MJF All-Stars band comes to LA!

Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour Comes to Los Angeles
MJF All-Star Band Performs at UCLA’s Royce Hall, April 22, 2010

Thursday, April 22, 2010, 8pm
UCLA Royce Hall, Presented by UCLA Live
UCLA Campus, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095
$50, $38, $26. $15 for UCLA students. Applicable processing fees may apply.

TICKETS: Box Office: (310) 825-2101.
More information is available online at www.uclalive.org

Group features Kurt Elling, Kenny Barron, Regina Carter, Russell Malone, Kiyoshi Kitagawa & Johnathan Blake!
MJF All-Stars West Coast Tour is Second Half of 36-Show, 17-State Outing, February - May 2010
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The Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader in jazz education and presentation since 1958, announces the second half of their thirty-six show, nationwide, six-week tour of the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars, billed as the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour.

Presented by UCLA Live, the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars will perform at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, on Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 8:00 PM.

The group features the nine-time Grammy®-nominated and 2010 NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron on piano; Grammy-nominated violinist Regina Carter; Grammy-winning guitarist Russell Malone; Grammy-winning vocalist Kurt Elling; bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa; and Grammy-nominated drummer Johnathan Blake. The band made their debut at the 52nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Presented by Verizon in September 2009.

Members of the MJF All-Stars have a special relationship with the Monterey Jazz Festival, and have a commitment to the cultivation of jazz audiences worldwide. Pianist Kenny Barron made his first of his eight appearances at MJF in the early 1960s with Dizzy Gillespie. Violinist Regina Carter was selected as Artist-In-Residence for MJF/47 in 2004 and has appeared at the Festival four times since 1999. Vocalist Kurt Elling, also selected as MJF’s Artist-In-Residence for MJF/49 in 2006, has appeared on the stages of the Festival four times since 2003. Guitarist Russell Malone has appeared five times at MJF since 1997. Both bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake made their second appearances at MJF/52. All together, the members of the MJF/52 All-Star group have performed at Monterey twenty-five times.

“With the success of our 50th Anniversary Tour in 2008 and the subsequent Grammy win a year later for Terence Blanchard for the live recording at MJF/50, we were anxious to continue the spirit and excitement created by the inaugural event and build an even stronger platform for 2010’s ‘MJF On Tour,’” said Tim Jackson, General Manager for the Monterey Jazz Festival. “With Kenny Barron (piano), Regina Carter (violin), Kurt Elling (vocal), and Russell Malone (guitar) as this year’s principal artists and with the superb support of Kenny’s working trio, Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass and drummer Johnathan Blake, we have created an ensemble that is both sonically interesting and hard swinging. These artists all embody the history, spirit, and legacy of the Monterey Jazz Festival; each has a past relationship with MJF that includes performance and educational activities, both core components of Monterey’s mission statement. They are an amazing band that will embody the past, present, and future of jazz.”

About The Tour

The Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour completed the East Coast portion of their 36-show, 17-state tour in February 2010, with the second half taking place on the West Coast and Midwest in April and May 2010, at major performing arts organizations in many regions of the county, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. For a complete tour itinerary, visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org. Each of the shows will feature a selection of standards and originals from all periods of jazz.

This will be the second time a national tour has represented MJF. In early 2008, the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary All-Stars (featuring Terence Blanchard, James Moody, Benny Green, Nnenna Freelon, Derrick Hodge, and Kendrick Scott) performed for 44,000 fans in 52 cities in 22 states. A recording on Monterey Jazz Festival Records -- an imprint of Concord Records -- from their performance at MJF/50, Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival, was nominated for two Grammys, (Terence Blanchard and James Moody were both nominated in the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo Category) with the Grammy going to Terence Blanchard on February 8, 2009, making it the first Grammy for the fledgling label.

It will also be the second time the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars have had a Grammy-winning artist representing MJF on tour, in the same year they won the award. In 2008, while on the MJF/50 tour, trumpeter Terence Blanchard won a Grammy for his recording A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), which had made its premiere live performance at MJF/50 in 2007. This year, vocalist Kurt Elling received a Grammy Award for Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman, which was also performed at MJF/52 in 2009.

About the Monterey Jazz Festival

The Monterey Jazz Festival, founded in 1958, is a nonprofit organization and is dedicated to perpetuating the uniquely American form of music known as jazz by producing performances that celebrate the legacy and expand the boundaries of jazz; and by presenting year-round local, regional, national, and international jazz education programs. These hands-on, cutting-edge educational components include the Traveling Clinician and Latin Jazz Programs, with professional musicians visiting Monterey County schools to teach students how to play and improvise in jazz and Latin styles; the Artist-In-Residence Program, which brings a leading jazz performer to work with students throughout the year; the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, the MJF Instrument and Sheet Music Library, the MJF Digital Music Education Project, the Next Generation Festival, the Monterey County High School All-Star Band, the MJF Middle School Honor Band and MJF Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

The 53rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Presented by Verizon will take place September 17 - 19, 2010, and will feature the four-time Grammy-winning vocalist, Dianne Reeves, as Artist-In-Residence. The lineup for MJF/53 will be announced on Monday, March 29, 2010.