Monterey, Calif. August 30, 2016; Tickets for the 59th annual Monterey Jazz Festival are still available, and features over 110 performances from iconic and emerging jazz artists, educational events, conversations, and exhibits on eight stages, for 30 hours of live music spanning two days and three nights, from September 16-18, accompanied by an array of 75 vendors selling international cuisine and merchandise on the oak-studded 20 acres of the Monterey County Fair & Event Center.
Single Day Arena Tickets are $78 for Friday, September 16, and $154 for Saturday or Sunday, September 17 or 18. Single Day Arena Tickets include a reserved seat to each of the 15 concerts on the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the Arena, plus access to all activities on seven additional Grounds Stages.
Friday Arena highlights include The A&M Years, an exclusive all-star tribute to Quincy Jones and his trio of trendsetting 1969-1971 albums on September 16, with five-time GRAMMY®-winning bassist Christian McBride acting as musical director, and GRAMMY-winning John Clayton conducting the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra. “Those three albums are some of the best examples of being able to cross over, if you will, but still have the foothold remain in traditional jazz,” says McBride of Quincy’s groundbreaking recordings Walking in Space, Gula Matari, and Smackwater Jack. Mr. Jones will be an honored guest at the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the Arena, and will make opening remarks after being introduced by MJF board member Clint Eastwood. The performance will be the first time that Quincy Jones has been on the Arena Stage since 1972.
Showcase Artist Joshua Redman performs three times over the weekend, with Still Dreaming on Friday, September 16; with The Bad Plus on Saturday, September 17, and his own Quartet on Sunday, September 18. “You could argue,” Redman says, “that [Still Dreaming] is a concept band, a tribute band. But it’s really just taking that music as a jumping-off point.” With The Bad Plus, Redman continued, “I wanted to enter their musical world, learn their language and be a part of their real group spirit and collective approach to music making. I really feel it’s a singular entity.”
Sunday, September 18 Arena highlights include Wayne Shorter, the Festival’s Commission Artist, debuting “The Unfolding.” Based on a recent visit to Stanford University’s Linear Accelerator Center where he encountered new ideas about the Big Bang, “The Unfolding” features his quartet with the Monterey Jazz Festival Wind Ensemble conducted by Nicole Paiement. “These astrophysicists [at Stanford] said they’ve seen a glimpse of what was going on that far back,” says Shorter. “It was when there was a multiverse…The scientists say it’s not a point in time because there was no time. So what they’re seeing is not the beginning but more like an unfolding.”
Making her Monterey debut as a leader on Saturday, September 17 in the Arena will be 2016 Artist-In-Residence, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and her GRAMMY-winning Mosaic band, which features Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, Helen Sung, Elena Pinderhughes, Valerie Simpson, and Lizz Wright. She’ll also perform with the festival’s high school all-star band, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, on Sunday, September 18. “I’m always surprised that so many kids are excited about and love jazz,” said Carrington. “It makes me feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, [jazz is] not a dying art form. It’s very much alive.'”
Making his debut as a leader at Monterey on Sunday afternoon, September 18 is saxophonist Kamasi Washington. The multiple critics poll winner has broken out this year with his triple-disc recording The Epic, but Kamasi has played the Arena the stage before, with Gerald Wilson’s Orchestra in 2007, when they premiered Wilson’s Monterey Moods as part of MJF’s 50th year. “We used to drive up to [Monterey] when we could,” Washington recalls. “One year, Sonny Rollins was playing. We drove up, caught Sonny and drove back in the middle of the night [to Los Angeles] because we had a gig the next day. It’s such a beautiful environment.”
London-based composer Jacob Collier also makes a debut on Sunday night, September 18 in the Arena. Collier has earned a large following on YouTube with a series of multi-tracked videos that have seen millions of views. Bringing that idea to the road in 2016, Collier has developed a live interactive presentation that uses a high-tech system created at the MIT Media Lab. “We’ve created a completely solo show, and developed a way to have a big circle of instruments so I can bounce around and play them the at the same time. Everything is generated live,” says Collier.
Single Day Grounds Tickets are $47 (Friday) and $57 (Saturday or Sunday) and offer access to seven Grounds stages and all activities. Student and military discounts are available.
Grounds activities include nearly 100 events, conversations, films, and musical performances, with weekend highlights from Donny McCaslin Quartet, Christian McBride Trio, Bill Frisell; Banda Magda; Joey Alexander Trio; Toshiko Akiyoshi; Lew Tabackin featuring Randy Brecker; Troker; Billy Hart Quartet; Ibrahim Maalouf; Bria Skonberg; Dr. Lonnie Smith; KING; Stanley Cowell Trio; Kris Davis Trio; John Patitucci’s Electric Guitar Quartet; Elena Pinderhughes; top bands from the 2016 Next Generation Jazz Festival, and many others. Moderated conversations include talks with Terri Lyne Carrington and Toshiko Akiyoshi; Donny McCaslin, and Quincy Jones with Clint Eastwood.
Information about the Arena and Grounds artists for the 59th Monterey Jazz Festival can be found on www.montereyjazzfestival.org.
High resolution photographs are available for download on http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org/media/MJF.
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For more information, please contact:
Timothy Orr
Marketing Associate
Monterey Jazz Festival
831.646.8670
timorr@montereyjazzfestival.org
www.montereyjazzfestival.org
MJF59 Partners include: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Scheid Family Wines, Gilead Sciences, Yamaha Drums, Yamaha Pianos, NEA Artworks,
North Coast Brewing Company, Inns of Monterey, Alaska Airlines, Taylor Farms, The Jazz Cruise, KSBW/Central Coast ABC, DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, Monterey-Salinas Transit, San Francisco Chronicle, Cal Humanities, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Macy’s, Monterey Bay Aquarium, JazzTimes, Alvarez Technology Group, AT&T, City of Monterey, LÄRABAR, SmoothJazzGlobal.com, Mission Linen Supply, KAZU 90.3FM, Monterey County Herald, Remo, and Tesla.