Monterey 56 scrapbook: even more reasons we love the Festival

Random moments. Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca's band had just played the opening set on the first night on the Garden Stage.

Signed CDs.

Press creds.

Wandering the fairgrounds before the Festival opens. The Arena seats thousands. It's a fancy-schmancy place. The seating is rows of metal chairs tied together. The floor is covered with a thick layer of sawdust. There is no ceiling. Planes fly directly overhead, low and loud, on their way to and from the nearby Monterey Airport.

The Garden Stage and some of the oaks for which the Festival grounds are famous.

The dining room, not yet set up.

It takes a long time to cook ribs properly, so he starts early in the day. Wish I'd snapped this a few seconds sooner, when he lifted the lid of the cooker to a billow of smoke as large as the cloud overhead.

Dave Holland (l) with the Craig Taborn Quartet: Dave King, Chris Lightcap, Craig Taborn, and Chris Speed. Photo by Louise Holland. Dave King sent it to me because he's wearing a scarf I loaned him after the Quartet played.

Jazz buses. A collaboration between Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) and the Monterey Jazz Festival, these colorful buses have run daily year-round since 2012 along the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor in Monterey County. The 30 new bus shelters are a linear jazz museum, with vintage photos from the Monterey Jazz Archives and descriptive text by jazz writer Bill Minor. Each has a bar code that can be scanned with a smart phone to link to a live recording of a performance from a particular year of the Festival. Photos: Monterey-Salinas Transit.

Dr. Lonnie Smith (l) came to hear Willard Jenkins (c) interview Lonnie's old friend, NEA Jazz Master Lou Donaldson (r). Lonnie and Lou played together for many years; Lou joined Lonnie for a set at the Festival's final show in Dizzy's Den.

Crowds.

Kids.

Visiting the exhibit "Brubeck at Monterey: Six Decades of Excellence" in the Coffee House Gallery and finding something you've written.

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All photos by John Whiting and Pamela Espeland unless otherwise indicated.

Related: Monterey 56 2013, a photo set on Flickr.