Council District 10, which includes Leimert Park, the historic cultural epicenter for African American music where the LA Jazz Festival was slated to open in a star-studded event on August 7, donated $165,000 to the music organization’s 501c3 charity with seven separate checks from 2024 until June, records show.
City Councilmember Heather Hutt did not return an email to comment about the money that her district awarded to a charity that was run by Martin Ludlow, a former City Councilmember who served a two-year term that he left in 2005 to become the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. In that position, he was indicted on public corruption charges and pleaded guilty to diverting union funds into his 2023 City Council campaign.
The LA Jazz Festival is now being called “L.A.’s Fyre Fest” by artists who haven’t been paid, vendors who were expecting swarms of music lovers to pack city neighborhoods, and venues who are complaining of a talent deficit created by non-compete clauses in contracts for musicians who learned hours before the 17-day planned extravaganza was slated to begin that it has been abruptly cancelled…