community. Los Angeles has always been a second home to me, and I can’t wait to bring LA culture to the Blue Note,” said Glasper in a press release statement.
Before its rebranding, the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival was an annual celebration of jazz held at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The festival showcased diverse artists, from legendary performers like Charles Lloyd and Raphael Saadiq to emerging talents such as Yebba, Aneesa Strings, Cimafunk and more. The festival was revered for highlighting the rich and evolving traditions of jazz and was a reimagining of the Playboy Jazz Festival that began at the Bowl in 1979.
