The Jazz 88 Project

Are you hip to the longstanding connection between surfing and jazz? If not, here's as good a place to start as any:

or: EveryThing NoBody Ever Told You About AquAtic Bliss WithOut Slurring Here's a little piece I threw together after dragging the old Hi-8 Sony Handicam out of mothballs. I've never shot surfing with it before, and I'm pretty stoked on the results! Before the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean and Gidget and gnarly crowds and carloads of hodads there was jazz. And jugs of red wine on the beach, wooden surfboards, and funny swimsuits. Can any musical artist evoke these times better than...

Jazz makes you surf good.

I found this video at surfbunker.com with this intro: Jazz and surfing, I did not know they actually went together. I have just recently found out that if you stick some speakers on the beach, slap on some smooth elevator jazz and boom... you surf like Joel Tudor! Below is an example of what I mean, featuring....uummmm, well Joel Tudor.

John Zorn - Metapsychomagia

Whilst researching the topic of "surfing and jazz" the first link I found was to a Reddit thread that included a link to this song by John Zorn that I had never heard before, and I gotta say I love it!

The Mattson 2 - Pleasure Point

No discussion of surfing and jazz would be complete without a local San Diego duo named The Mattson 2, and this particular track features brothers Jonathan & Jared Mattson performing 'Pleasure Point' from their album 'Feeling Hands'.

Surf Music Collides With Swing Jazz (Topsy)

Bruce Lindquist playing his arrangement of the instrumental "Topsy" with a surf guitar twist.

Raybeats - Instant Twist

More surfy than the rest, but still has a kind of loose jazzy structure. The Raybeats eventually segued into Los Straitjackets by the way.

Surf | Music

I just finished an art piece that is a tribute to Jazz 88 (which you will here pretty much anytime you visit the studio), and I'm pretty happy with it. It's one of my multiple exposure photos in a shadow box I made, under several coats of epoxy:

surf music jazz88 20251009 0012

Our connections to the local jazz scene

My family have been longtime friends with Gilbert Castellanos who runs the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. Check them out any Wednesday at Panama 66 in Balboa Park and you may just run into some fellow surf/jazz fans like I did recently. Lots of other events and venues can be found at their fantastic website.