Well over 10,000 people attended the 31st annual Long Beach Jazz Festival during the three-day event sponsored by Rainbow Promotions.
The festival featured Benoit’s Health and Wellness Pavilion with multiple food vendors and speakers covering topics from cooking to relationships.
Many artists were highlighted including Sulpacio Jones, Ricky Jones, singer Maysa, and guitarist Jonathan Butler. Also, Chante Moore, a veteran singer, performed as well as newcomer Honey Larochelle. Moore performed alongside of Everette Harp and Doc Powell. Larochelle was brought onstage by Marcus Miller.
Sunday continued the unofficial battle of the guitars, and even pianists joined in with Kiatsu Matsui donning a keytar and rocking a dance move! Matsui played five different kinds of keyboards including the keytar, and a Roger Trotman style vocal tube that used her voice as the tones for her keyboard.
Opening the day was newcomer Jazmin Ghent, whose petite frame was almost overwhelmed by the size of her black and gold saxophone, but she bent the keys backwards as she played adjacent to Brian Simpson on the keyboard.
Closing the show was legendary guitarist Stanley Clark who is known for his fast fingers and showed off on both the bass guitar and the cello. The battle for the top spot continued with Clarke going head to head with his entire band!
For more information on the long Beach Jazz Festival, visit longbeachjazzfestival.com/.
