San Diego-Tijuana Borderland Jazz Hero
California-US & Mexico
Julián Plascencia’s life story exemplifies the level of integration that exists between communities along the United States-Mexico border. He was born in Tijuana but spent part of his childhood in San Diego. He later attended California Polytechnic University, Pomona, in Hospitality, and also studied bass and electric guitar at the Los Angeles College of Music (as well as at CNSEA in Havana, Cuba).
A member of Baja California’s celebrated Plascencia restaurant family, Julián is the general manager of Tijuana’s historic Caesar’s restaurant, the original home of the Caesar salad, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Also in Tijuana, he is the owner of Praga Café, a central European-style coffee house that he has dedicated to Franz Kafka, his favorite author. The walls of the café are covered with artworks depicting Kafka and his writings, as well as his native Prague. Praga also has a 60+-seat live music venue that hosts weekly performances of jazz and Latin music, mostly by Baja-based musicians.
In addition to being a restaurateur and club owner, Julián is a musician and cultural activist. He’s played guitar in the jazz-oriented Samsa Quintet (named after the protagonist in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”), the jazz-rock fusion band Pequeño Asteroide and the heavy rock trio The Fire Mystical, as well as creating a solo project under the name James Golan.
As the director of the non-profit Promotora de Cultura de Baja California, he collaborates on the revitalization of spaces in the city of Tijuana through projects such as the Tijuana Art Walk and La Blástula Art Gallery. He is the creator of the Baja Jazz Festival and in 2011, of the annual Tijuana Jazz & Blues Festival, which has hosted lineups of regional artists as well as headliners like percussionist Poncho Sanchez (2006 Los Angeles Jazz Hero) and trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos (2016 San Diego Jazz Hero).
In 2024, Julián became an integral partner in the establishment of the first annual San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival taking place on both sides of the border. One special element of last year’s festival was the commissioning of two tributes to Jelly Roll Morton’s period of living and composing in Tijuana in the early 1920s. One was an extended solo piano piece by Gerald Clayton, the other an interpretation of Morton’s “Tia Juana (Tee Wana)” by Baja’s renowned Nortec Collective that featured trumpeter Ivan Trujillo (2024 Borderland JJA Jazz Hero).
Julián Plascencia’s commitment to advancing the cultural life of his city – as an artist, a club owner and restaurateur, a festival director, and a cultural promoter – and to opening avenues of artistic cooperation that cross the international border — make him a most appropriate 2025 Jazz Hero for our region.
— Daniel Atkinson
2018 Jazz Hero
Executive Producer, San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival
