LeRoy Downs, known as “The Jazzcat”, has been an icon in the jazz industry for over two decades. The Los Angeles jazz radio program & festival host, journalist, television producer, curator and concert series producer currently broadcasts on 89.9 FM KCRW Los Angeles on the show called “Just Jazz.”
Downs also curates the weekly Just Jazz Concert Series, partnering with a myriad of venues in LA, which has become host to many premier jazz musicians around the world. “My vision and goal is to bring an eclectic sonic experience of jazz to my listeners. A blend of music, style, culture, love and a voice for the unsung. A sense of openness and understanding to an art form that so often explores vast cerebral beauty and the colors of the continuum of sound. A mix of old and new dreams that bridge generations, colors, cultures, and politics while letting the natural vibrations of the harmonies and melodies inspire new visions of self-discovery!”
LeRoy has also been busy hosting many jazz festivals and performances including more that 15 years with the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, the Central Avenue Jazz Festival, the Angel City Jazz Festival, The Playboy Jazz Cruise, The Jazz Cruise, The Leimert Park Jazz Festival, The California Jazz Foundation Awards, The Dymally International Jazz and Arts Festival, Winter Jazz Fest in New York, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz performances as well as the Just Jazz Series.
LeRoy developed an entertaining jazz pilot television program called “Hangin’ with the Jazzcats” that eventually led to a partnership with Emmy award winning television producer Fred Smith, a forty year veteran at CBS Television. The culmination of experience comes together as decades jazz and television knowledge are now aligned and working towards some lofty goals in the music!
Under the umbrella of All Music Television, the amalgamation of work produced such programs and events such as “Weekend Music”, “Live from The Blue Whale”, “The Jazz Creative”, “Christmas Jazz with LeRoy Downs”, “Musicians Talk Race in America”, “Miles in May”, “Live from the Lobby”, “Backstage Pass”, “Sound Check”, “The Jazzcat Brunch” and more! You can enjoy all of these programs, interviews, articles and jazz radio broadcasts and more on “The Just Jazz App”.
There are some great plans, partnerships and collaborations for future endeavours and LeRoy Downs will certainly be there continuing to carry the torch, push the music forward, and once again, return the sound to it’s classic prominence.
