The Monterey
Jazz Festival is a nonprofit organization,
dedicated to perpetuating jazz.
We are proud
to provide year-round Jazz Education Programs,
showcased in our annual Next Generation Festival. We
are pleased to present the world's best jazz
entertainment in the Monterey Jazz Festival,
the longest running jazz festival in the
world.
Held every September on the
Monterey Fairgrounds site where the Festival was
first presented in 1958
the Monterey Jazz Festival began
as a dream for founder Jimmy Lyons and his co-founder
and colleague, Ralph Gleason. It was a dream
of a "sylvan setting with the best jazz people
in the whole world playing on the same stage,
having a whole weekend of jazz." That dream became
reality in 1958 with the first Monterey Jazz
Festival bringing in artists like Dizzy Gillespie,
Louis Armstrong, John Lewis, Shelly Manne, Gerry
Mulligan, Art Farmer, Ernestine Anderson, Harry
James, Max Roach and Billie Holiday. Every year
since then, every third full weekend in September
sees the same caliber of talent grace the now
nine stages on the Monterey Fairgrounds, as the
Monterey Jazz Festival presents the best jazz
performers in the world for a three-day celebration
of the best in jazz. In addition, the Monterey
Jazz Festival features jazz conversations, panel
discussions, workshops, exhibitions, clinics,
and an international array of food, shopping
and festivities spread throughout the 20-acre
Monterey Fairgrounds.
The 51st Annual
Monterey Jazz Festival Presented by Verizon,
will take place September 19-21, 2008 at the
Monterey Fairgrounds in Monterey, California.
 The Monterey Jazz Festival is dedicated to perpetuating the uniquely American form of music known as jazz by producing performances that celebrate the legacy and expand the boundaries of jazz; and by presenting year-round local, regional, national, and international jazz education programs. The Monterey Jazz Festival is a nonprofit organization and has donated its proceeds to musical education since its inception in 1958.
Images from MJF's
new book, "The Art of Jazz: Monterey Jazz
Festival / 50 Years"
Click Here for more
information. |
