SAN DIEGO — Acclaimed pianist, composer, educator and bandleader Danilo Pérez is not the only performer at the 2026 San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival who is a multi-Grammy Award-winner.

That’s a distinction he shares with drum drynamo Brian Blade, with whom he performed in the saxophone giant Wayne Shorter’s quartet for 23 years. And Pérez is not the only festival performer who hails from Panama, a distinction he shares with at least one member of the San Diego-based group Charlie Chávez y su Afrotruko.

But Pérez, who is Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has one singular distinction that sets him apart in virtually any setting.

He is the artistic director of the annual Panama Jazz Festival. which he co-founded in 2003 with his wife, Patricia Zárate. His other credits include serving as a Cultural Ambassador to the Republic of Panama and as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Artist for Peace. He has performed in San Diego multiple times, both as the leader of his own band and in the quartet led by the late Shorter.

All this makes Pérez uniquely qualified to reflect on the growth and potential of the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, which celebrates its third anniversary this week and was co-founded by San Diego’s Daniel Atkinson and Tijuana’s Julián Plascencia.

“Doing a festival in San Diego and Tijuana really showcases the power of music as a vehicle for diplomacy,” Pérez said, speaking from Boston.

“It’s a beautiful idea. Yes, you have two different countries. But you have this rich thread that connects them, and it’s music. I’m really excited to be a part of it, and I can envision one day doing a collaboration between the Panama Jazz Festival and the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival.”

Labors of love

Despite being held nearly 3,000 miles and one time zone apart — and despite the festival in Panama having a 20-year head start over its San Diego/Tijuana counterpart — the two events share some key parallels.

Both are labors of love. Both have a mission to showcase a diverse roster of artists whose music easily transcends borders. Both feature free outdoor concerts and ticketed indoor performances. And both offer educational and performance opportunities for budding young jazz musicians.

“Concerts are important for a festival. We know that and Dan (Atkinson) knows that,” Pérez said. “But what happens in the classroom, backstage and in conversation with students, that’s what changes people’s lives. So, the first suggestion I would give is to look beyond the concerts.

“Because a festival is not just about the concerts, it’s about the quality of humans and building community. A festival should bring something to the community and it should help the community discover its own voice. The idea of access and bringing in young people is at the center of what we do in Panama, and I think that is also the case with Dan in San Diego and Tijuana.”

In the case of the festival in Panama, the quest for access has meant free master classes conducted by musicians from the Pérez-led Berklee College of Music Global Jazz Institute, the New England Conservatory, the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and other leading institutions.

In the case of the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festiva during its first two years, there have been free performances and collaborations by students from the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory (which is based at Point Loma’s Liberty Station) and Ensenada’s La Covacha Big Band (which is based in that city’s Instituto Contemporáneo de Música de Baja California).

This year, the educational emphasis is expanding — and Pérez is playing a key role.

“We formed a new partnership with the San Diego State University Jazz Studies program and Ensenada’s La Covacha Big Band,” Atkinson said, “to bring a major jazz artist and educator, Danilo, to the binational region for a four-day residency with workshops and rehearsals on both sides of the border. La Covacha’s leader, Iván Trujillo, has called this ‘truly a historic initiative for the jazz scene in Baja California’.”

Pérez will help the SDSU and La Covacha bands learn and hone some of his audacious compositions from “Lumen,” the Grammy-nominated 2024 album he made with Sweden’s Bohuslän Big Band. He also plans to include some selections from his acclaimed 1996 album, “Panamonk,” which features him ingeniously reimaging Thelonious Monk’s wonderfully knotty music through a prism of Panamanian and Afro-Latin rhythmic approaches.

“The music from the ‘Lumen’ album has become an open door for me to collaborate with other jazz ensembles, and I’m really looking forward to experiencing the youthful energy and sense of curiosity,” said Pérez, who was just 23 when he joined trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie’s all-star United Nations Orchestra in 1989.

“This is all about creating new conversations with new people and getting to meet and expand,” Pérez elaborated. “I don’t want the (student) musicians to think they are accompanying me. I’m looking for their personalities and ideas. We will have a conversation through music and I believe we might discover something. I’m excited just talking about it!”

Dizzy trajectory

Pérez’s own career should prove instructive to musicians and audiences alike.

A native of Panama City and the son of a noted band leader, he started playing piano at 3 and enrolled at Panama’s National Conservatory at 10. After earning a degree in electronics, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to attend Indiana University.

Pérez soon transferred to Berklee in Boston, after winning a Quincy Jones scholarship. While still a student there, he played piano in the bands of such esteemed jazz artists as saxophonist Lee Konitz and trumpeter Clark Terry. He subsequently began working with pioneering jazz singer Jon Hendricks and saxophonists Joe Lovano and Paquito D’Rivera.

This in turn led to his joining Gillespie’s international big band, in which was befriended and mentored by sax and flute legend James Moody. Pérez joined Gillespie’s ensemble in 1989. That was the same year Moody moved to San Diego, where he lived until his death from cancer in 2010.

“I not only had the incredible pleasure of playing with him and Dizzy in the U.N. band,” Pérez said, “but also of playing in Moody’s quintet and getting to know his wife, Linda. They had such a beautiful relationship and I had a chance to experience them and the love they have for each other.

“Moody taught me a lot of things besides music. He was very curious about what I was doing and very encouraging. Every time I think of Moody, I’m filled with gratitude.”

Like few other musicians of his generation, Pérez has created a multifarious approach that deftly blends musical styles and elements from across several continents with consistent skill, grace, eloquence and spirit. His impact has been far-reaching.

A key inspiration

“Danilo is one of my biggest musical inspirations. I grew up listening to his music because my mom is a great admirer of his,” said award-winning Mexican jazz singer Lucia, who will perform twice at this week’s San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival.

“I haven’t worked with Danilo yet, but I hope to do so in the future. I am really excited to be at the same festival as him and hope we can meet there for the first time.”

The Panama Jazz Festival’s 2025 edition drew more than 40,000 attendees, which is more than five times the number who attended the event in its early years. The festival has become a major tourist attraction and a source of pride for residents.

Atkinson hopes to achieve similar success with the San Diego Tijuana Jazz Festival, which was launched in 2024 with nearly $400,000 in seed money from Qualcomm co-founder Irwin M. Jacobs.

The festival is now seeking new benefactors. It has received support from the Mexican federal Secretaria de Cultura, the Burnham Center for Community Advancement and its OneSD initiative, Balboa Park’s Museum of Us (which has provided free administrative office space), and MiresBall creative agency (which has played a key role in the festival’s branding and web design).

“In terms of attendance at the festival, we started in 2024 with 4,000 people and grew in 2025 to 4,500 people,” Atkinson said. “This year, we are growing from three days to four and are expecting close to 6,000 people. And 75% or more of our audience attends with no fee for admission.”

Pérez applauds this steady growth.

“Dan knows you don’t build something meaningful in two or three years,” he said.

“You create a lot of opportunities for people to keep coming back. And you don’t think of jazz as just a style of music. Jazz, as my dad used to say, is a celebration of our life. I would add that jazz is the ultimate experience that can keep humanity dreaming.”

2026 San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival

When: Thursday, Oct.1, through Sunday, Oct. 4 (times vary daily)

Where: Thursday at Quartyard, 1301 Market Street, East Village, San Diego; next Friday onAvenida Revolución at Calle 4, Tijuana; next Saturday at California Center for theArts, Escondido, 340 North Escondido Blvd.; Sunday on Avenida Revolución at Calle 5,Tijuana.

Tickets: Admission on Thursday, Friday and Sunday is free, as are Saturday’s outdoor performances. Online pre-registration for Thursday’s concert is suggested. Ticket prices for all-day passes to Saturday’s indoor performances range from $54 to $90. Attendees can purchase an additional $125 Friends of the Festival option that includes a hosted dinner that night by Chef Juan González of Mesa Agricola, which earlier this month was named to the New York Times’ 2026 list of its “50 favorite restaurants in the United States.”

Phone: 760-839-4138

Online: sdtjjazz.org

Performance schedule

5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, in East Village

Jungle Fire; Colectivo Fronterizo, featuring rapper Fémina Fatal; the Binational Youth Ensemble, featuring students from Ensenada trumpeter Iván Trujillo’s Instituto Contemporáneo de Música de Baja California and from San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos’ Young Lions Jazz Conservatory.

5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in Tijuana

Colectivo Fronterizo, featuring rapper Fémina Fatal; Señales Selañes; Charlie Chávez y su Afrotruko.

2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in Escondido

Charlie Chávez y su Afrotruko (outdoors); Danilo Pérez with the SDSU Jazz Ensembles; Lucía and The Familia Gutiérrez (outdoors); Mingus Dynasty; Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band.

2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, in Tijuana

Binational Youth Ensemble, featuring students from Ensenada trumpeter Iván Trujillo’s Instituto Contemporáneo de Música de Baja California and from San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos’ Young Lions Jazz Conservatory; Lucía and The Familia Gutiérrez; Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band; Mingus Dynasty; Danilo Pérez and La Covacha Big Band from Ensenada.

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