Monterey Jazz Festival

Founded in 1958, four years after the Newport Jazz Festival became the first large-scale outdoor jazz event, the Monterey Jazz Festival has been one of the largest yearly jazz festivals in the world.

Held each September on the Monterey Fairground in beautiful Monterey, California, the festival began when Jimmy Lyons, a jazz radio host in San Francisco, wanted to host a festival in the pristine hills near Monterey Bay. Thanks to dozens of small contributions from local businesses, the first Monterey Jazz Festival managed to program such notable acts as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, and many more.

The Monterey Jazz Festival typically features around 50 concerts on nine stages over the course of three days. In recent years, the festival has added panel discussions, workshops, and clinics throughout the 20-acre fairground. The festival audience usually consists of up to 40,000 people.

In addition to programming the festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival also seeks to promote jazz through educational programs, scholarships, and a record label that releases recordings of famous jazz festival performances.

Lineup for the 53rd Monterey Jazz Festival, held from September 17th-19th, 2010:

• Friday, September 17

  Septeto Nacional de Cuba; Les Nubians; Roy Hargrove Big Band; Nellie McKay; Marcus Roberts Trio; Brass, Bows & Beats; Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition; Mark Levine & the Latin Tinge “Music of Moacir Santos”; the House Jacks; Ben Flocks Quartet; Berklee Global Jazz Institute Septet

• Saturday, September 18

  Delbert McClinton Band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens; Freedom Band with Chick Corea, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride, Roy Haynes; Dianne Reeves, Billy Childs Quartet (with Steve Wilson, Scott Colley and Brian Blade) and the Kronos Quartet, “Music for Two Quartets” (2010 MJF Commission); Jake Shimabukuro; Chris Potter Underground; Septeto Nacional de Cuba; Gretchen Parlato; Kronos Quartet; Billy Childs Quartet; Somi; Gerald Clayton Trio; Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens; John Firmin & the Nocturne Band “A Tribute to Hank Crawford, David “Fathead” Newman & Leroy “Hog” Cooper”; Hristo Vitchev Quartet; Berklee Global Jazz Institute Septet; Mo’Fone; Downbeat Blindfold Test with Fred Hersch; Conversation with George Wein

• Sunday, September 19

  Angelique Kidjo featuring Christian McBride, Lionel Loueke, Kendrick Scott, Mino Cinelu; Next Generation Jazz Orchestra with special guest Dianne Reeves; Top High School Big Band from the Next Generation Festival; Harry Connick, Jr.; Ahmad Jamal; Dianne Reeves “Strings Attached” with Russell Malone & Romero Lubambo; Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band; Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio; Javon Jackson Band with Les McCann “Swiss Movement Revisited”; Fred Hersch Trio; Sachal Vasandani; George Wein & the Newport All-Stars; Kim Nalley; Le Boeuf Brothers; Banana Slug String Band; Conversation with Roy Haynes; Conversation with Sam Stephenson from The Jazz Loft Project; Nice Guy Trio; the Country’s best high school & college bands