Steve Hochman on June 10th, 2016

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It’s Hollywood, so we expect TV stars to be at the Playboy Jazz Festival. But this weekend, for the 38th annual edition of the event at the Hollywood Bowl, they won’t just be in the deluxe Garden Boxes, or serving as master of ceremonies (George Lopez took over the job from the-less-said-the-better Bill Cosby in 2013). There are two popular television personalities among the performers on Saturday’s lineup: Seth McFarlane, the “Family Guy” creator/voice who has built an alternative career as a credible crooner, and Jon Batiste, the effusive keyboardist who leads his band Stay Human as the house ensemble on “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” and holds his own in quippy banter with the host.

Batiste actually got his first taste of national attention as a YouTube star while a student at Juilliard in New York. Already a rising-star piano prodigy in his native New Orleans, part of a noted musical family there, he and the initial version of Stay Human began finishing club concerts by taking the music to the streets (Batiste leading the way on a melodica, a blown-into totable keyboard) and sometimes even into the subway, playing all the way. Clips went viral, boosted by Batiste appearing regularly (as himself) on the HBO New Orleans drama “Treme.” And an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” with the band parading through and with the audience, took it mainstream, leading to the invitation to be part of Colbert’s move to CBS to fill David Letterman’s chair. And through it all, not to be lost, is some superb music, genre-busting with funk and soul and pop, but always rooted in Batiste’s solid jazz grounding and chops, and sparked by his joyful spirit. He calls it “Social Music,” the title of his most recent album. And that’s just what it is.

So … two TV figures help anchor a very diverse, very strong roster for 2016. Well, there are other patterns and threads to be found as well, and jazz is all about patterns and threads (yes, even the freest of free-form jazz, haters). So whether you’re in an up-front box or the back benches, here are a few things to note:

The Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans is where it all started, Congo Square, Storyville, Buddy Bolden, Satchmo Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Kid Ory. The Playboy Fest honors that not just with Batiste on Saturday, but a Sunday lineup sporting sets by veteran saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and young firebrand trumpeter Christian Scott — who, as it happens, are uncle and nephew.

Harrison, in addition to being a top sax man, is both a dedicated music educator/mentor and Big Chief of the Congo Nation Mardi Gras Indians, a role previously held by his late father, Donald Sr. Both of those aspects are incorporated into this performance, billed as Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. and the Congo Nation-New Orleans Cultural Group. Expect some elaborate colorful Indian outfits and some colorfully creative takes on the Mardi Gras repertoire and beyond.

Scott — who has been using the full name Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah — calls his style “Stretch Music,”  which does just that, stretching across genres and concepts in bold and brash strokes. His fusion (yeah, a dirty word for many) integrates heavily rhythmic electric jazz and rock with instrumental explorations that can be edgy or lyrical, or at times both.

Lafayette, La., just a few hours away, is also represented in the person of Sonny Landreth, whose mind-blowing slide guitar playing will be featured as a guest with the Robert Cray Band in the day’s tribute to B.B. King, who died last year. Also guesting in that celebration will be veteran King associate Roy Gaines.

The Family That Plays Together: Harrison and Scott are not the only kin on the bill Sunday.  As many of you may know, the E in Shiela E stands for Escovedo. Like a couple of other Escovedos, she’s an outstanding percussionist. One of those others is Pete, a veteran of the early Santana band and one of the leading Latin jazz percussionists for more than 50 years. He also happens to be her dad. He’s leading the Pete Escovedo Orchestra on Sunday, a Latin jazz ensemble that in this incarnation will feature not just his famous daughter, but her brothers Juan and Peter Michael, each with extensive and impressive credits as percussionists and vocalists themselves.

Tropic Thunder: Long before our relations with Cuba started to open, even long before the Buena Vista All-Stars et al made Cuban music hip here, Los Van Van stood as one of the most popular ensembles from, and on, the Caribbean island with a mix of funk, pop and traditional sounds, though politics long prevented it from touring here. While founder Juan Formell passed away two years ago and some other original members moved on to lead their own groups, Los Van Van remains a consistently exciting act.

Across the Caribbean in Belize, singer and musician Aurelio also got involved in politics, actively. A decade ago he more or less suspended his burgeoning music career for a successful run for congress, becoming the first member of that body representing his people, the Garifuna — descendants of Africans brought over in the slave trade. Aurelio’s return to music in the wake of the death of his mentor, Andy Palacios, has spearheaded a global embrace of the very rhythmic Garifuna sounds and an awareness of the oppression his people suffer in Belize and other nations in the region of Central and the northern part of South America. And while politics figures into the music, so does sexual politics, with the rump-shaking punta style. This is a Playboy Jazz Festival must-see.

I’m With Her: Each day of the Fest features one of the fastest-rising stars of contemporary music. Sunday it’s Janelle Monae, already a dynamic force in R&B and pop music, mentored by Prince (her recent set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Concert, just days after Prince died, was largely a powerful tribute) but exhibiting her own vision and considerable energy. You’ve seen her Pepsi commercial. If you haven’t seen her live, do it. Now.

Saturday’s rising star is lesser-known in the pop world at large, but Cecile McLorin Salvant has grabbed the jazz world’s attention. The young Floridian, she of the close-cropped hair and bright-rimmed glasses as bright as her sparkling smile, and more so of a remarkably engaging voice — floating naturally and easily from an earthy mid-range to giddy highs — and bracing mix of originals, standards and show tunes. If nothing else, you have to hear her versions of “Stepsisters’ Lament” (from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”) and the Hal David-Burt Bacharach 1963 chestnut “Wives and Lovers,” both for their artistic distinction and subtle (or not-so subtle) re-contexted cultural incisiveness.