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1990

The Playboy Jazz Festival Program wins the gold, taking home first place at The Ozzie Awards: The Playboy Jazz Festival program won its first Ozzie Award (Gold) for design excellence, Best Single Design/Consumer category, from Magazine Design and Production. Festival tickets sold out eight weeks before the opening note was played. KKJZ-AM and KACE-FM were selected as the "official" radio stations. Playboy Jazz Cruise was brought back by popular demand to the roster of free community events. The festival presented back-to-back appearances by the Chick Corea Akoustic and Chick Corea Elektric Band, only the second time in the event's history there had been such a booking. Joe Williams made his seventh appearance with special guest Jay McShann. McShann, a swing era legend, made his festival debut at age 74. In an all-star assemblage, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Herbie Hancock joined forces for a special one-time-only summer road tour, including this debut date.

The International Association of Jazz Appreciation and the Playboy Jazz Festival co-presented for the first time the traditional annual in-school free concerts/clinics/workshop series, "Jazz Goes to School." A free concert, "Playboy Jazz Festival Salutes the Seniors," was presented on Mother's Day and featured three all-female lead groups. Poncho Sanchez presented the first performance by a Latin jazz group at a free concert on the steps of Los Angeles' City Hall. "Jazz at City Hall" has been a downtown noontime tradition for 12 consecutive years. More than 782 musical groups from throughout the U.S. and Canada, along with bands from as far away as Brazil and Japan, submitted entries to the Sixth Annual Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search in the hope of winning the opening act slot on the June 17 talent lineup. The crowd-pleasing debut performance of Poncho Sanchez joined by special guest star, Latin jazz great Tito Puente, closed the Saturday show with the biggest salsa party ever. Blues legend Etta James had the sold-out crowd dancing in the aisles throughout her entire performance.

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