New Orleans-born trumpeter Chief Adjuah has come from the jazz caldron his entire life. He first appeared at Monterey 20 years ago as a Berklee student and then again in 2012 at MJF55, and since then has forged a new path in jazz with what he calls “Stretch Music,” a style he’s developed that draws from many sources, both past and future. “It is as much a philosophy as a musical approach—diplomacy in music if you will,” he says. Come hear the future of jazz from a true 21st century innovator.
Joshua Redman has a long and storied history with Monterey—he was an Next Generation Jazz Orchestra member in the 1980s and was the first education alumni to serve as Artist-in-Residence in 1996. He’s many so memorable appearances, both as a leader and as a sideman at Monterey over the years and at MJF67, he’ll be bringing his first project with a vocalist to our stages, Gabrielle Cavassa, the winner of the 2021 International Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal competition. DownBeat wrote that Cavassa’s work with Redman “evokes another, historic saxophone-vocal pairing, that of Lester Young and Billie Holiday.” This will be a must-see performance.
A decade ago, Chicago-born trumpeter Marquis Hill won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition, one of jazz’s current most important recognitions. Two years later in 2016, DownBeat’s Critics Poll named him the top “Rising Star – Trumpet.” Since then, he’s released a clutch of critically acclaimed recordings that have incorporated his hard- and post-bop roots to soul, R&B and hip-hop. His new record, Composers Collective drops in August 2024 and he’ll be presenting his diverse stylistic mix for the first time at MJF67. “It all comes from the same tree,” he says. “They simply blossomed from different branches.”
Named by the 2024 DownBeat’s Critics Poll as “Rising Star Artist of the Year,” saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has been pushing boundaries for over a decade in the public eye. Echoing the bold sound and adventuresome spirit of John Coltrane, Lewis’ 2021 breakthrough record The Jesup Wagon was named “Album of the Year” by jazz magazines around the world. Jazzwise praised Lewis’ “ability to make music that can be both accessible and abstract” and his “commanding, granite hard tone and … bullish attack and fiery energy.” He and the Red Lily Quartet will make a stunning debut at MJF67.
