Brothers Lazaroff expand St. Louis' Laz Jazz Fest, add stage in 2nd year (2024)

Daniel DurchholzSpecial to the Post-Dispatch

For the second edition of its Laz Jazz Fest this year, Brothers Lazaroff are attempting something even bigger and more ambitious than the festival’s 2023 debut.

Laz Jazz is moving east a couple of blocks, trading its original location inside the Grandel Theater and the Dark Room for the Big Top, where a host of bands will perform on two stages.

Most of the acts are St. Louis-based, but one is decidedly not, and it’s an attention-grabber: It’s the Sun Ra Arkestra, the jazz collective that continues to perform and record in the spirit of its late founder, the visionary composer, bandleader, Afro-futurist — and self-proclaimed native of planet Saturn — Sun Ra.

As it turns out, the brothers didn’t need an assist from Starlink to book the Arkestra.

“I just emailed their contact, and within an hour we were on the path to getting them to play the festival,” David Lazaroff says.

“They’re pretty simple to work with,” his brother Jeff Lazaroff agrees.

David adds, “I think they liked that it was in a circus tent.”

Bandleaders David and Jeff and a Brothers Lazaroff lineup a dozen or so strong will perform on the main stage under the Big Top, for which they served as curators. Blvck Spvde and the Cosmos, another large and eclectic collective, curated the satellite stage.

Besides the acts already mentioned, the festival lineup includes David y Los Diablos, Ferb and Lubar, Jawaad Spann and Vintage Society featuring Dee Jazz, Mesonjixx, KKudda Muzic, Helena Bishop and DJ Boogieman.

Making the festival larger and moving to the Big Top was a natural progression after last year’s success.

“Last year did sell out,” David says. “So we did like the idea of going up a little bit and staying within the Kranzberg ecosystem.”

Laz Jazz takes some of its inspiration from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which has jazz in the title, but is really a cornucopia of artists and musical styles.

The brothers are frequent Jazz Fest attendees. “We love the ability to see a lot of music in a short amount of time,” David says.

Food is an important element of Jazz Fest as well, and Laz Jazz has that covered, too. Sister Cities Cajun will supply food for the event.

Laz Jazz is a benefit for the St. Louis Art Place Initiative, which helps low-to-moderate income artists build equity through home ownership. API was founded in 2019 by the Incarnate Word Foundation, the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and the Regional Arts Commission. Its first development is in Gravois Park.

The Brothers are no strangers to hosting events which benefit charities. Their annual Hanukkah Hullabaloo (the 2023 edition was its 13th) also donates its proceeds to worthy causes.

As a concept, Laz Jazz actually started years ago. While Brothers Lazaroff’s music is often labeled Americana or jam-band fare, they started performing annual shows at Jazz at the Bistro (now the Ferring Jazz Bistro).

“We’d take our original material and kind of morph it into jazz forms, and we’d play with other musicians,” David says. They even recorded a live album there: 2017’s “Laz Jazz at the Bistro.”

“Laz Jazz Volume Two,” an EP recorded at last year’s festival, is being readied for release at this year’s.

There’s more new music in the works as well. A full album, the working title of which is “Tryin’ to Make It Home,” is in “the final process of polishing up,” David says. “We’ll be playing a few tunes from that; some stuff we haven’t played live yet, and that stuff’s really fun.”

One aspect of Laz Jazz the brothers, as well as other artists, especially liked about last year’s festival was that they actually got to see each other perform, something they normally can’t do because they’re playing their own gigs. That should be the case again this year.

“Everybody gets to watch each other’s set,” David says. “The bands are really excited to play for their peers. It helps us make friends and build community.”

Putting together events like Laz Jazz Fest isn’t easy, but it’s Brothers Lazaroff’s self-reliance that has made their career in music sustainable … and fun.

“We used to play shows at clubs like everybody else,” Jeff says. “And we ended up doing a few events like the Hanukkah Hullaballoo where we raise money for a cause. And I think something clicked (regarding) making our own scene, our own events. And we just found that it worked better — trying to bring people together and trying to make collaborations happen.”