SAN DIEGO — This year’s summer concert season at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park officially starts Friday night with a performance by the Rafael Payare-led San Diego Symphony and guest violinist Stefan Jackiw.

But the $85 million outdoor venue, which is owned and operated by the symphony, has already hosted nearly 20 performances so far this year. The lineup for those shows has included four Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees — Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, James Taylor and Foreigner — along with hometown favorite Gregory Page, the two-day San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival and such rising younger stars as Yungblud, Ethel Cai and Cannons.

This year’s lineup of concerts began in March. It will stretch into December with holiday performances by the symphony that will be announced in the coming months.

The Shell is typically dark in January and February, as are other outdoor live-music concert venues here. But the 5-year-old Shell’s status as a nearly year-round concert and live events site has grown hand-in-hand with its swift ascent as a San Diego landmark that is prominently featured in tourism marketing campaigns for the city and the region.

The venue’s appeal is easy to pinpoint, starting with its panoramic setting in Embarcadero Marina Park South. The Shell is nestled between San Diego Bay, the downtown skyline and nearby Coronado. On clear nights, Baja is clearly visible from the stage.

Or, as James Taylor told the sold-out crowd prior to playing his classic “Mexico” at The Shell last year: “This may be the closest I’ve ever played this song to Mexico.”

Its striking appearance suggests a more intimate seaside iteration of the landlocked Hollywood Bowl. The Shell’s location, carefully thought-out design and superior audio system have earned praise from performers and concert business professionals alike.

“It’s a fantastic venue. Venues like that are the reason we play music,” said Police band co-founder and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stewart Copeland. He performed at The Shell as part of its inaugural season in 2021.

Copeland’s sentiments are shared by San Diego-based AEG/Goldenvoice Senior Vice President of Talent John Wojas. He has rented The Shell for AEG-produced concerts each year since it opened, including for sold-out shows by Dylan, Simon, Taylor, Olivia Rodrigo and a joint performance last year by the San Diego Symphony and the Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

“The Shell is a venue I’ve waited my entire career for in San Diego.” said Wojas, who used to book concerts at what is now North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista. He has overseen the Humphreys Concerts by the Bay series for the past 20 years, along with shows at nearly every major venue in the county.

“It’s a beautiful venue, right next to the ocean, and one that was much needed here,” Wojas continued.

“We didn’t have a venue of this size before, where you can do seated concerts for an audience of 7,000 or general admission shows for 8,500 people. I credit the San Diego Symphony and its CEO, Martha Gilmer, for raising the money to build The Shell. Martha really had a vision and she made it come true.”

All but $50,000 of The Shell’s $85 million construction costs were paid for by private donors. At least two artists — Rodrigo and Buddy Guy — filmed their performances at the venue for feature documentary use.

Guy, who turns 90 on July 26, is returning to The Shell with his band in September. The members of the Los Angeles indie-pop trio Muna, who are all in their early 30s, are the youngest headliners who will perform at the venue this year.

Here, in chronological order, are some of the most promising upcoming concerts at The Shell. Tickets are available by phone at 619-235-0804, online at theshell.org, and at the venue’s box office at 222 Marina Park Way.

Kool & The Gang, with the Sugarhill Gang

I’m usually reluctant to recommend concerts by veteran bands whose lineups now include just one original member. But since it is unclear how much longer bassist Robert “Kool” Bell, 75, and rapper Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien, 64, will be touring with — respectively — the 10-man Kool & The Gang and the four-man Sugarhill Gang, I’m making an exception. Formed in 1964 as The Jazziacs, Kool & The Gang was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024, thanks in part to such enduring classics as “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Ladies Night” and “Celebration.” The Sugarhill Gang’s repertoire boasts such early 1980s gems as “Apache (Jump On It)” and “8th Wonder.” But this New York-bred group remains best known for its foundational 1979 hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” the first hip-hop song to make the Top 40 in the U.S. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28. $68-$173.

Wynonna Judd, Melissa Etheridge

Many established artists are reluctant to perform songs from their upcoming albums before they are released. Not so, five-time Grammy Award-winner and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Wynonna Judd. Her June 12 concert in Wyoming found her previewing no fewer than five songs from her new album, which won’t be released until Oct. 2. Entitled “The Hard Truth,” it’s her first new album in a decade and features collaborations with Iron & Wine, Drive-By Truckers’ leader Patterson Hood and the War and Treaty. But Judd won’t be the only artist at this concert who isn’t resting on their laurels. Melissa Etheridge’s absorbing new album, “Rise,” came out in March and she’s been playing five or six songs from it nightly. She and Judd both still have something to prove. Expect to hear both of them do exactly that. 7 p.m. July 11. $78-$672.

Ella Mai, with Ama and Girlfriend

Named after jazz vocal icon Ella Fitzgerald, London-born singer Ella Mai specializes in a silky, often understated brand of 1990s-tinged R&B that is vulnerable but still packs an emotional punch. Her intoxicating 2018 love song, “Boo’d Up,” made her the first artist from the U.K. to top the American R&B charts since Lisa Stansfield’s “All Woman” in 1992. “Boo’d Up” was matched by the lovestruck slow jam “Trip,” an equally inviting song from Mai’s self-titled debut album. The Grammy-winner is now on tour to promote her third album, the 14-song “Do You Still Love Me?” Rather than engage in shallow vocal acrobatics and glitzy stage shows, she digs into the emotional essence of her lyrics. 7 p.m. July 29. $66.40-$111.80.

St. Vincent with the San Diego Symphony, with Arooj Aftab

Annie Clark, who performs using the stage name St. Vincent, has been a playfully subversive force in left-of-center rock throughout her 19-year-solo career. A potent guitarist, singer and songwriter, she performed her first-ever orchestral concert last year in England. The outing proved so successful that it yielded her “Live in London” album and this year’s North American tour. The 13-city trek teams Clark, her four-man band and conductor Jules Buckley with the hometown orchestra in each of the American and Canadian cities the tour is visiting. Buckley’s arrangements provide welcome new aural dimension and textures in Clark’s music, most notably with the suite-like reinvention of her brooding 2017 song, “Smoking Section.” 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1. $51-$173.

Sarah McLachlan, with Allison Russell

Equally well-known as a solo artist with 10 albums to her credit and as the founder and driving force behind the groundbreaking Lilith Fair all-women music festival, Sarah McLachlan is having a moment. Or, more precisely, several moments. Released last fall, “Better Broken” is this Canadian troubadour’s most accomplished album to date — and her most daring. It came out almost concurrently with “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery,” the lovingly made film documentary about the festival she launched in 1997, led until 1999 and revived for a year in 2010. Fellow songstress Allison Russell, the very talented opening act on the ongoing “Better Broken” tour, has cited Lilith Fair as a key inspiration on her and has recorded her versions of McLachlan’s songs “Angel” and “Mary.” 7 p.m. Aug. 2. $39.50-$181.15.

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Led by the husband-and-wife team of singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi and bottleneck guitar master Derek Trucks, the Tedeschi Trucks Band is a welcome anomaly with its lineup of three guitarists, two drummers, two singing percussionists, a keyboardist, a bassist and a three-piece brass section. The group’s music draws from rock, blues, jazz, funk, vintage soul and more to create a compelling sonic gumbo. And its deft balance between free-wheeling improvisations and stop-on-a-dime dynamic precision, fire and finesse, never fails to impress. 6 p.m. Aug. 16. $78.20-$122.10.

Manteca! A Dizzy Gillespie Chano Pozo Celebration with Gilbert Castellanos and the KSDS Jazz Orchestra

It might be a slight exaggeration to say that pioneering bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and Havana-born percussion great Chano Pozo popularized Afro-Cuban jazz together in 1947, but not by much. Their exhilarating fusion of bebop virtuosity and intensely syncopated Cuban rhythms had a broad impact that built on the important, but lesser known, work of band leader Mario Bauzá. Gillespie and Pozo created an enduring body of work before Pozo’s sudden death in 1948. Such propulsive songs as “Manteca,” “Cubano Be, Cubano Bop” and “Tin Tin Deo” continue to be performed around the world and — in the expert hands of top San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and the KSDS Jazz Orchestra — sound as vibrant today as they did nearly 80 years ago. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5. $37-$103.

Buddy Guy 90, with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

The only time I have ever been disappointed at a concert by blues powerhouse Buddy Guy was at his 2023 “Damn Right Farewell Tour” show here at The Shell. Guy sang with typical verve and gusto. But his usually searing guitar work was off-target and the pacing of his set was uncharacteristically bumpy, which may have been the reason he cursed up a storm. But, hey, everyone has an off night. And given how Guy has been such a reliable source of expertly calibrated musical fireworks in every other instance I have seen him over the past five decades, it would be churlish to not give this still-vital legend the benefit of the doubt. The fact that his fiery opening act, young blues fireball Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, has been closely mentored by Guy should add extra, passing-of-the-torch resonance to the concert. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11. $51-$173.

Bonnie Raitt, with Jon Cleary & His Monster Gentlemen

A national musical treasure, Bonnie Raitt has inspired several generations of musicians from Adele, Susan Tedeschi and San Diego’s Andra Day to Samantha Fish, Chris Stapleton and many more. A superb singer, guitarist, songwriter and band leader, Raitt makes every note count as she imbues her music with a winning combination of grit and grace. Whether she’s performing blues, rock, funk, country or Zimbabwean tuku music, Raitt makes any style inimitably her own. And with a current concert repertoire of more than 100 songs to draw from, she is happily mixing fan favorites with deep album cuts. 7 p.m. Oct. 17. $71-$210.

Tom Jones

At 86 — a year older than Dylan — Tom Jones appears to be the most senior artist booked to perform at The Shell this year. The Welsh-born singer has undergone hip-replacement surgery twice in the past nine years. He now performs seated, rather than standing (although that hasn’t deterred some fans from throwing their panties onto the stage while he sings). But Jones’ soulful baritone has largely endured and he clearly lives to perform, as he has done almost nonstop since the 1960s. His concert repertoire typically includes Dylan’s “It’s Not Dark Yet,” Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song,” Bobby Cole’s “I’m Growing Old” and other selections that benefit from Jones’ unmistakable gravitas. 8 p.m. Oct. 27. $55.70-$218.

Also of note at The Shell

Aug. 18: Mt. Joy

Aug. 23: Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra

Sept. 22: Brandi Carlile, with CMAT

Oct. 16: Muna

The Rady Shell

Where: 220 Marina Park Way, downtown

Online: https://www.theshell.org/performances/rady-shell-calendar/

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