Curtis Fuller, Louis Haynes and Brice Winston

TJS also sponsors the Tucson Jazz Orchestra in concerts and outreach activities and supports competitions for Jazz scholarship awards with cash prizes for talented students.

TJS began as a grass roots effort by local jazz devotees seeking a formal way for jazz musicians to come together. The idea was timely, word spread and its original venue soon became too small to accommodate both musicians and the public. The press took notice, the word got out and by 1978 a new 501(c) 3 organization was born: the Tucson Jazz Society. The mission then was to present and promote America’s original music--jazz. That mission remains intact today, 30 years later.

Mulgrew Miller

The list of artists who have been presented by TJS reads like a “Who’s Who” in the world of jazz: Tito Puente, Marian McPartland, Clark Terry, Buddy DeFranco, Toshiko Akyoshi, McCoy Tyner, Diane Schurr, Poncho Sanchez, Brian Bromberg all performed in Tucson, thanks to the Tucson Jazz Society.

  TJS is proud to have created an environment in which jazz now thrives and abounds with international recording artist and jazz saxophonist Brice Winston co-directing the TJS education program.  We are equally proud to be called home by international recording artist and renowned bassist Brian Bromberg (executive producer of the highly successful 2006-2007 TJS 30^th Anniversary Gala). TJS is delighted that other presenters have increased their jazz programming as our success has increased.

  JazzBeat, the society’s newsletter, has been published for more than 25 years. The Tucson Jazz Society has always opened its arms to all kinds of jazz, from the straight up to the avant-garde. It is our goal to serve as the resource for everything jazz in Arizona, and we take this task seriously.