Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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.
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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