52nd Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Orchestra at the
52nd Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Orchestra is the premiere jazz big band on the Monterey Peninsula, incorporating the finest players from the Monterey Peninsula and contemporary, progressive musical arrangements, under the highly capable baton (OK, index finger!) of bandleader Paul Contos.
The Monterey Jazz Orchestra on the Night Club Stage
This is the entire show including Paul’s introductions and comments. Most songs start with a brief, quiet spoken intro, so please be patient. The music will start in a short while. To hear the entire set non-stop, click the first tune and enjoy…
About the Music
The Monterey Jazz Orchestra has had a bumpy ride, with CSU Monterey Bay offering and then retracting support for this organization, which combines the very best of the Monterey Peninsula musicians into a punchy, dynamic unit. When its regular Tuesday night venue closed, attempts were made to resurrect the band at a different location, but it remains difficult to get 16 top players together at any time. Watch this site for further developments.
The band chose to perform an original composition of mine, The Kinder Gentler Groove. (Thanks, guys!)
I was re-arranging some of the parts right up till the day before the performance, so the band essentially was sight-reading, even though we had played it several times before.
Personnel:
- Paul Contos: Alto Sax, bandleader
- Stu Reynolds: Alto Sax
- Roger Eddy, Todd Clickard: Tenor Sax
- Paul Tarantino: Bari Sax
- Brian Stock,Ron Coolidge,David Hoffman: Trumpet
- Matt Barclay, Jackson Stock, John Bissett: Trombone
- Eddie Mendenhall [1-6], David ‘Dasher’ Kempton [7-8]: Keyboards
- Steve Uccello, Heath Proskin: Bass
- Skyler Campbell: Drums
