The Central Avenue Jazz Festival is a yearly free jazz festival. It takes place on the last weekend of July in the South Central section of Los Angeles, which is historically a predominantly African-Marican area of the city. The Jazz Festival is a unique cultural event that pays tribute to the significant contributions that African Americans made on Central Avenue.

Central Avenue was the birthplace of west coast jazz and was nationally recognized as a jazz hot spot from the 1920s to the 1950s. The Jazz Festival is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of jazz and African American Heritage. This weekend long event is both free and open to the public. The festival will feature live music, craft and food booths, company-sponsored booths, and information government/non- profit booths. It promises to be an exciting weekend full of fun and community pride where everyone can be part of.

Since its lanching back in 1996, the festival has been feautiring prominent jazz, blues, and latin jazz musicians that started in area like Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wilson, Arthur Blythe and Ernie Andrews. One of the distinguishing element of the festival is to spotlight young Los Angeles musicians, such as Kamasi Washington, and Kalil Wilson, as well as talent from the neighborhood's high school bands and choirs.