20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 24-30, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Sunday in the main arena. Carter has the world record for recording albums, a whopping 2,200. He’s performed with all the greats since the early 1960s. Here Carter plays with the three outstanding musicians of his quartet: Payton Crossley on drums, Renee Rosnes on piano and Jimmy Greene on tenor sax. Saturday, Sept. 26 MARIACHI HERENCIA DE MÉXICO 12:30pm, Ray Drummond West End Stage Two-time Grammy nominee Mariachi Herencia de México features a new generation of 15 mariachi musicians who are pushing the boundaries of the traditional form. The band honors the past while creating the future of the music, electrifying audiences along the way. DAVID SANCHEZ CARIB ENSEMBLE 2:15pm, Jimmy Lyons Stage One of the world’s finest saxophonists and bandleaders, David Sanchez, presents his latest album Tambó, digging deep into his Afro-Caribbean roots and drawing from his travels among the African Diaspora throughout the Americas. MONTEREY SURPRISE: 1958 THROWBACK 2:15pm, Ray Drummond West End Stage This should be a delight, seeing modern masters step in for jazz icons who performed at the very first festival in 1958. The icons who made history for Monterey are Billie Holiday, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Max Roach and the Modern Jazz Quartet. Masters include trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, drummer Brian Blade, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Larry Grenadier and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana. MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO: AMERICA 250 COMMISSION 7pm, Jimmy Lyons Stage This year’s commission artist, the incomparable Meshell Ndegeocello, presents her work “America 250.” (See story, page 18.) LINDA MAY HAN OH TRIO WITH FABIAN ALMAZAN AND MARK WHITFIELD JR. 7pm, Pacific Jazz Café Linda May Han Oh is an award-winning bassist and composer who has performed for such artists as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Terri Lyne Carrington, Steve Wilson and many others. Known for her impressive improvisation while performing bold, contemporary jazz, Oh leads the trio in a performance described as “at once deeply expressive and electrifyingly alive.” Sunday, Sept. 27 GOSPEL WITH TAMMY HALL AND FRIENDS 11:15am, Tim Jackson Garden Stage In 2022, the festival presented for the first time in its history a set devoted purely to gospel and spiritual music on Sunday. It quickly became a tradition for the early risers among festival fans. Notable—and local—pianist-composer-arranger-musical director Tammy Hall leads the show, directing and conducting the Morgan State and Texas Southern University gospel choirs. BRITTANY DAVIS & BLACK THUNDER Noon, Jimmy Lyons Stage Brittany Davis, blind since birth, released her first album, Image Issues, in 2023. The keyboardist and singer joined with Evan Flory-Barnes on bass and D’Vonne Lewis on drums to record the recently released album Black Thunder. The album brings to mind artists like Nina Simone, Roberta Flack and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. (The trio also appears at 3:30pm inside the Pacific Jazz Café.) AJA MONET 3:30pm, Jimmy Lyons Stage and 7:15pm, Tim Jackson Garden Stage MJF taps into the rising global popularity of spoken word poetry, bringing surrealist blues poet Aja Monet to its stages to perform her poems combined with modern jazz. She is the youngest recipient of the Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry title and her debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do, was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album in 2024. AMY TAN & JOEY ALEXANDER: BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES LIVE 5:15pm, Pacific Jazz Café Bestselling author Amy Tan brings another spoken word/jazz combination performance with jazz pianist phenom Joey Alexander, who at 23 years old has three Grammy award nominations to his name, one for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and two for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. Tan’s illustrated book The Backyard Bird Chronicles spent 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET: FOREST FLOWER 60TH ANNIVERSARY 6pm, Jimmy Lyons Stage In 1966, jazz master Charles Lloyd and his quartet recorded an album during the festival, Forest Flower, Live at Monterey, combining straight-ahead postbop, free jazz, rock and world music. It proved to be a crossover hit, selling over 1 million copies. Lloyd returns with his current quartet that includes pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. HERBIE HANCOCK & RON CARTER: FOR MILES 7:45pm, Jimmy Lyons Stage A historic pairing of two of the genre’s greatest artists. (See story, page 22.) The Monterey Jazz Festival runs 3:30-10:15pm Friday, Sept. 25; noon-10:15pm Saturday, Sept. 26; 11:15am-10:15pm Sunday. Sept. 27. Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey. $73-$95/ single-day grounds; $120-$225/single-day arena; $240/ three-day grounds; $480-$740/three-day arena. (831) 308-4653, montereyjazz.org. DANIEL N. JOHNSON Monterey Jazz Festival 2026 EBRU YILDIZ SHERVIN LAINEZ LAWRENCE SUMULONG Aja Monet Wynton Marsalis Cécile McLorin Salvant Linda May Han Oh Trio Mariachi Herencia de México GROOVE continued from pg. 19 GRUPO VIVALAMUSICA
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