Monterey Jazz Festival

Monterey Jazz Festival

Third or fourth weekend in September

This festival is a three-day celebration of jazz held since 1958 outside Monterey, Calif., at the Monterey Fairgrounds, where seven stages accommodate dozens of acts and 40,000 fans. Jimmy Lyons, a West Coast disc jockey, is credited with starting the first festival, and since then it has attracted top jazz artists. Among the many who have appeared are Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Thelonius Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Odetta, and Pee Wee Russell. The festival has boasted a number of world premieres: Duke Ellington's Suite Thursday, Lalo Schifrin's Gillespiana, and Charles Mingus's Meditations on Monterey are a few of them.
The atmosphere is jazzy and cosmopolitan. Booths outside the arena sell food for every taste, from sweet-potato pies to tacos to beef teriyaki.

CONTACTS:
Monterey Jazz Festival
P.O. Box Jazz
Monterey, CA 93942
925-275-9255; fax: 831-373-0244
www.montereyjazzfestival.org

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 21
MusFestAmer-1990, p. 184

Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary, Fourth Edition. © 2010 by Omnigraphics, Inc.