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Our Story
The Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival was founded in 1985 by Jim Simpson and Big Bear Music, with a simple but powerful belief: great music belongs to everyone.
What started as a bold idea quickly grew into one of Birmingham's most cherished annual events.
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Over the decades, the festival has presented more than 6,500 performances to a total of 2.8 million people, spanning jazz, blues, swing, big band, bebop, rhythm & blues and so much more. From intimate club sets to open-air stages, the festival has always found a way to bring music to every corner of the city.
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Now in its 42nd edition, the festival remains as vibrant, open and adventurous as ever. Free at heart, rooted in the community, and always alive with the music that started it all back in 1985.
Through the years, the festival has welcomed some of the most iconic names in jazz and blues history, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, BB King, the Count Basie Orchestra, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and The Blues Brothers Band, all sharing the same stages as emerging local talent and community artists. That mix of world-class performance and grassroots spirit has always been at the heart of what makes this festival unique.
But the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival has never just been about the music. It has been about the city itself, transforming parks, libraries, bars, galleries and street corners into stages, and turning everyday spaces into moments people remember for a lifetime. It is a festival that belongs to Birmingham, and Birmingham belongs to it.
