2nd Annual Jazz Legends Gala Honors Gerald Wilson
With Award On May 2, 2008 At Tehama Golf Club

Gala Celebration Features Dinner, Live Auction & Entertainment
By Bay Area Jazz Vocalist, Kim Nalley

Proceeds Support The Monterey Jazz Festival Education Programs

March 27, 2008; Monterey, CA; The Monterey Jazz Festival is pleased to announce that it will honor the legendary trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader, Gerald Wilson, at its Second Annual Jazz Legends Gala on Friday, May 2, 2008 at the Tehama Golf Club in Carmel, California.

This black-tie soiree will feature the presentation of the distinguished Jazz Legends Award to Mr. Wilson and will also include a festive evening of cocktails, a sumptuous gourmet dinner, live auction and special jazz performances by the students in MJF’s jazz education programs and by Bay Area jazz vocalist, Kim Nalley.

“The Jazz Legends Gala is turning into one of vibrant new events of the Festival,” said MJF General Manager Tim Jackson. “Gerald Wilson is a remarkable artist that truly represents the spirit and flavor of the Monterey Jazz Festival. He’s been an integral part of the Festival’s history. We are also thrilled to have Kim Nalley, an incredibly talented vocalist, give one of her unforgettable performances. The two of these artists make for an extraordinary evening that honors both the history and the future of the Festival. It’s not to be missed.”

Cost is $250 per person, with net proceeds supporting the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Education Programs, considered to be some of the most highly regarded in the country.

MJF’s Education Programs have a strong impact on students and schools in Monterey County. Programs include the Traveling Clinician and Latin Jazz Programs, with professional musicians visiting Monterey County schools to teach students how to play and improvise in jazz and Latin styles; the Artist-In-Residence Program, which brings a leading jazz performer to work with students throughout the year; the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, the MJF Instrument and Sheet Music Library, the Digital Music Education Program and the Next Generation Festival, the Monterey County High School All-Star-Band, the MJF Middle School Honor Band and MJF Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Seating is limited at the Gala, early reservations are recommended. To make reservations or get more information about this event, visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org or call Michelle Skipwith at 415-279-1973, or by email at michelle@skipwithandassociates.com. Registration for the Jazz Legends Gala on the web can be found here.

ABOUT GERALD WILSON

In a career that spans eight decades, the eighty-nine year old Gerald Wilson has won the DownBeat International Critics Poll both as a composer/arranger and for his big band, the Paul Robeson Award, the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, and a pair of American Jazz Awards. He has also been elected to the Mississippi Jazz Hall of Fame, has had his life's work archived by the Library of Congress, and has earned six GRAMMY® nominations.

Even before Gerald Wilson first appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1963, his career has defined the word “legend.” Born in Shelby, Mississippi in 1918, he began playing piano at the age of five, later picking up the trumpet. He began his writing and arranging career in 1939, when he joined saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra.

Gerald Wilson made his first recordings a bandleader from 1944-47, played with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1948-50, and then joined the Dizzy Gillespie big band as a trumpet player and arranger. During the fifties, Gerald created classic arrangements and orchestrations for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Bobby Darin, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and countless others.

In the sixties and seventies, he continued to lead his own orchestra, creating ten albums for the Pacific Jazz Label. He wrote symphonic compositions that were performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta and was the conductor and music director for the ABC variety program “The Redd Foxx Show.” He continued to record with his Orchestra throughout the next thirty years, making it one of the longest-running leader-run big bands in the history of jazz.

It was in 1963 that MJF Founder Jimmy Lyons first brought Gerald Wilson and his Orchestra to Monterey, and he has since become a MJF favorite over the years, on the stage or off. He has performed at Monterey nine times, and has created landmark compositions to celebrate the Festival’s 20th Anniversary (1977), the 40th Anniversary (1997), and the 50th Anniversary (2007).

In addition to his performance career, Gerald Wilson has also reached out to the public through education. He hosted a daily jazz radio program on KBCA in Los Angeles in the early seventies in addition to teaching jazz history for thirteen years at Cal State Northridge and six years at Cal State Los Angeles. Since 1991, he has taught jazz history as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

ABOUT KIM NALLEY

Vocalist Kim Nalley may exude the aura of Billie Holiday, but she packs a three-and-a-half octave range, going from operatic heights to gritty blues on a dime. Reminiscent of former Count Basie icons Helen Humes and Joe Williams, Kim is a lauded Bay Area performer and actress. Kim had a starring role at San Francisco’s Teatro Zinzanni and is also the co-owner of the nightclub Jazz at Pearl’s. Brought to national attention by the late music critic Phil Elwood and San Francisco Symphony director Michael Tilson Thomas, she has performed at major jazz festivals in the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada. Her collaborations and performances include those with Rhoda Scott, David Fathead Newman, James Williams and Michael Tilson Thomas with the San Francisco Symphony. She appeared at MJF/42 in 1999 with the Johnny Nocturne Band and at MJF’s Third Annual Jazz With Steinbeck in 2007.

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For more information, high-resolution photographs and other MJF information, please contact:

Timothy Orr, Marketing Associate, Monterey Jazz Festival
9699 Blue Larkspur Lane, Suite 204, Monterey, CA 93940
timorr@montereyjazzfestival.org
www.montereyjazzfestival.org

MJF Office: 831-373-3366 x252
Direct Line: 510-652-1122