Celebrating past and current artists who’ve made the Northside a beacon for jazz, R&B, soul and all facets of the Minneapolis Sound

On Sunday, July 26, the sounds of live jazz performances spilled onto the Mississippi
Riverfront in North Minneapolis for the first time in 26 years. The Northside Jazz & Heritage Festival brought food trucks, vendors and a variety of performers to West Broadway Avenue and West River Parkway for a full day of celebration.

Kenya McKnight Ahad, a festival co-founder and the founder and CEO of the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance, has previously organized other festivals, like West Broadway Open Streets.

But organizing the Northside Jazz & Heritage Festival felt different.

“I get to root [this festival] in Black culture and Black history,” McKnight Ahad said.

“This is a celebration of Black culture, heritage and our history, and a contribution we’ve made to the globe, right from the North Side. It’s not just about Broadway. It’s about the entire North Side and Minnesota.”

It’s the first large-scale jazz event hosted on the Northside’s riverfront since the Riverview Supper Club closed in 2000, when the spread of industrial factories along the riverfront had long limited access for residents.

“I also used to hang out in my 20s at the Riverview Supper Club that was here, and that’s
something that a lot of us over here are familiar with,” Minneapolis Ward 4 City Council
member LaTrisha Vetaw said. “So to bring us back to community in this way and have us celebrate on the river is quite spectacular.”

For Kristel Porter, a festival co-founder and executive director of the West Broadway
Business and Area Coalition, the festival was about more than just bringing artists back to the Northside.

“We wanted to make sure that the people that have been holding down Minneapolis for so
long, playing in front of crowds for hours, making $20 or $30 and not really earning what they deserve, we wanted to give them a space to stand in front of their community, showcase their talent and get paid what they are worth, because their art is the heartbeat of our city,” Porter said.

Tunes from legends who helped put North Minneapolis on the map, like drummer Kevin
Washington and saxophonist Walter Chancellor, filled the block. Upcoming artists, like vocalist Aniyah Warren and songwriter Maya Marchelle, also found a place on stage.

Shemeka Bogan, a festival co-founder and founder of the Strong Roots Foundation, sees
having multiple generations of artists on stage as one of the festival’s strengths.

“There’s this new wave of people that are coming up in music, so our show is very diverse,”
Bogan said. “There are people that are in their 60s and 70s, and then there are people in their 30s and 20s, and it’s just really awesome to see how that divide is closing in.”

The festival’s sound wasn’t limited to jazz, either. The stage featured R&B, gospel and soul
singers, as well as spoken word and stepping performances.

Washington, who was raised by two musicians, believes that representing an array of genres within Black American music has an impact beyond music itself.

“There’s an elephant in the room where some of these subdivision cultures didn’t mix,”
Washington said. “It’s known, but I’m glad I didn’t grow up that way. I’m taking it from my dad’s philosophy. Black music is Black music, and we got to stop having divisions.”

During a break from performances, Vetaw and Pearll Warren, who represents Ward 5 on the Minneapolis City Council, recognized musicians and singers who cultivated the Northside’s music scene, as well as upcoming performers building on that legacy.

“We can celebrate legacy organizations, and instrumental artists, and institutions here in the community and know that their work continues because it’s that foundation of the legacy work that builds the inspiration for us to keep pushing forward,” Warren said.

Warren also acknowledged organizations, like the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, that
have long supported the Northside’s music scene and its Black community more broadly.

Established in 1924 as the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, the organization grew into a
gathering space for North Minneapolis’ Black community, opening its doors to Black musicians like Marian Anderson and Duke Ellington when hotels refused them service.

It also hosted local musicians, including jazz musician John L. Nelson, Prince’s father, who met Prince’s mother, Mattie Shaw, at the Blue Note jazz club in the same North Side music scene. After the original building was demolished during the construction of Interstate 94 in 1970, the center’s current building went up on 10th Avenue North, where Grand Central, Prince’s first band, competed in neighborhood Battle of the Bands showcases.

For Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who came out to enjoy the music and talk with
constituents, the Northside’s musical legacy makes the festival resonate.

“I think the Northside is the heart of the Black community in Minneapolis, of the
Minneapolis Sound,” Flanagan said.

“To have this festival happening right here, as folks can come out, listen to music, visit with each other and have an opportunity to just be and experience music and joy, it’s powerful.”

McKnight Ahad, similarly, sees the Northside’s legacy as one that stretches far beyond the
borders of Minnesota.

“It’s our vibration, foundational Black American,” McKnight Ahad said. “We have some of
the strongest vibrations on the planet, and this is part of how it shows up, and it influences the world. Everybody’s here. We have all types of cultures here celebrating with us right now, and they enjoy it as well. It’s the culture of humanity.”

For more information, visit www.northsidejazzfestival.com/.

Callisto Martinez is a recent Macalester graduate and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. They welcome reader responses at martinezcallisto@gmail.com.