Marvelous Music: Monterey Jazz Festival

The world-famous, star-filled tune to-do features multiple stages and the biggest names.

FAMOUS, FLOW-FILLED, FABULOUS: There's no doubt that particular days of the year carry more heft than others. Likewise, particular times of the year, and seasons, too, also tend to follow this rule. Take your birthday, which carries with it at least a little emotion, and your anniversary, too. Your favorite time of year does as well, like the holidays or spring. But everyone everywhere likely shares the heart-tug of a feeling that comes with the final weekend of summer. Weekends have a certain winsomeness, and summertime does, too, which makes the yearly timing of the Monterey Jazz Festival more than perfect. It unfolds over the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of that final summer weekend, a time that just naturally, and poetically, carries some extra beauty and bittersweetness. Add the world's best jazz sounds to those emotions, as their soundtrack, and you have a music-tacular that continues to draw fans from Monterey, California, the U.S., and points around the globe. And with fine reason, too; not only can they come together as a tune-loving community to bid summer farewell, they can do so while enjoying some of the most acclaimed artists around on eight stages.

OH YES, EIGHT STAGES: After nearly six decades of presenting the best of the best, Monterey Jazz has grown into quite the spectacular. And that octet of stagery stays busy throughout, with over 500 musicians keeping the flow going over a trio of very full days. Wynton Marsalis is set to play the 2015 festival, and the superb Dianne Reeves, and Chick Corea, and the amazing rockin' Ms. Nikki Hill. Chris Botti will bring the brass (a prominent sound/metal at the fest among many musicians, of course) and Pete Escovedo will have his drumsticks in hand (it's his 80th birthday, by the by, which will be celebrated at the fest). Vocals, instrumentals, jam-type sonic flights, and all things that fold into the large mind space that is jazz are welcome at Monterey, which has made its name, in part, for being one of the avant-garde-iest extravaganzas around. For sure, tradition is still embraced and loved upon, too, so when you think "is there something for everyone?" well, yes. Eight stages, 500 artists, hours and hours and percussion and trumpet and harmony. Oh goodness, there's more, places to shop, places to eat, places to chillax, art happenings, and such. Happy 58th, Monterey Jazz, and thanks for delivering the last official weekend of summer in such a heartfelt, flow-sweet manner. It raises the vibe of every music maven in attendance, and those fans who support from afar.

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