CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA : TUNING UP FOR MORE JAZZ FESTIVALS

With the summer jazz festival season now in full swing, details have been announced of several major events to take place within the next two months.

The 29th annual Monterey Jazz Festival will be held Sept. 19-21 at the Monterey Fairgrounds, on the main stage as well as in two smaller venues.

Stephane Grappelli, Joe Kennedy and Claude Williams will trade choruses in a “violin summit” at the opening concert. Others to be heard during the weekend include singers Sue Raney, Linda Hopkins, Etta James, Dianne Reeves and John Lee Hooker, and the vocal group Rare Silk. Other groups will be led by the saxophonists Richie Cole, Frank Morgan and Charles McPherson.

Trumpeter/composer Bill Berry will again conduct the All-Star High School Band. Two groups from Japan, the Keio University Band from Tokyo and a vocal quintet called Time Five, will appear. Big-band sounds will be provided by the Frank Capp/Nat Pierce Juggernaut and the Bob Florence Orchestra.

Mundell Lowe, the festival’s musical director, will lead his own quartet in addition to playing with the house rhythm section, along with Hank Jones, Monty Budwig and Vince Lateano. Information: (408) 373-3366.

Prior to Monterey, there will be several events in or near California.

The Pacific Coast Jazz Festival will be staged Aug. 31, at the Holiday Inn in Irvine. Organized by Fred Norsworthy of Community Services at Orange Coast College, the eight-hour event will be heard in four locations throughout the hotel. The lineup includes Gerald Wilson’s Orchestra featuring Harold Land; the West Indian trumpeter Dizzy Reece in his first California appearance, playing with the Walter Bishop Quintet and the Robert Conti All Stars; Shorty Rogers’ Giants featuring Bill Perkins; the Claude Williamson Trio; the Mike Fahn Quintet with John Patitucci; the Pepper Adams Quintet with Jack Sheldon, and several others. Information: (714) 432-5880.

Overlapping with the Irvine presentation will be the third annual Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival, to be held Aug. 29 through Sept. 1 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel. Opening-night attractions include Conrad Janis and the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, Wild Bill Davison and Maxine Sullivan. The Aug. 30 show will include the Sons of Bix from Denver, and traditionalist bands from San Francisco and Washington. Pete Fountain will appear Aug. 31; the final program will present Turk Murphy and bands from Argentina and East Berlin. Information: (213) 867-7501; (818) 340-1516.

Another one-day marathon will be “Jazz on the Rocks,” the fifth annual convocation in a spectacular outdoor setting in Sedona, Ariz. This will start Sept. 27 at 9:30 a.m. and will continue until sunset. The talent roster will include Louis Bellson, Billy Eckstine, Ira Sullivan, Doug MacLeod, Dianne Reeves and Jazz Berry Jam. Information: (602) 282-1985.