We’re back from the 54th annual Monterey Jazz Festival where we were onsite at the Monterey Fair Grounds with a Mini-Amoeba store selling CDs, vinyl, posters, and special edition jazz t-shirts. We were also live blogging all about the amazing signings with jazz luminaries we hosted at our tent and making hundreds of new friends! Now it’s time to share the photos and great experiences we had withthe many heroes and their fans we met while out in Monterey.

There were several artists that made a huge splash at the festival and their albums flew off our Mini-Amoeba shelves directly after their performances. Friday night, pianist Hiromi gave two performances that blew the audiences’ socks off and created a weekend-long craze for her newest release, Voice. Another was Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter India.Arie who performed with Israeli artist Idan Raichel on Sunday. Their collaboration, Open Door, hasn’t been released yet, but you should check out their separate works, which were very popular at our tent. Bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and bandleader Richard Bona performed with guitarist, singer, and songwriter Raul Midon as the Duwala Malambo Project on Friday and Saturday, creating quite a stir for their back catalogue.

Today at the Mini-Amoeba at the Monterey Jazz Festival we were lucky nab an Interview with John Pizzarelli, the world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer, after he signed autographs in celebration of his latest album Rockin’ In Rhythm. Thanks to Bennett Jackson for joining us for this fun conversation with a true great.

This year marks the 54th annual Monterey Jazz Festival AND the very first to have Amoeba Music onsite with a Mini-Amoeba store and as a sponsor!

The Monterey Jazz Festival runs September 16 - 18 at the Monterey Fairgrounds (2000 Fairground Road in Monterey, California), which has been the site of the Festival since its inception in 1958!