Slideshow: Berklee Celebrates 20 Years with Monterey Jazz Festival
Legendary 27-time Grammy-winning producer, composer, musician, music business mogul, and humanitarian Quincy Jones H’83, a 1951 Berklee alumnus, shares a hug backstage at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Berklee student Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, the Cuban pianist and vocalist who leads Mixcla +1, which performed at the festival.
Gerson Lazo-Quiroga
Tim Jackson, artistic director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, receives the George Wein Impresario Award on the festival’s Jimmy Lyons Stage. Congratulating Jackson (center) on stage are Umbria Jazz Festival founder Carlo Pagnotta, Grammy-winning Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington ’83 H’03, Clint Eastwood, Berklee Provost Larry Simpson, Monterey Jazz Festival board chair Luis Alvarez, Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride, Jones, and Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman.
Jim Stone
Berklee student ensemble Mixcla + 1 open the Monterey Jazz Festival on the Garden Stage, enrapturing the capacity crowd with their Cuban and South American sounds. From left to right: Cuban pianist and vocalist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora; Chilean bassist and vocalist Gerson Lazo-Quiroga; Japanese hand percussionist Takafumi Nikaido; and Ecuadorian trumpeter Paul Sanchez.
Tom Ehrlich/Timba.com
Gonzalez Zamora soars with her bandmates at a second performance, this one at the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Coffee House Stage.
Tom Ehrlich/Timba.com
Kenton Dick (center, receives the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee, presented in partnership with the Monterey Jazz Festival. The alto saxophonist from Canada wowed the crowd at this past April’s Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival, along with his Nanaimo, British Columbia classmate, drummer Ethan Olynyk. Kenton is pictured here with Berklee Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost Larry Simpson (left) and Monterey Jazz Festival Board Vice President Carsbia Anderson Jr. (right).
Rob Hayes
Berklee’s long partnership with the Monterey Jazz Festival hit the 20-year milestone on September 16-18, 2016 at the 59th Monterey Jazz Festival. Each year, the festival features an ensemble of current Berklee students in two high-profile performances—a gig that in years past has featured the likes of Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Sarah McKenzie, Walter Smith III, and Katie Thiroux as bandleaders.
This year, the student ensemble was Mixcla + 1, led by Cuban pianist and vocalist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, which opened the festival on the Garden Stage.
In a special presentation at the festival this year, Berklee honored Tim Jackson, artistic director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, with the George Wein Impresario Award, which recognizes “individuals who bring music to life, through their dedication to discovering, mentoring, presenting, and promoting creative musicians and their music.” In receiving the award, Jackson was joined on stage by Umbria Jazz Festival founder Carlo Pagnotta (who has also received the Wein Award), Grammy-winning Berklee Professor Terri Lyne Carrington ’83 H’03, director and actor Clint Eastwood, Berklee Provost Larry Simpson, Monterey Jazz Festival Board Chair Luis Alvarez, Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride, Quincy Jones '51 H'83, and Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman.
The college also presented the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship for the 20th time. This year, the full-tuition, four-year scholarship, which is named after the festival’s founder, went to Kenton Dick, a talented alto saxophonist from Canada.
View the slideshow above for more on Berklee at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival.
Watch Mixcla perform at Berklee's Shames Family Scoring Stage: