Co-founded by Jimmy Lyons and Ralph J. Gleason in 1958, the nonprofit Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world, and presented nearly every major jazz artist over the last 60-plus years—from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, and Miles Davis, to contemporary masters Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, Norah Jones, Esperanza Spalding, and Terence Blanchard.
As a nonprofit, Monterey Jazz Festival is devoted to education by presenting year-round local, regional, national, and international programs. Thousands of students have been the benefactors of the Festival’s educational efforts through the Jazz in the Schools Program, Summer Jazz Camp, Next Generation Jazz Festival, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo and Monterey County All-Star Ensembles, which embark on annual performance trips each summer.
