Tucson, Arizona has a strong, growing independent music culture that focuses on locally grown and locally derived musical genres.
The city is home to musical organizations that seek to nurture artists from the local music scene as well as introduce the community to other musical styles from beyond Southern Arizona.
Tucson Jazz Festival
The Tucson Jazz Festival is a true family festival; where parents enjoy classic jazz while their kids, and the young at heart, groove to the newest sounds of today.
The Tucson Jazz Festival was the brainchild of Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, who contacted Ervin to help organize the event.
Rothschild stepped in to try to plug the “January event gap”.
It fits nicely between the holidays and Tucson’s busy February tourist season, which includes the Tucson Gem and Mineral Showcase and the Tucson Rodeo.
In Tucson’s urban core and other joints will be jumping with living legends and up-and-comers - including 2016 guest of honor, an elder statesman of jazz and NEA Jazz Master, Jimmy Heath.
free Jazz Fiesta
There will be jam sessions at several local bars and restaurants after many of the shows, and plans are afoot for live jazz on the streetcar.
We welcome Nir Felder (image), The Rad Trads, boogie-woogie pianist Arthur Migliazza, NPR pianist Jon Weber, and Grammy winners Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest among many more.
The only major jazz festival in the U.S. in January, it is designed to attract new winter visitors and local residents to a destination event featuring world-class jazz in historic downtown Tucson.
Last year, the festival created $1.1 million in economic impact and 28% of the 10,000 festival attendees were from outside of the Tucson area. The average daytime high temperature during the 2015 festival was 71.5 degrees.
The guest of honor is saxophonist Jimmy Heath who will perform his arrangements with the Tucson Jazz Institute’s award-winning Ellington Band at the opening concert at the Fox Tucson Theatre on January 14.
Other acts at the festival include: The Rad Trads, Kermit Ruffins, King Solomon Hicks, pianist Jon Weber, Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour and Byron Stripling with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
Former Tucsonans, now living in New York City will serve as opening acts or play in the clubs. Those include Arthur Vint, Mike Eckroth and Arthur Migliazza.
The Fox Tucson Theatre, originally called “The Tower” and built in 1929, is located in downtown Tucson, Arizona.
The theater opened on April 11, 2026 as a performance space in downtown Tucson.
It hosts a wide spectrum of events and concerts featuring a variety of performing talent, ranging from ballets, to jazz, contemporary pop, world music and rock acts
The Tucson Jazz Festival will be closing with the ever-popular free Jazz Fiesta on Martin Luther King Day.
