Shirley Cooks has stepped down as the head of the Cultural Affairs and Harriet Sanford takes on the leadership and responsibility of carrying on the legacy in 1986. The Atlanta Jazz Festival and Concert Series would once again present over a series of weekends throughout the summer opening at Chastain Park on May 31st, Grant Park and Zoo Atlanta Natural Amphitheatre on June 7th-8th and July 5th-6th and closing out the summer at Piedmont Park on August 2nd-3rd and August 29th through September 1st.

The lineup once again included a Who’s Who list of performers: Etta James, Bob James & The Jazz All-Stars, The Yellow Jackets, Paquito d’Rivera, T Laviz & His Bad Habitz, Ricky Keller, Yonrico Scott, Paul Winter Consort, Tom Grant Band, John Blake Quartet, Claude Bolling, Otis Rush, John Mayall, Ramsey Lewis Quintet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Hiroshima, Kilimanjaro, Dr. John, Rockin’ Dopsie and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

The Stroh Brewery Company, 94Q Jazz Flavours, National Endowment for the Arts, Eastern Airlines, The Downtown Marriott Hotel, The American Federation of Musicians and The Phoenix Arts Society believed it a worthy cause for the city’s cultural life and came on as sponsors.