 Cassandra Wilson by Clay Patrick McBride 2006 The longest-running jazz festival in the world, the Monterey Jazz Festival (officially the Monterey Jazz Festival Presented by Verizon; September is one month I don’t mind paying my cell phone bill) is now in its 51st year. This will be my fourth year in a row at the festival. I first went in 2005 to celebrate a friend’s birthday and fell in love with the setting (20 oak-studded acres), the ambience (laid-back), and the vibe. It’s always an A-list lineup and there’s no downside to spending a few days in Monterey, California, a coastal town south of San Francisco and Santa Cruz, near Carmel and Pacific Grove and north of Big Sur, a storied destination if you dare to drive the spectacularly scenic and often hair-raising Highway 1. As MJF begins its second half-century, I’m faced with the delicious dilemma of the festivalgoer: How to choose what to see when you have several choices, all tempting and several happening simultaneously? Should I see Cassandra Wilson (in her Festival debut) or Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts? MJF/51 artist-in-residence Christian McBride’s quintet or Terence Blanchard’s? A Cannonball Adderley tribute with Nancy Wilson, Terrence Blanchard, and Tom Scott, or Matt Wilson with Bill Frisell? The Kyle Eastwood Band or his dad Clint in conversation with Jamie Cullum? Kurt Elling or B-3 sensation Barbara Dennerlein? Elling or Herbie Hancock? A newly commissioned work by composer Maria Schneider or the ever-popular Tuck & Patti, last seen at MJF in 1984?
 One thing (among many) that makes MFJ special is the fact that most artists, including headliners who play the big open-air Jimmy Lyons Arena, also play other venues throughout the grounds: Dizzy’s Den, the Night Club/Bill Berry Stage, the open-air Garden Stage, and the Coffee House Gallery. So even if you didn’t buy the pricier Arena Package (which is now sold out) you can still see and hear Maria Schneider, Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard, Joshua Redman, and Kurt Elling.
Cassandra Wilson, who is making her MJF debut, will perform only in the Arena, but you can catch her on Saturday afternoon at Dizzy’s Den in conversation with jazz journalist Dan Ouellette, who will do his best to stump her in the annual DownBeat Blindfold Test. Maria Schneider, who credits the MJF with giving her a big break (her first large-scale commission, in 1995), will perform “Willow Lake,” her new work, only in the Arena, but later that night you can hear Schneider and her orchestra at Dizzy’s Den, where she might play her Grammy-winning “Cerulean Skies.” Jamie Cullum (another MJF debut) performs only in the Arena but will be at Dizzy’s Den on Sunday afternoon for a chat with longtime festival supporter Clint Eastwood. Nancy Wilson sings only in the Arena but talks with her manager John Levy and singer Clairdee at Dizzy’s Den on Saturday afternoon about “Life, Love & Harmony: The Marriage of Music & Management.” Wilson has largely retired from the road; this will be a rare opportunity to hear her speak.  Herbie Hancock by Kwaku Alston 2007 If you’re asking “Who’s Derek Trucks?” the answer is 1) the youngest player to make Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list, 2) the leader of the Derek Trucks Band (which will perform at MFJ/51), 3) a member of the Allman Brothers Band since 1999, 4) a member of Eric Clapton’s touring band, and 5) star of the Saturday afternoon MFJ arena show, which often tends toward blues or rock. Other artists on this year’s schedule are Cuban vocalist and flautist Orlando “Maraca” Valle, whose stellar group includes David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez; soul and funk stars Ryan Shaw, Ledisi, and former James Brown (and George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins) sideman Maceo Parker; Rebecca Mauleon & Afro-Kuban Fusion; Japanese pianist and composer (and 2005 Thelonious Monk Competition winner) Junko Moriya; La Tuque Blue (from Quebec); Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band; and the New York City-based Rudder. Also performing are saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen (sister to trumpeter Avishai); vocalist Spencer Day (who, for better or worse, has been called “the male counterpart to Norah Jones”); piano prodigy Yaron Herman and his trio; the George Young Quartet; Antonio Sanchez’s Migration; the Jamie Davis Big Band; Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express; and Trio M (Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, and the ubiquitous-but-in-a-good-way Matt Wilson). _john_abbott.jpg "Image") Christian McBride © John Abbott The festival semi-officially begins at 12 noon on Thursday with a free Concert for Kids at the Garden Stage. The Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars, six top scholarship students at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, will perform for an audience of more than 600 Monterey County public school children. DownBeat named the All-Stars the 2008 Best College Jazz Band. They will also play sets at MJF/51 on Friday night and Saturday night, but I’m going on Thursday. I look forward to experiencing live jazz in a crowd of children—the next generation of fans. As of this writing, grounds tickets are still available, providing access to eight stages, educational panels and conversations, clinics, and the famous fair food. Grounds tickets don’t include admission to Arena shows, but those will be simulcast in several locations on the fairgrounds so you can still see them. Visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org or call 925-275-9255.
*** Pamela Espeland has reported on the Monterey Jazz Festival for Jazz Police since 2005. She writes weekly about jazz for MinnPost and blogs at Bebopified.
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Thursday, 08 January 2009
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