World-renowned jazz bassist Khari Cabral Simmons and his band Jiva opened the 2025 Atlanta Jazz Festival on Saturday afternoon. The annual celebration of the time-honored one-of-a-kind musical mix of percussion, horns, bass, piano, and strings takes place in Piedmont Park over the three-day Memorial Day weekend.
Long-time WCLK radio personality Morris Baxter, the afternoon MC, welcomed the crowd to this year’s jazz festival and introduced Simmons and Jiva.
“Happy Jazz Festival, Atlanta,” said Simmions from his corner of the stage.
Cabral and Jiva’s hour-long set was both light and funky. It was a mix of live musical performance and backyard jam session. In a word, it was awesome.
The central greenspace at Piedmont Park quickly filled up for the 1 p.m. performance as Cabral and Jiva played some of their more popular tunes, including “78 and Sunset,” “How Can We Go Wrong,” and “Samara Smiles”. Unlike during annual musical events such as One Music Fest, which are far more crowded and require tickets to enter, the vibe during the first couple of hours of this year’s Atlanta Jazz Festival was incredibly chill. Couples in tents and families with wagons full of snacks and cold drinks made space for themselves and sat waiting for more from Cabral and Jiva.
“Atlanta, it’s been our extreme honor to be in front of you today,” Cabral said.
Cabral took time to introduce the entire 10-piece band to the audience. Dashil Smith played trumpet and vocals, Rodney Edge played keyboard, and Landon Anderson handled the drums.
During the performance, Simmons took a few minutes to take a bass solo break. Smith also improvised when he and vocalist Lavahi broke into a rendition of A Tribe Called Quest’s 1993 hit off of their classic album, “Midnight Marauders”, “Electric Relaxation.”