Dizzy Gillespie for President!

In 1964, the call went out, from coast to coast of this great nation, to avoid the alternatives of Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater by supporting the great trumpet player’s candidacy for the highest office in the land.

“Your politics ought to be a groovier thing, so get a good president who’s willing to swing,’’ scat singer Jon Hendricks offered. Dizzy’s campaign promises included naming Duke Ellington as Secretary of State and changing the name of the White House to the Blues House.

In another election year, with change (perhaps) on the horizon, it’s worth remembering that Diz kicked off the first Monterey Jazz Festival, after being introduced by festival cofounder Jimmy Lyons, with his own memorably inimitable version of “The Star Spangled Banner’’ long before anyone heard of Jimi Hendrix.

While not officially middle-aged, MJF celebrates its 51st season this year from Sept. 19-21, with the usual panoply of old school standard bearers and next generation musicians.

Headliners include Joshua Redman; Cassandra Wilson; Maceo Parker; the Maria Schneider Orchestra; Christian McBride; Nancy Wilson with special guests Terence Blanchard and Tom Scott in a “Tribute to Cannonball Adderley”; British piano and vocal phenom Jamie Cullum– in a rare stateside appearance that should wow his many fans in Monterey and beyond; Kurt Elling; Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, the former Miles Davis accompanist who won last year’s Grammy Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, his original adaptations of the songs of Joni Mitchell. Wow. All will be featured at the Jimmy Lyons Stage (for a full schedule of Festival events, see pg. 29).

(Note: Many of the events at the Lyons arena, named after the festival cofounder, are usually sold out, but the fun hardly stops there.)

As Monterey residents and jazz fans know, Tim Jackson stepped in to fill Lyons’ shoes as festival General Manager in 1992 and has been doing an admirable job of keeping old school fans and bringing new listeners ever since.

George Young, two-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Ledisi, Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars, Tuck & Patti and Kyle Eastwood, Clint’s piano-playing son, will be featured, among many others, at the Festival’s Garden Stage.

Dizzy’s Den, named after the late, great, blow-cheeked trumpeter, features gigs by the aforementioned Christian McBride; Downbeat magazine’s famed “Blindfold Test,’’ hosted by jazz writer Dan Ouellette, in which vocalist Cassandra Wilson will respond to the unidentified sounds being spun for her benefit; a performance by the Maria Schneider Orchestra (Schneider is a disciple of Gil Evans, Miles Davis’ “Sketches of Spain’’ collaborator) and a panel discussion on “The Cannonball (Adderley) Legacy,” whose participants include legendary jazz producer Orrin Keepnews. An undoubtedly well-attended “Conversation’’ between Clint Eastwood and Jamie Cullum (Saturday, Sept. 20 at 5pm); and vocalist Kurt Elling’s renditions of the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman classic “Dedicated to You” will also heat up the den.

There will be too many other cool contributions to mention, but we’ll try to note some: Tom Scott, Terence Blanchard and the Matt Wilson-Bill Frisell Duo Saturday night at the Night Club/Bill Berry Stage; Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express at the same venue Sunday night; and separate film programs at the Jazz Theater; discussions on the changing landscape of music and technology at the Courtyard Stage; and the more contemporary sounds, aimed at younger listeners, of 4onefunk and Quantic at the Lyons Lounge, initiated last year in honor of the festival cofounder (see story, pg. 29).

OK, we’ve tried to do (at least some) justice to the unique performances that will happen at MJF, the oldest jazz festival in the world, taking place at the Monterey County Fairgrounds (which seems world away from the bluebloods of Newport).

But, let’s get back to Dizzy:

“Even before Gillespie’s 1958 a cappella rendering of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’– the first jazz notes blown on the Fairgounds stage– an unmistakable buzz of excitement ran through the crowd, most of whom were not jazz freaks at all, but boosters of their beloved Monterey-Carmel-Pebble Beach community,’’ the late jazz critic Phil Elwood, whom I had the privilege of working with for many years at the San Francisco Examiner, wrote in the liner notes to the three-CD collection, “Monterey Jazz Festival– 40 Legendary Years’’ (Malpaso/Warner Brothers), which was “executive produced” by Clint Eastwood and compiled by Keepnews and MJF Director Tim Jackson.

“A Berkeley native, I was an enthusiast for the Monterey-Big Sur area long before the wonders of jazz brightened my teenage years,’’ Elwood continued. “Before the festival made its debut, I’d already heard jazz in Carmel’s Sunset Auditorium, where Erroll Garner recorded his Concert By The Sea album in 1955 and trumpeter Marty Marsala’s traditional jazzers played two years later. It was the success of the Carmel concerts that encouraged Lyons to canvass the Monterey business community for funds to back a jazz gathering in Monterey. The mystique of Monterey still gets to me.’’

A confession: Although I’m a recent transplant from the Bay Area and a jazz fan who was lucky enough to have a father who had “good ears’’ and took me to see Miles Davis at the Apollo and spun Lester Young at home, I’ve never actually attended the Monterey Jazz Festival. It’s an omission I intend to correct this season.

As a youth, I did make it to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, which Elwood cites, accurately, as embodying “the same magical ambiance.’’ I’ll soon know, if memory serves, if that’s accurate.

But as good as it was, the annual Monterey Jazz Festival gathering is better, for my money.

While the psychedelic pop sounds of the ’60s have faded into the dustbin of history, however fond our memories of the times may be, the MJF’s annual celebration of the only authentic American art form has withstood the test of time. The musicianship of the dedicated men and women who have performed in Monterey since 1958, and refuse to accept a cultural definition as “marginal,’’ even in the age of American Idol, is inspiring.

I defy you to listen to Billie Holiday’s haunting version of “Fine and Mellow’’ at the opening festival (it’s in the Eastwood/Jackson/Keepnews CD) without wanting to weep.

Or many of the others’ performances over the years– and at the upcoming 51st celebration– without jumping for joy.

The prospect is dizzying.

THE 51ST ANNUAL MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL takes place at the Monterey Fairgrounds from Friday-Sunday, Sept. 19-21. 6pm gates open Friday; 11:30am Saturday; 11am Sunday. $45-$110. 2000 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. 925-275-9255. Further information, directions, program breakdowns and much more are available at http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org.