The Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, formerly known as the Playboy Jazz Festival, has announced the initial lineup of headliners for its 2022 edition, presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the storied Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, Calif. Among the acts scheduled to perform at the two-day festival on June 25-26, 2022 are the Roots, Gregory Porter, Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science, Cory Wong, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, José James, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Azar Lawrence, and Gerald Clayton. The full lineup will be announced on February 15.
Originally founded by passionate jazz fan Hugh Hefner in 1959 and held in Chicago, then the site of Playboy‘s headquarters, the festival went on hiatus for 20 years until 1979 when it was restarted to celebrate the magazine’s 25th anniversary in Los Angeles. That first edition at the Hollywood Bowl featured classic jazz artists Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie alongside more contemporary and commercial acts like Weather Report, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, a formula that would be repeated in subsequent years. In time, the Playboy Jazz Festival became one of the most prestigious jazz events in the world, with a revolving stage, top-of-the-line headliners, and a star-studded crowd that invariably included Playboy Bunnies alongside high-profile TV and movie stars. Besides being the source of numerous live albums, it featured one of the most beautiful print programs of any festival in the world, many editions of which can be found on sale for top dollar on eBay and other memorabilia sites. The festival ran annually until 2020, when it was canceled because of the pandemic.
Two-day festival tickets are available now with single-day tickets going on sale Feb. 15. Learn more at the Hollywood Bowl website.
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Read Chris J. Walker’s review of the 2019 Playboy Jazz Festival here.
Read Jeff Tamarkin’s review of the book Playboy Swings, about Hugh Hefner’s contribution to modern jazz culture, here.
