On Saturday, June 17, at 11 a.m., Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt along with Mayor Karen Bass and a delegation led by New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell and the Los Angeles Jazz Festival Foundation will host the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly named, “New Orleans Corridor.”
The corridor will stretch from Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, located at 1977 West Jefferson Blvd., to Harold & Belles Creole Restaurant at 2920 West Jefferson Blvd. The New Orleans Corridor will honor the historical migration and legacy of men, women and families of Creole and African American descent who moved from Louisiana to their settling in Los Angeles during a violently tumultuous period in the South.
Bass, Cantrell and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown will join other dignitaries and musicians to mark the occasion.
Immediately after the ribbon-cutting, Hutt, Bass, Cantrell and Brown will lead a New Orleans style ‘Second Line,’ featuring the New Orleans Brass Band and a local brass band from the Fernando Pullum Youth Arts Center in South L.A. down Jefferson Blvd., along the “New Orleans Corridor.”
Festivities will continue with a free series of live music performances featuring award-winning artists from both New Orleans and Los Angeles. Performers will include Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield from New Orleans, three-time Grammy-nominated artist Terrace Martin, who was raised in the Crenshaw District, and the legendary ensemble group 1500 or Nothin led by Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles natives Larrance Dopson and James Fauntelroy II.
The free concert will be emceed by KBLA 1580’s “First Things First” host Dominique DiPrima.
This portion of the festival will be located on the main stage in front of Harold & Belles Restaurant. The events of the day are being produced by the Los Angeles Jazz Festival, led by founder and president Martin Ludlow.
The Los Angeles Jazz Festival will debut on Dockweiler Beach in August 2024 as the first full-scale international jazz festival in the history of Los Angeles. The festival will offer 29 days of free music events throughout Southern California, including a ‘New Orleans Stage’ that will showcase the best of New Orleans’ jazz scene, further cementing the New Orleans-to-Los Angeles connection.
