About

Preserving the legacy and promoting the future of jazz in Indianapolis, Indiana

The Indianapolis Jazz Foundation

The Indianapolis Jazz Foundation is a 501 c(3) founded in 1996 to preserve the legacy and promote the future of jazz in Indianapolis.

The Premier event, Indy Jazz Fest, is an annual jazz festival presented by the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation and our partners. This community-wide festival celebrates Indianapolis’ rich jazz legacy.

Native jazz icons such as Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Wes Montgomery, J. J. Johnson, Slide Hampton, and Freddie Hubbard helped shape Indianapolis’ musical landscape. Their efforts were enriched by music venues and clubs on Indiana Avenue and throughout the city, cultivating a “scene” that significantly influenced this uniquely American music genre.

At the festival and other events throughout the year, audiences experience Indianapolis’ inspiring jazz heritage through modern-day world-class music, workshops, panel discussions and social experiences. We appeal to a community excited about the future of quality music and the benefits to the cultural landscape of Indianapolis.

Mission

The mission of the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation is to preserve our rich legacy and promote the future of jazz music in Indianapolis through education and performance.

Values

Contribute to the Indianapolis Arts Economy
Promote our Local Musicians
Provide Music Education to our Youth
Offer Free Outreach Community Programs
Preserve Indianapolis’ Legacy to Jazz Music
Celebrate America’s Indigenous Art Form

Equity Statement

Because jazz is rooted in the African American community, it allows the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation (IJF) the honor of celebrating an art form that is a foremost American contribution to world culture; it invites opportunities for employment of people of color; it demands the responsibility to curate a genre of music that reflects expression of the socially unjust experience of Black men and women in America; and it requires sharing the richness of the Black culture. Indianapolis' jazz roots can be traced from the late 19th century to the mid-twentieth century when the city's Indiana Avenue rivaled Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and New York as one of the hottest jazz scenes in the country. Over the last several decades urban development has caused detrimental changes to traditionally black neighborhoods, scattering their populations, closing their businesses, closeting their significant history, and undermining their cultural and social institutions. Additionally, artists of color, both past and present have been notoriously undervalued. Indianapolis Jazz Foundation works to reverse these detrimental effects by advancing artists of color and female artists, educating the community about the legacy of both yesterday’s and today’s artists, and perpetuating the art form through performance and commissioned works.