Kuumbwa Jazz turns to a new generation of leaders for its next 50 years

Back in the days of roller disco and “Jaws,” back when the Kuumbwa Jazz Society was just getting started, nobody remembers co-founder Tim Jackson — presumably in mustard-colored bell bottoms and sporting a Burt Reynolds mustache — saying, “OK, I’ll give it 50 years, but that’s it.” But here we are, in 2025, and after a mere half-century as the nonprofit Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s leader and most prominent figure, Jackson is already making way for new leadership. 

As one of Santa Cruz’s most beloved cultural institutions celebrates its 50th anniversary, a generational change is poised to take Kuumbwa into its next 50 years. At 71, Jackson is careful to keep the r-word at bay. “This is not a retirement,” he said. “I’m just moving into an advisor’s role.”

For decades, the Kuumbwa has operated under a two-headed leadership structure with Jackson, as artistic director, booking the artists, and Bobbi Todaro, who retired shortly after the pandemic, managing the club and its programs as its executive director. Beginning this month, those heads are different — and much younger.

Coming in as the new leaders at Kuumbwa are 29-year-old Chanel Enriquez, newly named as executive director, and, as the new creative director, 36-year-old Bennett Jackson, Tim Jackson’s son.

Despite their youth, Kuumbwa’s new leaders have already spent a significant amount of time at Kuumbwa. Enriquez started at Kuumbwa as a volunteer and transitioned into a staff role six years ago. And Bennett Jackson has been running the club’s marketing and promotions for several years (and essentially grew up at Kuumbwa). Their recently announced appointments are, said Tim Jackson, a formality at the end of a long process.

“We are very proud of the fact that we really started this succession plan years ago, when Bobbi was still with us. The two of us, and the board [of directors] all recognize the leadership potential of Bennett and Chanel as they moved up through the ranks.”

As the new executive director, Enriquez will be focused on the club’s operations and its nonprofit development staff, and on being Kuumbwa’s primary liaison with its members and the ticket-buying public. She was originally hired as Kuumbwa’s development and systems coordinator in the spring of 2019, and the pandemic that followed less than a year later proved to be a baptism by fire in the art of keeping a business open in a crisis. “That’s when I started working really closely with Bobbi on a lot of the COVID relief grant opportunities and the funding to keep our staff employed,” Enriquez said.

Originally from San Diego, Enriquez first discovered Kuumbwa as a student at UC Santa Cruz, where she studied business management and economics. Through a classmate, she took a chance on a band she had never heard of, the New York group Banda Magda, fronted by the charismatic Greek singer Magda Giannikou, which blends Latin American rhythms with European pop. She was just as enchanted with the club and its intimate environment as with the band. Her first impulse was to sign up as a volunteer, where she learned how the venue operated as a nonprofit. Of Tim Jackson’s influence, she said, “He’s taught me so much about having a vision and a mission, and always keeping that as your North Star. We know who we are.”

As creative director, Bennett Jackson takes over the task of representing Kuumbwa to the world’s musical artists, agents, promoters, the media and other jazz organizations, as well as programming Kuumbwa’s schedule of shows. Though he grew up in Santa Cruz, he will take on his new position just as he has worked for Kuumbwa for the past several years, remotely from his home in Vermont. 

“I feel I know Kuumbwa as well as I know anything in my life,” he said. “It’s been a constant since Day 1. Some of my earliest memories are as a young child crawling around under the sound board. I was just there all the time. I grew up in that venue. It’s like when sometimes you might have a formative food memory and you take a bite of something and it instantly transports you to a particular moment in time. That happens to me all the time when I listen to jazz.”

“He’s a very independent person,” said Tim Jackson of his son. “He always has been. He graduated from Harbor High School and immediately left for New York where he went to NYU and has basically lived on the East Coast — other than a couple of years in Texas — ever since.”

For 50 years, a critical part of Tim Jackson’s job has been to keep a close eye on the jazz world’s generational evolution toward new forms and new influences. Bennett, he said, brings a fresh set of ears to that task: “His musical tastes are more broad than mine. As a music generalist, he knows a lot more about music than I do.”

So, from the standpoint of the public or an audience member, what might change in the Kuumbwa experience with the new younger leadership? Tim Jackson said he would expect and hope that the new leaders put their own individual imprint on the club. “I don’t think anybody, least of all me or Bennett, would feel like he’s got to come in and do things exactly how I did them,” Tim Jackson said. “I don’t think our patrons want that either.”

“There has been an expansion of sorts in recent years with Kuumbwa’s programming,” said Bennett Jackson, “and that’s all thanks to Tim. Tim is a very open-minded and enthusiastic and generous fan of music. He might encounter a new band or an artist, and it may not be straight-ahead jazz, but he has a knack for knowing if something has an opportunity to resonate with the Kuumbwa audience.”

As a programmer, Bennett Jackson is inheriting those relationships with artists that his father has cultivated over many years, but he’s also positioned to expand Kuumbwa’s offerings into new directions. And though the senior Jackson might be welcoming change, the new generation is recognizing the importance of continuity. 

“There is an amazing foundation we have at Kuumbwa,” said Bennett Jackson. “And we’re going to keep that foundation.”

“I want our patrons to continue to feel that magic and that buzz of being at a Kuumbwa show,” said Enriquez. “What we have is working.”

In his new advisory role, Tim Jackson is now turning to the task of celebrating Kuumbwa’s 50th year with a series of events happening throughout the year, including an outdoor show May 18 in San Lorenzo Park, the site of Kuumbwa’s first-ever show. 

Jackson founded what was then known as the Kuumbwa Jazz Society with friends and fellow jazz lovers Rich Wills and Sheba Burney. Wills has since passed away, and Burney lives in Washington state in poor health.

“This is a time to look back on some of the most important people who were so critical to the development of Kuumbwa,” Tim Jackson said. “Y’know, I wasn’t the one who had the original idea for Kuumbwa Jazz. That was Rich Wills. And it was Rich and Sheba and myself, along with a small crew of others who got it going. But I think I can safely say that Kuumbwa wouldn’t be here without those two folks as well. I don’t have them to celebrate with me, but I want to make sure their names aren’t forgotten.”

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