For 38 years, Monterey has offered great jazz, plenty of scenery

September 20, 1996
Web posted at: 5:15 a.m. EDT

MONTEREY, California (CNN) -- Jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but it has found a comfortable home in Monterey, California.

Since 1958, the music's most revered talents have been coming to this scenic seaside spot for Monterey's annual jazz festival. (1:35 sec./928K QuickTime movie retrospect)

John Lewis, Toots Thielemens, Chuck Mangione -- they all have delivered memorable performances on stage at Monterey. And then there's Dizzy Gillespie, who performed at the first festival and many more that followed.

"It's always been a big name festival, whether it was Dizzy Gillespie or John Handy," said jazz critic Derk Richardson. "You know, really important people at the peak of mainstream jazz."

The festival was conceived by Jimmy Lyons, a former DJ who dreamed of creating a West Coast alternative to emerging East Coast festivals. Lyons' successor in 1992 was impressed by what he had inherited.

"I'm not a mystical person, but there is something kind of spiritual about it," said Tim Jackson, Monterey's general manager.

"It's distinctive because it has its locale and that kind of homey feeling that other festivals don't necessarily have."

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Related site:

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• Jazz Central Station - Monterey Jazz Festival
• Jazznet - Monterey Jazz Festival
• Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound - Jazz and the Monterey Jazz Festival at the Archive of Recorded Sound

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