Watts, CA — Jazz at Drew returns Oct. 10 to the campus of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. University leaders hope the festival shows the thousands of expected visitors more than a concert: the South Los Angeles community that built the school and the health mission that still guides it 60 years later.

The daylong festival runs from noon to 9 p.m. and headlines CDU’s 60th anniversary and homecoming celebration. It will feature live music, food, and a marketplace of local businesses and artists. The university expects more than 2,000 people.

“We’re a community-founded institution,” said CDU President and CEO Dr. David M. Carlisle. The university was established in 1966 in response to the 1965 Watts uprising, after a state commission found a severe lack of health care in South Los Angeles. It is one of four historically Black medical schools in the country and the only one west of the Mississippi River.

Carlisle said the festival honors South Los Angeles’ musical heritage, rooted in the Central Avenue corridor that was a center of Black music and nightlife for much of the 20th century, and passes it to a new generation.

“This is the university just celebrating our community and celebrating our roots and perpetuating it as well,” he said.

Jazz at Drew began in 1991, according to CDU Chief Operating Officer Angela Minniefield. It was revived in 2016, but the COVID-19 pandemic and financial challenges kept it from being held every year. It was last held in 2024.

“We have community engagement in our mission,” Minniefield said. “When we’re celebrating, it’s important to make sure that the community is represented in our celebrations.”

This year’s theme is “Great Music for a Greater Mission.” The Original Lakeside headlines, joined by Avery*Sunshine, Jon B., Grammy-winning conguero Poncho Sanchez, singer-songwriter and keyboardist Jarrod Lawson, and funk and R&B group Biscuits & Gravy Live.

Minniefield said the mix of performers is intentional, aimed at longtime fans and younger audiences alike.

“We want folks to be able to come and enjoy music no matter the age,” she said, “but also just to recognize that they see somebody on stage that is familiar to them.”

Tickets start at $60 for general admission and $80 for lawn seating. VIP passes are $160, and reserved tables run $460 for four and $860 for eight. Parking costs extra. Minniefield said offering several price levels is meant to open the festival to residents of Watts and Willowbrook.

Carlisle said music belongs on a medical campus because health starts well before someone sees a doctor.

“We recognize that there’s more to health and wellness than simply going to a hospital, going to a doctor’s,” he said. “Health and wellness begins with the community.”

He called the festival a “bi-directional” kind of community engagement: residents come to campus, and the university gets to listen and celebrate with them.

CDU has grown quickly in recent years. Its independent four-year medical degree program admitted its first class of 60 students in 2023 and its fourth class this year, bringing enrollment to about [240 — confirm] students. The first class is scheduled to graduate in 2027.

In July, the university opened its 60,000-square-foot Health Professions Education Building, funded in part by $50 million from the state. It houses the College of Medicine and classrooms, labs and simulation space for students across the university.

CDU also launched a hybrid Master of Science in Genetic Counseling program, with a first class of [six — confirm] students. It aims to diversify the field and bring genetic care to communities that have had little access to it. Carlisle pointed to conditions such as sickle cell disease as one reason that matters in South Los Angeles.

Carlisle said the clearest sign of CDU’s impact comes from students who tell him they grew up nearby, in Willowbrook, Watts, Compton, Carson or Athens, and who want to go into health care to improve those same neighborhoods. [Optional: add a quote from one named student.]

For some festival goers, Jazz at Drew will be their first visit to CDU. Carlisle hopes they leave knowing the university trains physicians, nurses, physician assistants and other health professionals, and offers degrees from associate to doctoral.

“We’re here for the community,” he said. “We’re going to be here for the future.”

Minniefield put the invitation simply: “Celebrate 60 years of CDU at Jazz at Drew. Kick up your feet to great music for a greater mission and change the face of healthcare.”

Jazz at Drew is Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 9 p.m. (doors open at 11 a.m.) at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 E. 120th St., Los Angeles. Tickets and parking are available at cdrewu.edu/60th/jazz-at-drew.