Festival Overview

The Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world.

Co-founded by Jimmy Lyons and Ralph J. Gleason in 1958, the Festival has presented nearly every major artist in the world -- from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis, to contemporary masters Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.

It is held annually on the 20-acre, oak-studded Monterey Fairgrounds, located at 2000 Fairground Road in Monterey, California. This has been the site of the Festival since its inception in 1958. The Arena (seen above) was also the site of the fabled 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which was inspired by their organizers visiting the Jazz Festival in 1966.

More than 500 top jazz artists perform throughout the weekend on 8 stages spread throughout the grounds.Nearly every major artist has performed at Monterey, with many memorable performances.

Outdoor venues include the Arena (Jimmy Lyons Stage), the Garden Stage, the West Lawn Stage, and the Courtyard Stage.  Indoor venues include the Night Club (Bill Berry Stage), Dizzy's Den, the Jazz Theater, and the Coffee House Gallery.

The Arena features 5 concerts throughout the Festival weekend, each concert is approximately 4 hours long. All Arena Seating is reserved seating. Arena Packages and Tickets also allow access to 7 additional Grounds stages and all Grounds activities at no extra cost.

Grounds Stages include simulcasts of Arena concerts in the Jazz Theater and access to 7 additional stages and activities. Grounds Stages are General seating.

Gates open at 6:00 pm on Friday night, 11:30 am on Saturday, and 11:00 am on Sunday.  Nonstop, live jazz entertainment continues until approximately midnight on Friday and Saturday;  11:30 pm on Sunday.

The Media has extensively covered the Festival since 1958. Stories have been seen in many prominent national and international newspapers like the the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and many more. National TV and radio outlets like NPR, CNN and affilliates from all major networks have profiled the festival. Major music magazines like DownBeat and JazzTimes have been in attendance on a regular basis.

As a nonprofit, the Festival is devoted to education by presenting year-round local, regional, national, and international programs. Schools in Monterey County and thousands of students have been the benefactors of MJF’s educational efforts through the Traveling Clinicians Program, Summer Jazz Camp and Monterey County All-Star Bands, which embark on an annual performance trips each summer. The Festival now spends over $750,000 annually on its programs, including Next Generation Jazz Festival, with the best student bands from across the nation each spring, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, selecting the country’s best musicians for a summer tour each year, and the Artist-In-Residence program, which brings an renowned artist to work with young musicians in performances and clinics at the Next Generation Jazz Festival, Summer Jazz Camp, and at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Under the leadership of Tim Jackson (General Manager 1992-2010), the Festival widened its musical scope with expanded grounds performances; published books for the 40th and 50th anniversaries in 1997 and 2007; began an extensive restoration and digitization of the Festival’s fifty-year audio archive collection housed at Stanford University; and established Monterey Jazz Festival Records (in partnership with Concord Records). MJF Records won a GRAMMY in 2009 for the release Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival by the MJF/50 All-Stars, which featured Terence Blanchard James Moody, Nnenna Freelon, and Benny Green. This group toured the United States in 2008, performing for 44,000 fans in 52 cities. Another All-Star group included Kenny Barron, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Russell Malone, and toured 33 cities in the United States, performing for over 26,000 fans.

In 2011, Chris Doss became the Managing Director of the Festival, and Tim Jackson became the Artistic Director.

As an internationally-recognized leader in artistic live presentation, the JazzTimes Readers Poll has named the Monterey Jazz Festival “World’s Best Festival” in 2006, 2007, and 2008.