The festival was established in 1990[1] by Charles 'City' Gatt[2] and has featured world-renowned jazz musicians such as Wayne Shorter, John Patitucci, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Natalie Cole, Betty Carter, Michel Petrucciani, Richard Bona and Mike Stern.

[6] The 2012 festival took place on July 19, 20 and 21 and included performances by Al Di Meola, Terri Lyne Carrington, Chano Dominguez, Tigran Hamasyan, Dianne Reeves, Jeremy Pelt and Will Vinson.

Among the acts on stage were Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke, Eric Harland, David Binney, Chucho Valdes, Kurt Elling, Soweto Kinch, Joe Cohn and Richard Bona.

[13] The 2017 festival was staged between July 20 and 22, featuring acts including Mark Guiliana, Al di Meola, Antonio Sanchez, Nicholas Payton and Munir Hossn.

The festival also featured local acts such as the William Smith Trio, Dominic Galea and Malta Concert Orchestra's Big Band together with Joe Cutajar.

[18] The 2021 festival took place in a reduced 'City Jazz Series' format between July 12 and 17 with appearances from Danny Grissett, Chiara Pancadli and Darryl Hall, Yonathan Avishai, Felipe Cabrera 'Mirror' and Dmitry Baevsky 4tet.