Julian Bills
President
A Message from our Jazz Bash By The Bay President
Our 45th Festival is coming soon: March 7, 8, 9, 2025. As we look ahead to our event this coming year, many of us marvel at how fast the decades have passed and how immensely popular our event remains. A spectacular testimony to all of us who appreciate and love the traditional music of Dixieland! Across the nation, music festivals have come and gone. By far the majority of those that have not survived the passage of time appear to have one thing in common: popularity sometimes dwindles with changing cycles (economic, political, cultural). The temptation to update, reinvent, modify the music and musicians often proves irresistible.
Not so with Dixieland Monterey’s Jazz Bash By The Bay!
Our commitment to embracing our music is supported and underscored by the number of young outstanding musicians who are playing traditional music from Dixieland. Now currently, many commercials and movies frequently are presented with background music from The Jazz Age.
It is almost impossible not to feel happy and excited when listening to, and enjoying the many songs, tunes and performances of traditional jazz.
For 2025, we have selected many of your timeless favorite bands and musicians; we have increased the piano duos, dance floors at many of the venues, and one exciting new idea: a Dance Host. Going from venue to venue, he will circulate and invite some of those in the audience to dance. Many of our attendees have partners who are not dancers and or who attend the festival alone.