This is the 55th year for the Monterey Jazz Festival and, in celebration of the anniversary, organizers are taking the show on the road. It arrives in Philly on Saturday, February 2nd for a single performance with a powerhouse lineup.
The concert will feature everything from vocal jazz to bee bop, fusion, free and soul jazz.
Philly native and 3 time Grammy award winning bassist Christian McBride will direct the program.
Matt Wolf, VP of Programming, Kimmel Center said, "We're really excited because of Christian's involvement in the jazz show but also is Dee Dee Bridgewater who's going to be performing works from her brand new album To Billie with Love Dee Dee so it's going to be a wonderful evening featuring some of the songs of Billie Holiday."
Other headliners include pianist Benny Green, jazz drummer Lewis Nash and saxophonist Chris Potter.
"The festival is really based around this whole jazz with a purpose idea, this sort of traditional, untraditionalist and I think ultimately that energy and this collection of artists is what makes this music so wonderful," said Wolf.
"There's different moments in the evening that's going to feature each of what they do so you'll have a moment with Christian and you'll have a moment with DeeDee and that's what makes it really special is that there's a piece of the evening that every jazz lover is going to be really excited about," added Wolf.
The Monterey Jazz Festival's 55th anniversary tour hits the Merriam Theater on Saturday, February 2nd at 8pm. For tickets, go to Kimmel Center.
