The 62nd Monterey Jazz Festival, running Friday-Sunday, Sept. 27-29, on the bucolic Monterey County Fairgrounds, presents some of the best-known acts working in jazz and kindred musical traditions. Part of what makes each season distinctive is that the festival taps jazz artists for special responsibilities.
In addition to performing in the Christian McBride Situation with Patrice Rushen, bassist McBride is this year’s commission artist. Saturday night on the main stage he plans to premiere his tribute to the late, beloved trumpeter Roy Hargrove, “Roy Anthony: The Fearless One,” with his Grammy Award-winning big band.
The festival’s artists in residence, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Allison Miller, are expected to present “Soul on Soul: A Tribute to Mary Lou Williams” on the main stage Friday night, drawing on the legendary pianist/composer’s albums “Black Christ of the Andes” and “Zoning.” They also perform with their own ensembles on the grounds.
With festival seating and a single admission price, grounds tickets offer access to an extraordinary range of music, with five primary stages running concurrently.
Here are five other grounds acts that make this Monterey festival the weekend’s best musical bargain:
Chris Potter Circuits Trio
A tenor saxophonist possessing preternatural command of the horn with a torrential flow of arresting phrases, Chris Potter’s latest ensemble is a molten, stripped-down, plugged-in trio with keyboardist James Francies and drummer extraordinaire Eric Harland.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27. Dizzy’s Den.
Luciana Souza
The Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza is expected to perform songs from a recent album setting the poems of Leonard Cohen to music, “The Book of Longing,” featuring ace bassist Scott Colley and Brazilian guitarist Chico Pinheiro. She returns to the Nightclub at 10 p.m. to perform with the Yellowjackets.
5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. Nightclub.
Steven Bernstein and MTO West
From Duke Ellington to Prince, Berkeley-reared slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein translates a century of popular music via the rambunctious, riff-based dance music that roared out of the Southwest in the 1930s with his MTO West, a little big band that includes violinist Jenny Scheinman, tenor saxophonist Howard Wiley and drummer Scott Amendola.
8:45 Saturday, Sept. 28. Garden Stage.
Amina Claudine Myers
Kicking off a night of Hammond B-3 players in the venue, the brilliant but West Coast-scarce Amina Claudine Myers brings her singular blend of deep gospel grooves and expansive harmonic palette honed during her years collaborating with Chicago innovators like Lester Bowie and Muhal Richard Abrams.
6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29. Nightclub.
Ambrose Akinmusire Origami Harvest
Expect East Bay trumpet star Ambrose Akinmusire to present his volatile program combining contemporary classical composition with unsettled strains of hip-hop, post-bop, funk and poetry delivered by New York’s Mivos Quartet, art-rapper Kool A.D., drummer Marcus Gilmore, pianist Sam Harris and others.
7:45 Sunday, Sept. 29. Garden Stage.
62nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 27-29. $20-$435. Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey. 888-248-6499. www.montereyjazzfestival.org