In February, Martin Ludlow, a former Los Angeles City Council member who pleaded guilty to federal public corruption charges in 2006, held a splashy press conference on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to announce his newest venture: LA Jazz Festival, which, he promised, would draw music fans to every corner of L.A. for free entertainment from top artists.

That sunny Wednesday afternoon marked a triumphant return to the limelight, and City Hall, for Ludlow.

Ludlow, who admitted to illegally funneling money from a labor union into his City Council campaign two decades earlier, which led him to cooperate against a union official in exchange for a reduced sentence, was now flanked by Mayor Karen Bass, civic leaders, and musical legends about to announce what he called “the largest Black-owned jazz festival in history.”

It was an ambitious undertaking. Ludlow and city officials were promising free park events in each of the city’s 15 council districts over a 17-day extravaganza.

The festival was slated to open on August 7 in Leimert Park, the undisputed epicenter of Black culture and West Coast jazz, and close with a blockbuster oceanside event on Dockweiler Beach headlined by John Legend and Janelle Monáe. Most of the tickets were free, except for the beach concert, and well over a hundred artists cleared their schedules so they could perform as part of L.A.’s legendary jazz scene.

One of those musicians was renowned saxophonist Leah Concialdi, who was contracted to perform at the beach event with her band Sacred Noise Unknown (SNX) and also had a dual role as a publicist for other artists who were scheduled to play.

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But, she now says, her publicist’s “Spidey sense” sounded an alarm that there was “something fishy” going on with the way the LA Jazz Fest was being run. For one thing, musicians were promised fifty percent of their fees up front from the LA Jazz Festival, which is registered as a nonprofit, but the money never came. But she put aside her concerns about those red flags to focus on the possibilities of how the festival would help her as a musician, and her clients, among them Isaiah Collier.

“Everyone wanted this to succeed,” she said.

And given the title sponsor behind the event, Airbnb, it should have. Instead, there are serious questions being raised about how much money was poured into the LA Jazz Festival, and how Ludlow spent that money.

On the February day of the big announcement at City Hall, the dais of big wigs was spread out over steps named for longtime City Council President Herb Wesson. Standing alongside Ludlow and Bass was Justin Wesson, his son, who is Airbnb’s Public Policy Manager for California, making him the company’s chief lobbyist.

“This is the formal kick off of the first ever jazz festival,” an excited Ludlow said that sunny afternoon. “We are ready to celebrate jazz as America’s classic music, drive significant regional economic activity, and champion social justice, while partnering with world-class companies like Airbnb, whose values align perfectly with our mission.”

Wesson added, “Airbnb is proud to be the inaugural title sponsor of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival, an event that celebrates jazz as America’s classical music while investing directly in the culture and communities that created it.”

But how much money Airbnb committed to the LA Jazz Festival is a question that remains unanswered. A request for comment sent to Wesson’s LinkedIn page was not returned. Neither was an email to Airbnb’s corporate media arm.

Wesson was familiar with the ins and outs at City Hall. He had been his father’s official Chief Strategist for nine years, according to his LinkedIn page. After that, Wesson went to work at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, where Ludlow had briefly served as the union’s president in 2005, a job he had to give up because of his federal conviction for using union workers and union funds to illegally subsidize his 2003 City Council election.

After he finished serving five years’ probation, Ludlow became the President and CEO of Bridge Street, Inc., an event production and entertainment development company behind the successful 2019 ceremony renaming ceremony that turned Rodeo Road to Obama Boulevard in honor of the former President.

Bridge Street became the parent company of the LA Jazz Festival, which was registered as a 501c3 nonprofit that said it was “committed to improving the health and welfare of underserved youth and families” by “bridging jazz, music, arts, and culture with those in need, nationwide.” Ludlow was listed as the charity’s President. The last known financial reports were filed in 2023. Ludlow did not return repeated emails for comment sent to Bridge Street.

There has also been silence from City Hall on the abrupt closures, and from the City Councilors who would have been responsible for permitting Ludlow’s event.

This year, Bass tucked the Vacation Rental Ordinance (VRO) provision into the city’s FY26-27 budget proposal that would temporarily suspend Los Angeles’s primary-residence requirement for short-term rentals, like the ones Airbnb has cornered the market on. The provision is now sitting in the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee.

Her press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Airbnb poured $750,000 into an independent political committee supporting Mayor Karen Bass’s reelection bid, and there are more than a dozen entries centered on Airbnb flowing money into local elections and labor unions in 2026 on the Los Angeles Ethics Committee’s website.

Airbnb’s media representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.

The entire debacle has led artists to dub Ludlow’s event “LA’s Fyre Fest,” a nod to the infamously fraudulent luxury music event created by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule that was meant to take place in the Bahamas in 2017. That failure was highlighted in a Netflix documentary about the “greatest music festival that never happened.”

Like LA’s Jazz Fest.

Ludlow has been ducking the media since Friday when he released a statement saying only: “Due to significant, unanticipated last-minute public safety and municipal costs associated with the final permitting of the On The Beach Festival, we have reached the decision to unfortunately postpone this year’s inaugural LA Jazz Festival.” 

The abrupt cancellation came without warning. Collier was on a flight from Europe to Los Angeles, his publicist Concialdi said, and landed to learn that his gig, like those of 175 other musicians, was canceled. He hadn’t been paid his promised up-front cash, and now was out of luck with his flight and hotel costs. Vendors in Leimert Park who bought perishables expecting opening festivities in the neighborhood Sunday are now furious at their own unforeseen out-of-pocket expenses.

But the jazz community, Concialdi said, came together. Jason Sugars, a revered figure in the jazz scene, and others helped Collier secure other gigs. And Sugars promised that the fan favorite Azz-Is Venice Rebel Jazz Fest will still take over Windward Plaza on Sept. 5.

The Rebel Jazz Fest will continue to bring music fans to Venice Credit: Courtesy of Jason Sugars

Sugars did not want to accuse anyone of malfeasance, saying: “You don’t get rich counting someone else’s money.” But he did point out that even Ludlow’s announcement about the LA Jazz Fest was shady, especially billing it as the first in Los Angeles. Sugar’s own event has drawn crowds to Venice for five years. The Central Avenue Jazz Fest, scheduled for late September, is in its 31st year.

As for Ludlow’s event? It now has a new nickname. The Re-Fyre fest.