Monterey Jazz Festival

Monterey Jazz Festival, annual jazz festival held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, in the coastal town of Monterey, west-central California, U.S. The Monterey Jazz Festival was founded by James L. Lyons, a jazz disc jockey in San Francisco, and jazz critic Ralph J. Gleason. Inspired by Rhode Island’s Newport Jazz Festival, the two jazz enthusiasts garnered enough support to launch a comparable event in 1958. That event—the first Monterey Jazz Festival—featured such performers as vocalist...