As a Sonoma County resident and jazz fan, I’ve gone to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival nearly every year for the past 20 years. When the lineup drops, like it recently did for the 2024 festival running June 15–23, I make notated lists of what to see. What follows are my picks for the best shows to see among the formidable lineup.
But first: If you’ve heard about the festival but never attended, let me try to tell you what makes it special.
Take last year’s free show in the town plaza with Charles McPherson. Where else could farmworkers and wine tourists alike sit in the shade on the grass, listening to an 83-year-old jazz saxophone legend? Or last year’s tribute to Pharoah Sanders, with Gary Bartz and Sanders’ son Tomoki reverently playing “The Creator Has a Master Plan” under the stars and among the vineyards?
Over its history, Healdsburg has hosted up-and-coming talent, like Esperanza Spalding, who played in a restaurant’s backyard at the festival when she was brand-new on the scene. For several years, Santa Rosa-raised guitarist Julian Lage was a local opener at the festival, before he became a Blue Note recording artist who graces magazine covers.
And then, naturally, there are the legends. Past years have included Jackie McLean, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Charles Lloyd, Geri Allen, Charlie Haden — the list goes on. In Healdsburg, these artists get the treatment and crowds they deserve, and in an unusually scenic, intimate setting. (I’ll never forget the year I literally bumped into drummer Andrew Cyrille in the cramped back kitchen of a coffee shop just off the downtown plaza.)
