Monterey Jazz to stream mix of new, vintage sets
Seven new musical performances by renowned jazz artists, livestreamed conversations with Angela Davis and Clint Eastwood, plus socially distanced watch parties are on deck for the 63rd annual Monterey Jazz Festival this year when it goes digital Sept. 2527.
Among the artists presenting new streaming concerts are Our Native Daughters, which consists of Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell; the Gerald Clayton Quartet; and pianist Christian Sands, the festival’s 2020 artist in residence.
The schedule also includes a live cooking demonstration by singersongwriter Lila Downs, along with hours of archived performances from past festivals hosted on several stages at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.
Highlights of the archival material include sets by Dianne Reeves, Herbie Hancock, the Kenny Barron Trio and Regina Carter, as well as musical tributes to
Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck.
The online events will stream for free on the festival’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ MontereyJazzFestival from 5 to 7 p.m. each day, hosted by Artistic Director Tim Jackson and other special guests.
While free to view, organizers are soliciting donations that will be divided among the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the featured artists.
“We had a lot of artists offering to volunteer their time and services, which was gratifying,” said festival Deputy Director Elizabeth Welden Smith. “But at the same time, we thought, ‘We have to support these artists.’ ”
In an effort to recreate the vibe of the annual event, a socially distanced watch party will be hosted at Casa Munras, which WeldenSmith said would be in keeping with restaurant protocols — outside dining, no more than four guests per table. There will also be
drivein watch parties at the Monterey County Fairgrounds and the Monterey Marriott, which are the major hubs for the inperson festival that attracts about 40,000 jazz fans every year.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is the most recent in a string of music festivals forced by the COVID19 pandemic to shift their activities online.
Stern Grove Festival canceled all of its inperson concerts and instead presented a weekly series of archived concerts from the festival’s past 13 years, while BottleRock Napa Valley replaced its May live offerings with a virtual concert series that extends to Oct. 2.
More recently, in August, the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival was replaced by Inside Lands. The twoday virtual festival hosted on Twitch saw more than 3.2 million unique viewers, according to a data report.