Monterey Celebrates 50 Years With Book

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MONTEREY, CALIF.—The Monterey Jazz Festival has announced the release of The Art of Jazz: Monterey Jazz Festival / 50 Years, a celebratory coffee table book that captures the MJF experience through posters, program covers and exclusive photographs dating back to 1958.

“As we approached our 50th year, we wanted to have a book that showed literally the ‘art’ of the festival,” said Tim Jackson, general manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival since 1992. “The posters demonstrate the progression of the festival’s artistic statement, not just on stage, but how its images have changed over the years.”

The book also includes a foreword by actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood (a member of MJF’s board of directors) and a decade-by-decade look at the world and the festival, explored through essays and photographs.

The 142-page book is available for pre-order at the MJF website, montereyjazzfestival.org. It will arrive in bookstores across the country July 31. 



  • Cassandra_Wilson_%40_2026_Mark_Sheldon-2_copy_2.jpg

    Wilson’s ability to connect to audiences helped her to win two Grammy awards and multiple other accolades. She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2022.

  • Pritesh_Walia_courtesy_Pritesh_Walia.jpg

    “The love from the jazz and music community restored my faith in humanity,” Walia wrote in an online post upon his release from detention at an ICE facility.

  • GB_Headshot_copy.jpg

    Bertoncini was a specialist and advocate for the nylon-string acoustic guitar, turning down high-profile opportunities that were unsuited to the sound and techniques that he used with that instrument.

  • DB26_Joshua_Redman_Courtesy_Joshua_Redman.jpg

    A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.

  • Coltrane_John_by_Joe_Alper_copy.jpeg

    “It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”