Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/357002
C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 4 187 Raising the Standards T h e 5 7 t h A n n u a l M o n t e r e y J a z z F e s t i v a l G e t s E v e n B e t t e r B Y M I C H A E L C H AT F I E L D The MJF 2014 Showcase Artist is saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who has been playing with jazz greats since the mid-1950s. He performs every night of this year's festival, highlighting his range with a duo, trio and quartet. T he 2014 Monterey Jazz Festival lineup includes some old friends, some new blood and plenty of musical surprises. So what else is new? The longest continuously running jazz fes- tival on Planet Earth certainly didn't get that way by being stodgy, boring or predictable. This year, Artistic Director Tim Jackson has put together a stellar three-day program, running September 19-21, that touches base at just about every corner of American music. Familiar names include Herbie Hancock, a genre-jumping ar tist whose work spans more than a half centur y and encompasses collab- orations with Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Chick Corea and Jaco Pastorius and many others. Hancock performs Friday at 10:20pm. Following a rousing showing in Dizzy's Den in 2011, Rober t Glasper Experiment (with guest pianist Jason Moran) is set to light up the main stage just before Hancock at 8:50pm with its unique and soulful amalgam of jazz, hip-hop and R&B. F R E S H F A C E , S U B L I M E S I N G I N G A newcomer is Cecile McLorin Salvant, an exciting new talent who has already caused quite a stir for a woman of 25. She was named Up and Coming Ar tist of the Year in the 2014 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards and was nominated for a Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for "WomanChild." The New York Times' Ben Ratliff recently wrote of her : "Her voice clamps into each song, performing careful variations on pitch, stretching words but generally not scat- ting; her face conveys meaning, representing sorrow or serenity like a silent-movie actor." Her two Friday performances—on the Jimmy Lyons Stage at 7:30pm, followed by an appear- ance at the Night Club at 10:30pm—are not to be missed. Photo: Cole Thompson