Combining Forces
MJF vet Billy Childs performs a commissioned piece with the Kronos Quartet.
Good things happen when Billy Childs is on the bill at Monterey. Regularly featured at the Fairgrounds since Tim Jackson was hired as the director of the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1992, the pianist/composer is ...
French Toasts
Les Nubians blend political concerns with passionate sounds.
The sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart weren’t trying to jump start a musical movement, but as Les Nubians, the siblings are an international Francophone force, delivering lithe vocal harmonies and uplifting messages set to a ...
Gen Extra
MJF’s Next Generation Festival charges Monterey with the most talented young jazz energy out there.
It’s been several decades since jazz attained all the hallmarks of a fine art form, with degrees offered at top universities, regular performances in international concert halls, and a steady flow of doctoral dissertations examining ...
Fichot Fo’ Sho
Worldly, multilingual Jessica Fichot visits newly redone Blue Fin stage.
What’s exotic is truly in the eye of the beholder, though in the case of the chanteuse Jessica Fichot, the ear is the organ in question. As a young musician performing around the cafes, clubs ...
Jig Comes Up
The 42nd annual Scottish Games features powerful Celtic sounds.
If the cheering seems a little louder, the music rings more clearly, and the athletes throw further this weekend at the 42nd Annual Monterey Scottish Games and Celtic Festival, it may be a case of ...
No Kidding
MJF’s Next Gen Fest still attracting eager students, savvy mentors of swing.
At a time when belt tightening is the order of the day, the Monterey Jazz Festival’s student showcase Next Generation Festival is moving in the opposite direction, offering more of everything. There are more opportunities ...
Modest Master
Shy jazz star Kenny Washington visits Carmel.
Kenny Washington is one of jazz’s most dynamic vocalists, a brilliant improviser who alternates between soulful crooning and electrifying scat solos. But Washington is loath to blow his own horn. In nearly 20 years of ...
Minor Miracle
The latest chapter in Bill Minor’s remarkable relationship with jazz and poetry.
Bill Minor has traveled to the far ends of the globe in his quest to understand how jazz has taken root far from its native soil. His 1990 sojourn across the vast Soviet empire in ...
Coco is Crisp
Blues standout Coco Montoya plays a rare Oldemeyer Center show.
The blues is a tough taskmaster, and there are precious few musicians who have succeeded in the art form after getting a late start. Coco Montoya is one of the rare exceptions. His path to ...
Jazz Genes
Multi-generational Gail Dobson Latin Jazz Septet visits Wave Street.
Last month’s San Jose Jazz Festival featured a dazzling array of international talent, but the act that packed the biggest emotional punch also claims the deepest roots in the region. Vocalist Gail Dobson opened the ...
Towering Twins
The Le Boeuf Brothers Quintet featuring Mike Ruby lands at Live.
What does the future of jazz look like? These days it strongly resembles Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf, remarkable Santa Cruz-raised twins who are in the midst of exploring some of the music’s most exciting ...
New World
Sandy Cressman found her jazz soul in Brazil.
Brazilian songs have spiced up the jazz repertoire ever since bossa nova recordings topped the pop charts in the early 1960s. But few American jazz singers have immersed themselves in Brazilian music as deeply as ...
Going Global
Ian Dogole and Hemispheres weld together a world of improvised music.
As a university student in the early 1980s, Ian Dogole was fascinated by the ancient world. But by the time he enrolled at Stanford in a graduate program focused on Greek archeology, music had become ...
Body of Music
Crosspulse thumps and smacks its way through free shows at local libraries.
Terry and Laden bring their stripped-down duo version of the Crosspulse Ensemble to Monterey County for a series of free library performances, including shows today at the Buena Vista, Seaside and Carmel Valley branches; Wednesday, ...
Top Bebop
Greg Abate quietly evolves his vigorous sound.
The musical language of bebop is more than 60 years old, but in the hands of saxophonist Greg Abate, it sounds as urgent and fresh as a news flash. While he’s not a big-name player, ...
Sea Stars
Jazz Sings! at the Aquarium features a wave of standout artists.
There are almost as many species of jazz singers as there are fish in the sea, and a dazzling array from both will be on view at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday for the ...
Sinti Swing
Gypsy jazz guitarist Lulo Reinhardt follows his muse.
When it comes to Gypsy jazz, these are the best of times. The blazing musical style created by Sinti guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli has maintained a devoted following since the Quintette ...
Serious Pluck
Christian McBride leads a stacked Next Generation Festival lineup.
Don’t let the name fool you. While the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Festival showcases talented high school and college musicians, the event also offers plenty of opportunities to catch some of the reigning generation ...
By a String
Kronos Quartet has done nothing less than reinvent the string quartet.
When the pioneering new music ensemble Kronos Quartet celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2003, the San Francisco Performing Arts Library assembled an exhibition that vividly evoked the group’s astonishing creative track record. Displaying wildly colorful ...
Irish Jig Gig
The Black Brothers anchor a St. Paddy’s party in P.G.
March Madness doesn’t apply only to college hoops. For traditional Irish musicians, the weeks surrounding St. Patrick’s Day are the busiest of the year, as clubs, pubs and restaurants make sure they’ve booked at least ...
Deeper Still
Holly Cole finds beautiful jazz by looking more closely.
Irony is getting a bad rap. At least that’s the feeling of jazz chanteuse Holly Cole, a cool-toned vocalist with a gift for revealing unexpected emotional subtexts in familiar songs. Which isn’t to say there’s ...
Flute Shot
Ali Ryerson takes her increasingly influential jazz weapon to the Hyatt.
After languishing on the sidelines for much of jazz’s history, the flute has floated gracefully into the spotlight, contending with the brassy trumpets and saxophones successfully. Ali Ryerson is among the half-dozen players most responsible ...
Talent From the East
Two top-notch Russian jazz music bring their music to Carmel.
There’s an intoxicating wind from the East sweeping across the Peninsula in February, and it’s blowing fantastically hot and pleasingly cool. The disparate currents emanate from the same source, as a pair of exceptional musicians ...
Savvy Chanteuse
Rebecca Sayre crafts her stirring sound from jazz, country and the American Songbook.
Raised in Northern California and based in Nashville, singer Rebecca Sayre is a little bit country, and a little bit jazzy. A Music City veteran who slowly migrated from twang to swing, Sayre has emerged ...
Now and Later
Stephanie Nakasian bridges the best from the past with the jazz that will define the future.
American culture’s notoriously short-term memory quickly forgets creative landmarks while transforming fads and celebrity into fodder for nostalgia. So it’s always refreshing to come across an artist like Stephanie Nakasian, a jazz singer steeped in ...
The skills that make Calvin Keys a great teacher charm Hyatt audiences all weekend.
When Bruce Forman was creating the JazzMasters Workshop, the local nonprofit organization that provides free jazz guitar clinics to any young musician who shows up at one of the designated sites around the country, he ...
NorCal-SoCal
Kim Edmundson drums up bigtime L.A. session players for local fundraiser.
Hanging with friends, blowing up a storm, and raising money for a good cause – Kim Edmundson seems to have hit the trifecta with Saturday’s benefit concert at the Jazz & Blues Company. Since giving ...
Soul Team
Texas guitarman Lloyd Maines tours with Terri Hendrix, the real thing.
Lloyd Maines has heard and played enough music in his life to know when something special is going down. In the decades since his lithe steel guitar work graced country western maverick Joe Ely’s 1977 ...
Movable Feast
Troubador Ellis Paul performs at Ol’ Factory on behalf of the Henry Miller Library.
Henry Miller honed his craft in Paris, while Ellis Paul learned to tell tales in Boston. What the seminal modernist novelist and literary critic shares with the celebrated singer/songwriter is an abiding attachment to Big ...
Bach to Brazil
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet moves smoothly into the groove.
With its luscious melodies and profusion of alluring grooves, Brazilian music has seduced many an American musician. But a recent conquest is one of the sweetest. The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, a celebrated classical ensemble, ...
Jazzmaster Magnet
Loved by big name jazz artists, pianist Dick Whittington holds court at Cypress Inn.
Jazz in Carmel is going to the dogs. And that’s a good thing. Last weekend, the pooch-friendly Cypress Inn marked the second anniversary of a music schedule that has featured veteran jazz pianist Dick Whittington ...
Blue Arrival
At 78, Ed Reed is soaring in a new career as singer.
“This is a dream come true,” said Ed Reed from the stage at Yoshi’s, looking out at the adoring standing-room-only audience gathered to witness his debut at the club last August. For decades, Reed endured ...
Moments of Silence
The jazz world lost three greats in 2007.
Max Roach Drummer Max Roach, who passed away on Aug. 16 at the age of 83, played the first MJF with a blazing quintet featuring 20-year-old trumpeter Booker Little, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, Ray Draper ...
Roots And Shoots
Gerald Wilson shines at 89.
[ MJF50 ] No jazz festival has tended its legacy with as much care and intelligence as Monterey. By cultivating relationships with revered veterans while holding open the door to new developments in the art ...
Embracing Dj Logic
A new kind of jazz musician debuts.
[ MJF50 ] DJ Logic represents the festival’s abiding curiosity about what’s coming next. A virtuoso of the turntable, Logic is one of the few DJs who thrives in live musical settings, performing alongside musicians ...
Cutting to the Quick
Richard Thompson’s never taken the easy way.
After almost 40 years on the road playing some of the most trenchant, emotionally scorching folk rock ever produced, singer, songwriter and guitar maestro Richard Thompson has little to show for it but a passionate ...
After the fall… is Monterey jazz only a memory?
FALL'07ARTS FOR PENINSULA JAZZ FANS, fall is the cruelest season. There’s the delicious, months-long build up to the Monterey Jazz Festival, which takes place this year on Sept. 21-23. But after the festival’s cornucopian bounty, ...
Different Coarse
The Actors Collective explores the ribald one-act plays of Shel Silverstein.
While Shel Silverstein is best known for his classic children’s books such as The Missing Piece and The Giving Tree and his endlessly delightful volumes of poetry Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in ...
Sound Decision
Andrea Wolper continues to expand her skill set at the Jazz & Blues Co.
Music fans outside of the Big Apple first heard jazz vocalist Andrea Wolper in her luminous 2005 recording The Small Hours. A haunting session of standards and original tunes, the CD was produced by Todd ...
Hidden Giant
Mel Martin celebrates Benny Carter, one of the jazz world’s unheralded greats.
Taking the measure of a great artist is never an easy task, but when you’re trying to figure the dimensions of a giant like Benny Carter, the job is nearly impossible. With a career spanning ...
Sista Soul
She’s back on top again.
The blues came banging on Sista Monica’s door, but the resilient vocalist refused to let them in. The knock came in the form of a cancer diagnosis, which took the Santa Cruz-based blues belter off ...
Her Own Song
Sasha Dobson forges her own musical path.
Sasha Dobson may be the product of Bay Area jazz royalty, but she’s not looking to take over the jazz throne. As the daughter of vocalist Gale Dobson and the late, revered pianist Smith Dobson, ...
Full Voice
One of jazz’s finest vocalists makes her California debut.
It seems incomprehensible that Dominique Eade’s performance on Saturday at the Jazz & Blues Company is her debut gig in Northern California, but it is. Being one of jazz’s most acclaimed and adventurous vocalists isn’t ...
Love In It
Tuck and Patti anchor the Esalen International Arts Festival.
A Tuck and Patti concert isn’t so much a musical experience as a new age revival meeting celebrating the infinite power of love. Which is to say that the scintillating husband and wife team of ...
Veteran Rookies
The newest faces at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival followed long roads to newfound stardom.
The blues is inherently a conservative style, which makes perfect sense when you consider that the music is built upon a cold-eyed assessment of the essential, unchanging human condition. We live, we love, we despair ...
Soul Brothers
The 4 Kings of R&B once ruled the charts, and still rule the stage.
The 4 Kings of R&B didn’t earn their crowns by sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring. Give these blues survivors half a chance, and they’ll not only have the run of the ...
Old-time Innovation
Del McCoury Band brings edgy traditional bluegrass to Sunset.
When Del McCoury finally decided the time was right to record an album of gospel favorites, he had plenty of reasons to offer up thanks. After decades of intermittent success and obscurity, the 68-year-old guitarist ...
Music and Lyrics
Bobbe Norris and Larry Dunlap bring a long history to Carmel.
Bobbe Norris knows exactly which songs fit her voice like a velvet glove. Her latest album Out of Nowhere features 14 tunes that lean heavily toward torchy ballads. With her husky contralto, Norris interprets the ...
Passion Rekindled
Marshall Otwell brings a renewed love of the piano to the Hyatt.
As the portentous year of 1984 came to a close, Marshall Otwell was at the top of his game. The widely respected pianist had just finished an eight-and-a-half-year run with legendary jazz vocalist Carmen McRae, ...
The Master’s Voice
Jonathan Poretz learned a lot by playing Frank Sinatra.
Imitation can be a creative cul de sac for musicians, a dead end in the search for a personal sound. But immersing oneself in the work of a master can also unlock new avenues, enabling ...
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