Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary Celebration Comes to Mesa Arts Center, 4/26
The Mesa Arts Center will host the longest consecutively running jazz festival, Monterey. Celebrate the Festival's legacy of expanding the boundaries of live jazz presentation on Friday, April 26 in the Ikeda Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through the Mesa Arts Center Box Office at MesaArtsCenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500.
This 55th Anniversary Tour presents an All-Star Jazz Collaboration of the acclaimed jazz artists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian McBride, Ambrose Akinmusire, Chris Potter, Benny Green, and Lewis Nash. This Tour also reflects Monterey's "traditional-untraditionalist" attitude, jazz-with-a-purpose exuberance, and joyful fun that continue to be the trademark of the Monterey Jazz Festival to this day. Dee Dee Bridgewater has had a multi-faceted career that has spanned four decades. She has risen to the top of today's jazz vocalists by putting her own spin on standards and bravely re-envisioning jazz classics. Christian McBride is a bassist, bandleader, educator, artistic director, and Grammy Award winner. Ambrose Akinmusire is a startling fresh young talent as a trumpeter-composer whose first album When the Heart Emerges Glistening has been called "nothing short of a manifesto".
Chris Potter is a world-class soloist, an accomplished composer, a formidable bandleader, and a talented saxophonist. Down Beat called him "One of the most studied, and copied, saxophonists on the planet". Benny Green is a master of keyboard technique and has decades of real world experience playing with some of the most celebrated artists of the last half century. Finally, Lewis Nash is an American jazz drummer who grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Nash always seems to be at home in a wide range of stylistic territory including funk, free, and Latin-based jazz styles.

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Annie TheaterWorks (7/10-7/26) |
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Mystery and Magic Dinner Theater - 'Murder at the Magic Show II' Magic and Mystery Dinner Theater at Dante's Fire (6/26-6/27) |
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British Invasion: The Who, The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, The Zombies, The Animals and more Hale Centre Theatre Arizona (10/09-10/24) |
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Tab Benoit: Soul of the Swamp Tour Fox Tucson Theatre (8/21-8/21) |
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The Seagull Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival (8/14-8/15) |
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Dear Evan Hansen Phoenix Theatre-AZ (6/10-8/02) |
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Mariachi Sol De Mexico presents 'Jose Hernandez' Merry-Achi Christmas Fox Tucson Theatre (12/19-12/19) |
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A Tribute to Woodstock 1969: The Music of Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, The Band, Jefferson Airplane and more Hale Centre Theatre Arizona (8/14-8/29) |
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Marlon Wayans Fox Tucson Theatre (10/10-10/10) |









