Building on the exciting and unprecedented legacy of fifty years of historic jazz presentation, the Monterey Jazz Festival has announced the nationwide, ten-week, fifty-four date tour of the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Band. Heralded as a meeting of three generations of jazz masters, the MJF 50th Anniversary Band showcases the leaders of the past, present and future with Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Moody on saxophone, musical director Benny Green on piano, Derrick Hodge on bass, and Kendrick Scott on drums. Vocalist Nnenna Freelon will also be a featured member of the group as they embark on the fifty-four date, twenty-two state tour starting in January, 2008.
Each member of the 50th Anniversary Band has a special relationship with the Monterey Jazz Festival, and has a commitment to the Festival and the cultivation of jazz audiences worldwide. Saxophonist James Moody made his first appearance at MJF in the early 1960s with Dizzy Gillespie; Benny Green participated in MJF’s educational programs as a teenager in the 1970s; Terence Blanchard was MJF’s Artist-In-Residence in 2007; Nnenna Freelon has been performing at MJF since the mid 1990s; Kendrick Scott was a three-time member of the Berklee-Monterey Quartet from 1999-2002, and Derrick Hodge has been a member of Terence Blanchard’s bands that have performed at Monterey.
The Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Band will begin their ten-week tour in the Pacific Northwest in Bellingham, Washington on January 8, 2008. They will appear at major performing arts organizations in many regions of the county including California, the Southwest, Texas, Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, the Washington DC area, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, the New England states, Indiana, and Michigan. For a complete list of shows, please visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org. Each of the shows will feature a selection of standards and favorites from all periods of jazz, including the Tin-Pan Alley, bebop, and modern eras.
