Undergirding the sense of opportunity in the Southland is the steady expansion of the educational infrastructure, with the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and its crosstown rival, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has been an oasis for musical visionaries like Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, and Bennie Maupin and, in 2016, recruited the inventive New York saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman. And Cal State Northridge and Cal State Long Beach have long supported strong jazz programs. It’s become more common for students to graduate from these programs and settle in Los Angeles, like Berkeley-raised tenor saxophonist/composer Hitomi Oba did. Indeed, being a Bay Area jazz fan means getting accustomed to bidding adieu to beloved players, who for generations have headed East looking to make a name for themselves in New York. But losing treasured artists to L.A. stings in a different way, with a mix of pride and disappointment when they get career support that’s not available in the Bay.
https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/where-have-all-jazz-musicians-gone-los-angeles
San Francisco Classical Voice