Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Festival Now Accepting Applications

Middle Schools, High Schools and Colleges Compete for Performance Opportunities at 50th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 21 - 23, 2007

Competition Open to Middle School, High School and College Big Bands, High School Combos and Vocal Ensembles, and Individual Musicians Vying for Spot in Next Generation Jazz Orchestra

Monterey Jazz Festival Announces Internationally-Renowned Trumpeter and Composer Terence Blanchard as Artist-In-Residence for 2007

Monterey, California, November 14, 2006: The Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader in jazz education since its inception in 1958, is pleased to announce the 3rd Annual Next Generation Festival, featuring the nation's most talented middle school, high school and college jazz musicians and vocalists. The Next Generation Festival, which includes MJF's 37th Annual National High School Jazz Competition, will take place in historic downtown Monterey from March 23 - 25, 2007. The Competition is accepting applications from middle school, college and high school big bands and from high school combos and vocal jazz ensembles through January 24, 2007. Application forms may be downloaded at the Monterey Jazz Festival's website, www.montereyjazzfestival.org. The application process is free.

The weekend-long event will include performances and competitions, with awards going to the best groups for College, High School and Middle School Big Band divisions; and for High School Combos and Vocal Ensembles. The event also includes a Composition Competition open to high school composers, with the winning piece to be debuted at the 50th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. Auditions will also be held for chairs in the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, which tours internationally and is a featured ensemble on the Festival's Sunday afternoon Arena/Lyons Stage.

The Next Generation Festival is an expansion of the Monterey Jazz Festival's Annual National High School Jazz Competition, now in its 37th year. The High School Jazz Competition is open to superior rated big bands, combos, and vocal ensembles. The non-competitive middle school category is open to superior rated big bands. The Next Generation Festival is also open to all college level big bands. “At the Next Generation Festival we emphasize the 'festival' aspect of the event and offer students, teachers, and jazz fans the opportunity to come together to share and enjoy this wonderful music called jazz," says Dr. Rob Klevan, the Director of Education of the Monterey Jazz Festival. “In the High School and College divisions, there is the competition and much at stake, but all who attend the NGF are truly winners in the end."

Next Generation finalists are selected through recorded audition by faculty from the Berklee College of Music, and will include twelve big bands, six combos, and six vocal ensembles in the high school division. Six middle school big bands and six college level big bands will also be selected. In addition, special invited groups will also perform; over 40 groups from across the United States are expected to attend the Next Generation Festival. The top big bands, combo and vocal ensemble will win cash awards and be invited to perform at the 50th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 21-23, 2007.

In addition, The Big Band Composition Competition is open to high school student composers. Judged by faculty at USC's Thornton School of Music, the winning composer will receive a cash award, and the honor of premiering the composition with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra on the Lyons Stage in the Arena before a crowd of 6500 fans.

As in the past, Next Generation Festival events - from the star studded Opening Night Concert to the hotly contested Big Band Finals on Saturday night - will be open to the public, free of charge. The Festival will also conduct clinics, workshops, jam sessions and auditions in the heart of the historic Monterey, with music to be performed at the Monterey Conference Center, the host Portola Plaza Hotel, in the recently renovated historic State Theater, and at Fisherman's Wharf.

Interested schools and students should visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org for instructions on how to apply to the Next Generation Festival. Applications with an audition tape/CD should be mailed to: Next Generation Festival, c/o Dr. Rob Klevan, Jazz Education Director, 9699 Blue Larkspur Lane, Monterey, CA, 93940.

Featured during the weekend of music will be the internationally renowned trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, who has been selected as the MJF's Artist-In-Residence for 2007. Born in New Orleans, Terence was one of the fire-tempered “Young Lions" of the early 80s, and has been on the cutting edge of the resurgence of hard- bop and other modern jazz styles for his entire adult life.

As MJF's Artist-In-Residence, Blanchard will work year-round with young student musicians in performances, clinics and one-on-one sessions at the Next Generation Festival and the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, in addition to performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival and at other MJF concerts and events throughout the year. Started in 2004, the MJF Artist-In-Residence program has brought the artists Regina Carter, Branford Marsalis and Kurt Elling to the Monterey Bay; their involvement and interaction with students provides a unique educational opportunity through mentorship with internationally-known artists that will last a lifetime.

Similarly, Blanchard has gained his unique voice through informal mentorship and formal studies. Born in 1962, he began to play the trumpet in elementary school, and was mentored by the New Orleans pianist and jazz patriarch, Ellis Marsalis. In the early 80s, he attended Rutgers University in New Jersey on a music scholarship and toured with vibraphone icon Lionel Hampton. In 1983 he replaced Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the ultimate “university" of jazz. By 1985, Terence was ready to graduate from Blakey's group; he and fellow Messenger saxophonist Donald Harrison split off to form a critically acclaimed project that lasted through the end of the decade.

Blanchard pursued a solo career in 1990, ultimately recording eight solo albums for the Columbia and Sony Classical labels, including Jazz in Film, Let's Get Lost and Wandering Moon. In 2003 he signed with the Blue Note label, releasing Bounce and Flow to critical success. Lauded for both his soundtracks and small group work, Blanchard's accolades include multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Mo' Better Blues, The Heart Speaks, The Promised Land and The 25th Hour, as well as instrumental and album Grammy nominations for Wandering Moon , Let's Get Lost and Flow. In 2005, Terence won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his participation on McCoy Tyner's Illuminations, an award he shared with Tyner, Gary Bartz, Christian McBride and Lewis Nash.

As a composer, Blanchard has enjoyed an association with the film director and actor Spike Lee; starting with 1991's Jungle Fever, some of Terence's scores for Lee's screen and television films include Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Four Little Girls, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, Inside Man and 2006's four-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

Terence continues to record and tour with both “Young Lions" and legends of the jazz world, and is the Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE NEXT GENERATION FESTIVAL

The genesis of the Next Generation Festival started in 1971 when Jimmy Lyons, the founder and General Manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival began presenting the winners of the California High School Jazz Band Competition on the final day of the MJF. Over the years, some of the young musicians who have participated in what tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman describes as “the Superbowl of California high school jazz competitions" have gone on to become stars of their generation their own right: saxophonists Joshua Redman, Dave Koz and Dave Ellis, pianists Benny Green and Patrice Rushen, multi- instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum, bassist Larry Grenadier and many more. In 2005, the competition was renamed the Next Generation Festival, and the High School All-Star Band morphed into the Next Generation Orchestra. Now in its third year, the NGF draws upon 37 years of educational experience, history and innovation to its expanding lineup and scope.

Starting with a modest $35,000 scholarship fund in 1970, the Monterey Jazz Festival now invests over $500,000 annually for jazz education in a variety of different programs which are a model of arts education for the entire nation. 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 improvise in jazz and Latin styles; the Artist-In-Residence Program, which brings a leading jazz performer to work one-on-one with the students throughout the year; the MJF Summer Jazz Camp; the MJF Instrument and Sheet Music Library; the Next Generation Festival and the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.