From the Media Release
The Adelaide Jazz Festival (AJF) returns in 2025 with a special extended program to celebrate the city’s 10th anniversary as a UNESCO City of Music and UNESCO’s International Jazz Day. This year’s program focuses on the abundance of South Australian talent and spotlights the venues that regularly support live jazz in Adelaide.
The AJF will again present a curated program of diverse jazz genres, opening with Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Sabor a Cuba, led by Cuban trumpeter Lazaro Numa returning fresh from his Byron Bay Bluesfest show with The Cat Empire.
City of Adelaide, a major partner of this year’s festival through a Cultural Strategic Partnership, are presenting two free performances for the community, a lunchtime jazz concert at the iconic Adelaide Town Hall and an evening of jazz in nature with Jazz In The Square featuring cosy firepits and food trucks.
“Music is the emotional epicentre of Adelaide’s cultural life and our city’s love of jazz stretches back to the 1950s, when underground clubs in Adelaide Arcade and North Adelaide were all the rave,” says Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide. “We’re thrilled to once again support this tremendous festival with events at the Adelaide Town Hall and Hindmarsh Square bringing some of that swing time energy back to the city.”
AJF Creative Partner, Elder Conservatorium of Music, The University of Adelaide (the ‘Con’), is presenting a big band performance; and their monthly live jazz venue Hal’s Hall will host several shows, including an ANZAC Day evening show with Millie Sarah and special guest Marlene Richards — both vocalists are sure deliver swinging sets of wartime-era jazz classics.
“An annual jazz festival is an important opportunity to showcase the incredible musical talent here in South Australia,” says AJF Producer and Artistic Director, Kaya Blum. “This year’s program stretches across an exciting range of jazz styles.”
Another 2025 program highlight is local jazz-rock band Djawbreaker who will present new and original music inspired by the world of the late artistic visionary David Lynch at a unique performance at The Lab, with digital art by Ryan Sahb on The Lab‘s 50 square metres of LED screens.
AJF Creative Partner, Adelaide Festival Centre, again present their UNESCO International Jazz Day Concert; and one of Adelaide’s best live music venues, The Grace Emily Hotel, will again host the AJF’s series of emerging contemporary original music acts, this year ranging from nu-jazz, jazz-funk, neo-soul and electro-jazz.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the City of Adelaide and the South Australian Government’s Music Development Office (MDO) for supporting this year’s festival,” Blum adds. “We’re still very much a grass-roots organisation, but we’re determined to keep supporting the local jazz community and provide audiences with unique live music experiences that are financially accessible.”
