Blue Note Jazz Club opens in LA

Photo Credit: Blue Note Jazz Club

New York venue Blue Note Jazz Club expands into Los Angeles next year with a festival partnership debuting in June.

Blue Note Jazz Club, an acclaimed New York jazz venue, will open a new space in Hollywood next year, with 200-capacity and 100-capacity performance rooms and a full restaurant. The club will also become the new flagship partner of the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, which will be renamed the Blue Note Jazz Festival.

The venue will partner with Grammy-winning artist and composer Robert Glasper to curate events in Los Angeles, building on his long-running Robtober residency. “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 L.A. culture to the Blue Note,” said Glasper.

Blue Note, which already has outposts worldwide, including Hawaii, Tokyo, Italy, China, Brazil, and Napa, will become the new flagship partner of the Hollywood Jazz Festival, which began as the Playboy Jazz Festival in 1979, and will be renamed the Blue Note Jazz Festival. Presented by the LA Phil, the revamped festival kicks off June 14 at the Hollywood Bowl, with a full lineup to be announced on February 18, and tickets on sale in May.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Blue Note to launch the Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl,” said LA Phil’s president and chief executive Kim Noltemy. “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 new venue arrives as some beloved jazz venues have closed their doors in recent months, and others struggle to hang on. The Napa edition of the Blue Note Jazz Festival began in 2022, with a mixture of R&B and hip-hop and headliners like Mary J. Blige, Chance the Rapper, Maxwell, and Nas.