There’s a lot of complaining among jazz fans these days about the lack of jazz at some major jazz festivals. Not without reason; the big names at Montreal this year are James Taylor, Liza Minnelli, and Seal. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is presenting the Boss, Beach Boys, Eagles, Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Ne-Yo, and Cee Lo Green, to name just a few non-jazz draws.
And then there’s misty, magical Monterey. The longest continuously running jazz festival in the world is still mostly jazz. It’s jazz in a way that it needs to be at a time when boundaries are blurring: a mix of traditional and new, legends and rising stars, instrumentalists and vocalists, comfortable and cutting-edge.
Headliners for the 55th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, to be held Sept. 21–23, 2012, include Tony Bennett, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, Bill Frisell, and Trombone Shorty and New Orleans Avenue. An all-star supergroup comprised of Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian McBride, Akinmusire, Chris Potter, Benny Green, and Lewis Nash will represent three generations of jazz.
