Monterey Jazz News & Notes
September 23, 2025
Returning Favorites & Exciting New Faces: Davina & The Vagabonds and Lucía
New Names, Familiar Faces, One Epic Festival! The legends you love are back — and they’re bringing tomorrow’s greats with them. Get acquainted with icons, innovators,...
July 17, 2025
Returning Favorites & Exciting New Faces: Mr. Sipp and JC Smith
New Names, Familiar Faces, One Epic Festival! The legends you love are back — and they’re bringing tomorrow’s greats with them. Get acquainted with icons, innovators,...
July 17, 2025
A Festival is Born (1958)
After the success of the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island beginning in 1954, Jimmy Lyons and Ralph Gleason combined Rolodexes in 1956 and contacted the jazz elite...
June 10, 2025
Returning Favorites & Exciting New Faces: Dianne Reeves & Brandon Woody
New Names, Familiar Faces, One Epic Festival! The legends you love are back — and they’re bringing tomorrow’s jazz greats with them. In this new blog series, get...
May 14, 2025
Returning Favorites & Exciting New Faces: Christian McBride & Grace Kelly
New Names, Familiar Faces, One Epic Festival! The legends you love are back — and they’re bringing tomorrow’s jazz greats with them. In this new blog series, get...
February 10, 2025
Jazz comes to the Monterey Peninsula with Concert by the Sea (1955)
Even though Jimmy Lyons had left San Francisco for the more pastoral environment of Big Sur on the Central Coast in 1953, he didn’t stray far from being a jazz impresario or...
February 10, 2025
How it all started! Jimmy Lyons on the air and Dave Brubeck’s influence and success (1940s – 1953)
In the era before Monterey Jazz Festival was founded, the building blocks for the idea of an outdoor festival originated with deejay Jimmy Lyons. Lyons had been working at...
January 22, 2025
A New Look at Our Timeless Past
In 2025, Monterey Jazz will look back at our history and towards the future in a series of posts that reflects our motto, “Timeless Since 1958.” As we have seen many...
July 27, 2023
If Only We Knew! John Handy’s Iconic Monterey Moment
When saxophonist John Handy rolled into the eighth annual Monterey Jazz Festival in 1965, he already knew his new quintet would appear on the Saturday afternoon program in the...