Playboy Jazz Festival

ONE of the best things about Los Angeles -- hands down -- is the Hollywood Bowl, and it's become a sign of the coming of summer for a lot of us.

Today I wrote an advance on the 2012 Playboy Jazz Festival, including interviews with several of the musicians who'll play there.

There's a range of good and bad here, as there always are at big jazz festivals. One thing that continues to confuse me, though, is why we call these things jazz festivals at all, since less than half of what's on offer can be called jazz by even the most expansive definition.

The Soul Rebels, from New Orleans

I guess it comes down to, what does jazz mean in the 21st century?