San Jose Jazz Summer Fest hosts three days of eclectic sounds in South Bay

The San Jose Jazz Summer Fest returns to Plaza de César Chávez this weekend, bringing dozens of local and national acts to nine indoor and outdoor venues across downtown starting early Friday evening.

The festival, which runs through Sunday, August 11, will feature more than 80 artists representing the best in jazz, R&B, Latin jazz, salsa, soul, funk, bossa nova, blues, and a myriad of other styles. The festival's main stage headliner this year will be piano/keyboard legend Herbie Hancock, an artist organizers tout as the highest profile jazz musician to appear over the festival's 34-year history.

From his earliest critical and commercial successes as a bandleader on his Blue Note records in the early '60s, through his tenure with trumpet player Miles Davis and his storied second great quintet featuring fellow jazz giants saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams and his later participation in Davis' groundbreaking fusion experiments, through the keyboard player's chart-topping jazz-funk hits in the the next two decades with "Chameleon" and "Rockit," Hancock has left a huge mark on music. His Saturday evening set comes the night before he and his band will take the stage at Stern Grove in San Francisco Sunday afternoon .

Among the other acts gracing the main stage at Summer Fest are the Family Stone -- featuring original Sly and the Family Stone saxophonist Jerry Martini and Phunne Stone, daughter of Sly Stone and band co-founder/trumpet player Cynthia Robinson -- UK funk band Incognito, Grammy Award winning Beninese vocalist Angélique Kidjo, New Orleans trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis and his Uptown Jazz Orchestra, next generation second-line funk outfit the New Breed Brass Band, singer Ms. Lisa Fischer and her band Grand Baton, and veteran R&B group Maze Honoring Frankie Beverly.

Other notable performers at other stages include powerhouse blues-rockers Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, contemporary jazz favorite David Benoit, the venerable Spanish Harlem Orchestra, jazz songbird Jane Monheit, renowned blues singer Curtis Salgado, Cajun accordion master Andre Thierry and Canadian singer-songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé. There will also be a number of local luminaries featured at the festival, with a solo set from pianist Benny Green, iconic Bay Area singer Faye Carol and noted Latin percussionist and music educator John Santos and his sextet.

All stages are near or in Plaza de Cesar Chavez -- the central hub of the festival. There, in addition to the main stage, attendees can find food, drink and creative crafts for sale. The Summer Fest starts at 5 p.m. Friday and run until Sunday night. Tickets for the 2024 San Jose Jazz Summer Fest are $44-$156 per day and $136-$697 for three-day passes, available at summerfest.sanjosejazz.org .