Alexandra Jackson is part of Jazz Fest legacy

When her father was inventing the Atlanta Jazz Festival (back then it was called the “Atlanta Free Jazz Festival”), Alexandra Jackson was waiting to be born.

“I don’t even know if I was a twinkle at that point,” said Jackson with a laugh. The first jazz fest took place in 1978. Jackson arrived seven years later, the youngest daughter of Atlanta’s first African-American mayor.

As an audience member, she enjoyed many Memorial Day weekends of bebop, swing and funk in Piedmont Park, but years passed before she discovered the role her father, the late Maynard Jackson, played in creating the city-sponsored event.

“My father was very humble about a lot of the things he did for the city,” said Jackson, speaking from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t know until a couple of years ago that he was the one that started the festival. He would take us as kids. We would enjoy it, but he would never mention that this was a lot of his doing. He just wanted to appreciate it.”

This Memorial Day weekend, Alexandra Jackson steps onto the main stage at Piedmont Park for the first time, performing Saturday at 5 p.m. She is gratified to be a part of her father’s legacy, singing for a hometown crowd at one of the country’s largest free jazz festivals.

“What I do remember is how happy everyone was at those festivals, so carefree,” she said. “It was a nice, serene time. The fact that I’m able to come back and be on the stage now is … incredible.”

Jackson was propelled into piano lessons at age 4 by her music-loving parents. She imbibed a love of music from the records and CDs played around the house by her father and mother, NPR radio personality Valerie Jackson, from Take Six to Prince to the Blind Boys of Alabama.

But jazz seemed to hold a special place in the family playlist, particularly the vocalist Johnny Hartman. “I would hear [Hartman] in the background singing, and they would get really happy and doe-eyed with each other,” she said of her parents. “I remember as a kid thinking ‘There’s something about this man and his voice that makes my parents happy.’”

Maynard Jackson died in 2003, and didn’t get to see his daughter’s career as a vocalist take off. She studied in the jazz program at the University of Miami, performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and sang a secondary role as a Nubian slave in a Florida Grand Opera production of “Aida.” (The light-skinned Miss Jackson had to wear body paint for the role.)

She moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to seek a bigger stage for her work, but she’s happy to be visiting home and family. The weather prediction: 80 degrees and clear. Says Jackson, “my hair and I” are praying for sunny weather.

This year’s Jazz Fest offers a roster of musicians with a distinct international flavor, including Indian-American Rudresh

Mahanthappa, Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon and Israeli musician Uri Gurvich.

But there is also a stong slate of Atlanta-based artists. They include:

Jacob Deaton

Guitarist Jacob Deaton grew up in Vidalia and enjoyed many an evening playing Pearl Jam and Pink Floyd tunes out on his parents’ deck. When he joined the Air Force, his practice time disappeared. After mustering out of the service, he brought his guitar to Atlanta and studied at the Atlanta Institute of Music.

Since then Deaton, 31, has stayed busy with a regular Wednesday gig at famed Midtown club Churchill Grounds and a productive recording schedule, including last year’s six-song collection “Tribulation.” He has performed on a secondary stage at the Jazz Fest before, but this year is a headliner, on Sunday at 5 p.m. “This time, I’m on the main stage, which is super sweet and I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

Russell Gunn

Raised in Chicago and East St. Louis, trumpet and flugelhorn player and composer Russell Gunn moves fluidly between the worlds of hip hop, funk and jazz, and his recordings pay tribute to such disparate musical predecessors as Miles Davis and Black Sabbath.

Now an Atlanta resident, Gunn, 41, has worked with an equally diverse crew, from Cee Lo and Maxwell, to Branford and Wynton Marsalis. This weekend, he and his quartet perform at a late-night Sunday concert at the Loews Atlanta Hotel with vocalist Dionne Farris.

Julie Dexter

London transplant Julie Dexter moved to Atlanta in 1999 and has tenaciously held onto her Tottenham accent, though she will admit that “it goes in and out. I’m surrounded by ATLiens and Georgia Peaches,” and those Southerners call her out if she tries to put on a drawl.

Dexter, 41, has performed at previous Jazz Fests, but this is her first time on the main stage, performing Monday at 5 p.m. She misses fish and chips, her mother’s Jamaican cooking and the excellent public transportation of her hometown, but she doesn’t miss the weather.

Of the Jazz Fest, she says, “I love the fact that it’s free and you can bring the whole family, spread out a picnic and spend the whole day. It’s the ultimate family experience in summer.”