As if they don’t have enough on their plate already, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be artists in residence at next year’s Monterey Jazz Festival.
The orchestra will be a featured attraction at the festival in September, but the gig is primarily educational in nature: Members will work with student musicians in clinics and one-on-one sessions at both the Next Generation Festival in April and the Monterey Summer Jazz Camp. Marsalis is of course the marquee name, but according to the festival three other members of the orchestra — saxophonists Sherman Irby and Joe Temperley and trumpeter Sean Jones — will be doing the bulk of the educational work.
The artist-in-residence program is one of the key components of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s educational operation, which has grown exponentially since its modest beginning in 1970. The Festival now invests almost a million dollars a year annually in jazz education through a variety of programs.
The Monterey Jazz Festival has begun accepting applications from student musicians and vocalists for its fifth annual Next Generation Festival, to take place from April 3-5, 2009.
Applications are being accepted through Jan. 23 from middle school, high school, conglomerate, and college big bands; high school combos and vocal jazz ensembles; and college vocal jazz ensembles. Application is free.
A total of nine ensembles will win cash awards and be invited to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. The event also includes a high school composition competition, with the winning composer receiving cash and the winning composition to be performed at the big festival.
In addition, auditions will also be held for chair positions in the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, which tours every year and is a featured ensemble at the festival. More information, and application forms, can be found at montereyjazzfestival.org.
Arena audience at Monterey Jazz Festival 2008 (Photo courtesy MJF)
Attracting 43,000 attendees over the course of three days, Monterey Jazz Festival 2008 matched the draw of its 2006 event but fell short of the record attendance for the 50th anniversary 2007 festival, the festival reported. According to spokesperson Timothy Orr, "2008 marked a calm and serene festival setting, in contrast to the intense and wild 50th anniversary in 2007."
He said that the performances were no less inspired, however, citing the on-stage comment from one of the stars of this year's event, artist-in-residence Christian McBride, that "[MJF] is a cradle of creativity and great people coming together for a celebration.” Official photography from the festival is now available at the MJF website. Read more »
The closest that the Monterey Jazz Festival's Saturday afternoon program came to jazz was when Maceo Parker performed a mini-set of Ray Charles tunes with a youth jazz orchestra behind him. Otherwise it was R&B, funk and blues rock and roll that covered the afternoon.
That may seem surprising, but as I understand it the festival's explicit policy is to present cross-genre artists for the first Saturday session, apparently an effort to attract a broader audience than only jazz purists. Still I find the choices of Ledisi, Maceo Parker and Derek Trucks to be a surprising bit of programming for one of the most prestigious jazz festivals in the world. Read more »
Entering its second half-century, the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival offered plenty of evidence of vitality in the genre while continuing to present a mostly retrospective approach to the music on its main stage. Perhaps such a schizophrenic posture is inevitable in an event with so much history behind it, but its future might be better served by a more risk-taking outlook.
To be fair, I should say that I attended only three of the five festival sessions (MJF splits Saturday and Sunday into separately ticketed afternoon and evening shows). But though the Sunday night session that I missed presented some of the festival's marquee acts in Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, even those jazz greats speak more to the music's past than to its future development. Several critics (here and here) who covered the Sunday finale concluded that Hancock basically phoned in his performance. For a gig as significant as Monterey, fans expect that performers would try for something unique instead of trotting out their tried-and-true set list. Read more »
Looking backwards is the default position of all jazz festivals, and Monterey is no exception. But at least the Monterey organizers have displayed some ingenuity in planning the retro side of this year’s event.
That a tribute to John Coltrane is on the schedule might normally be the occasion for not much more than a gigantic yawn, but this one is a little different. It’s actually a tribute to a single Coltrane album, and one of the more unusual entries in the Coltrane discography: his 1963 collaboration with the vocalist Johnny Hartman. It was one of a series of albums Coltrane made in the early sixties weighted toward ballads, mostly as a way to persuade the more timid or conservative listeners that Coltrane, whose music was becoming increasingly adventurous, had not abandoned the jazz mainstream. The album may not have been Coltrane’s finest hour, but it was certainly a career highlight for Hartman, a romantic baritone who spent most of his career well under the radar, and it holds a special place in many listeners’ hearts. Read more »
It's that time again! The time when almost anyone who's anyone in the jazz world, along with the most zealous old vinyl collectors to even the casual fans head down to the Monterey County Fairgrounds to attend what is perhaps the greatest celebration of all spectrums of the jazz genre on Earth.
The Monterey Jazz Festival will kick off less than a week from now on the 19th, and it certainly has not lost any of its luster. It now boasts 10 stages besides the main Arena stage, and well over 50 performances during its three-day run. Among those who will be playing at the festival will once again be Herbie Hancock and the Wayne Shorter Quartet, although Brubeck is conspicuously absent. Read more »
Monterey Jazz Festival continues its 'New Grooves' program at the upcoming 2008 event with a Friday evening program of electrified funk. New Grooves has been a part of the festival since 2003, when it was introduced as a way to expand the audience base with fans of rhythm & blues. This year, the program includes the Christian McBride Band, a jazz funk ensemble headed by this year's festival artist in residence, and Rudder, a hard-driving jazz rock quartet from New York.
The New Grooves show is hosted in Dizzy's Den, one of the festival's indoor stages. It is open to anyone with a Friday grounds ticket, which also provides access to all other festival stages except the Arena, where the festival headliners appear. On the Night Club/Bill Berry Stage, highlights include the highly regarded newcomer Anat Cohen and the Joshua Redman Trio. Read more »
Bring the family for the closing day at the 2008 Monterey Jazz Festival, September 21 at the Monterey Fairgrounds. In addition to the full music program going on the main festival stages, a wide range of youth-oriented activities and programs are offered across the festival grounds.
For hands-on activities, kids can try out their chops on professional instruments, play interactive musical games or participate in jazz oriented crafts projects. Young musicians can attend an advanced jazz workshop. Youth jazz bands will perform throughout the day in the indoor NIghtclub venue.
For adults, one of the highlights of a day at MJF can be one of the panel discussions taking place in Dizzy's Den, another of the indoor venues. On Sunday this year, there is a one on one conversation with Clint Eastwood and musician Jamie Cullum as well as a panel discussion with musicians and critics about the late great Cannonball Adderly. Read more »
