Overview:
Johnny Quiroz, 47, has spent decades in music spaces, but he doesn’t see himself simply as a show promoter. For him, it’s about curating spaces that feel human, an approach that has brought people together through his nearly two-year-old Jazz Tuezdayz events.
Johnny Quiroz’s love for Jazz started only three years ago with a record.
Miles Davis’ album, Bitches Brew, early-1970s, spiritual, chaotic, unlike anything Quiroz had ever heard before.
“I like to believe I’m a spiritual being, having a human experience,” Quiroz, 47, said. “And that album really fit into my thinking. It hit me hard. I realized jazz isn’t just a sound, it’s like all genres, it’s a way of life.”
That album pulled him out of the punk shows and indie emo bands he had been part of since he was a teenager, opening the door to a world where music felt more expansive, improvisational, and deeply human, driven by story and spirit.
“I remember being in venues around town and the world, just being so enamored by the production, of how things worked, how the stage was, who the engineer was, and just going out of my way to make friends and ask questions,” Quiroz said.
That spirit is now the foundation of Jazz Tuezdayz, a free weekly event he founded in Fresno almost two years ago and now oversees as it grows into a full-scale venue collaboration.
Jazz Tuezdayz first took root downtown at a venue called the Fulton. After the building changed ownership a few times, the event found a temporary home at Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co’s beer garden. Jazz Tuezdayz even spent a period where every single week was at a different venue.
Eventually, Jazz Tuezdayz returned to its original location, now reimagined and renamed, The Layover, a travel-themed pub. But the music and community only continued to grow.
Nearly every Tuesday turned into a sold-out show, and for Quiroz, it was clear the community was hungry for more.
“One day, I was like, ‘You know what? I just feel like we could be doing more. Feel a little stuck.’” Quiroz recounted. “And during that moment, we were already doing more. We were doing Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, really whoever wanted to collab with us, we just went for it.”
One day, the venue’s owner, Miguel, asked Quiroz, “What do you think about taking over the bookings and turning The Layover into a jazz house?” Quiroz recalled.
“I jumped out of my soul,” Quiroz said. “I just feel like I’m meant to be in that room, bringing talent, bringing the community together.”
For Quiroz, it felt like coming full circle. Years earlier, when the building was Peeve’s Public House, he booked shows across genres. Even further back, when it was Mom and Pops, a pizza joint, his own band once opened for the Plain White T’s in that same room 25 years ago.
“So it went from playing in that room, to booking in that room, to dreaming in that room,” Quiroz said. “Here we are in 2026 with the opportunity to do more than just Tuesdays.”
Quiroz and his team now oversee bookings Thursday through Saturday as well, and has officially rebranded the Layover as a jazz lounge this month.
For nearly two years, Jazz Tuezdayz has inspired a level of devotion that Quiroz says he has never seen in his two decades of producing events across the U.S., from Seattle and Chicago to Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
Messages of gratitude have poured in week after week. Quiroz started collecting them, with plans to share the notes publicly around Jazz Tuezdayz’ two-year anniversary party on Feb. 28.
“People have really devoted their time and energy to us, to the musicians and to each other,” Quiroz said.
Quiroz said this devotion has only reinforced his belief that Jazz Tuezdayz fills a real void in the community, not just for audiences, but for musicians who are eager for more opportunities to perform.
After the pandemic, many local venues stopped booking jazz, Quiroz said. Musicians reached out asking for opportunities. Audiences showed up eager to listen.
But sustaining that momentum required evolution.
For much of its run, most Jazz Tuezdayz in Fresno were free. Now, with its collaboration at The Layover, the majority of shows will carry a cover charge. Children will still be admitted for free and the space will remain family-friendly, but ticketing allows the movement to grow, Quiroz said, by paying musicians more consistently, compensating staff, and easing the financial burden on the venue.
“A lot of times when people see ‘free’ they see ‘low quality’,” Quiroz said. “We combated that with good design, good marketing. Now the cover lets us take things up a notch—especially service.”
Their goal: 600 tickets sold per month across roughly 12 events, an intentionally transparent benchmark Quiroz plans to share publicly.
The ethos of Jazz Tuezdayz in Fresno carries into another project Quiroz created called A Rising Tide, a monthly downtown event series he launched last October with Downtown Fresno Partnership to bring more foot traffic for small businesses on Saturdays.
The event brings together live music, art, vendors, to “create a tidal wave in Downtown Fresno’s local economy” where a “rising tide lifts all boats.”
“It’s more than an event, it’s something that needs to keep going,” Quiroz said. “We’re not the answer. We’re just creating ripples.”
While small businesses see an uptick in customers, vendor fees from A Rising Tide events are quietly used to fund care packages for unhoused residents.
Across all his work, Quiroz has been reflecting on the past 20 years, which he estimates have been 80% of joy and 20% of pain. And yet, the throughline remains:
“I’m still here,” Quiroz said. “Those seeds I planted 20 years ago are still growing. It means a lot to me, because I have gone through a lot, still going through a lot, and will always go through a lot.”
That outlook, Quiroz said, was shaped early on by being treated as an outsider because he is multiracial, often feeling boxed out of both his Black and Mexican identities.
Rather than shrinking himself to fit those expectations, he learned to resist hierarchy and rigid labels. Titles matter for clarity, he said, but not for ego, a philosophy rooted in growing up navigating spaces that tried to define him.
Those experiences, he said, forced him to step outside the boxes the world tries to place people in. Today, that outlook runs through all of his work.
His message is simple, and he hopes it comes across in every space he creates and nourishes: “If you let me,” Quiroz said, “I’ll love you.”
