California’s Monterey Peninsula is considered one of the most beautiful locations in the United States, offering spectacular views of the California coast in a lush and tranquil setting. Each fall since 1958, this stunning location has hosted one of the nation’s longest running annual jazz events, the Monterey Jazz Festival. On Thursday, Feb. 28, the festival’s 50th anniversary tour comes to The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Featured performers include recent Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, saxophone legend James Moody, pianist and group music director Benny Green and guest vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Rounding out the band will be bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott, both longtime members of Blanchard’s working quintet.

MJF’s marketing associate Tim Orr said the idea for the anniversary tour emerged last year.

“The idea was to broaden the identity of the festival across the country, and to bring the message of what the Monterey Jazz Festival is about to people everywhere,” Orr said.

When arranging this year’s lineup, organizers selected musicians who embody the spirit of the festival and are devoted to music education. “We wanted the group to reflect the past, present and future of jazz, so it’s really an intergenerational band that have all had a similar experience at Monterey,” Orr said.

For my money, this is one of the more potent festival lineups to appear in a long time. All the performers are leaders in their own rights, and all have played alongside many of the greats in jazz history. Blanchard and Green, both alumni of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, have embarked on widely divergent careers as performers and composers. Green has released a series of superb duo recordings with guitarist Russell Malone and has been featured on Marian McPartland’s NPR show “Piano Jazz.” Blanchard has developed into one of the top film composers in Hollywood, having scored the music for all of Spike Lee’s films, including “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X” and the recent HBO documentary “When the Levees Broke,” an examination of the Hurricaine Katrina tragedy. That film led Blanchard to compose an extended work for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra called “A Tale of God’s Will—A Requiem for Katrina.” Released on Blue Note, the recording copped a Grammy for Best Jazz Recording earlier this month.

Remarkable jazz singer Nnenna Freelon has a great way with lyrics and can interact in any band with ease and creativity. She’s a logical extension of the Ella Fitzgerald/Billie Holiday approach and has performed entire shows of music associated with both artists. No doubt, the festival will feature moments in which she and James Moody mix it up with some powerful scat singing.
Which brings me to the venerable saxophonist. Now in his early 80s, Moody performs with the energy of someone 40 years younger. His storied career has found him performing with legends such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry, to name a select few. Moody has also fronted his own groups for decades. Moody performances usually include a blend of music and comedy, as he is a natural showman. He’s also one of the finest active jazz flautists. Moody has a zest for life that transcends his age and informs his music in a highly positive fashion.

No group can generate excitement if the bass-drum tandem isn’t up to the task, but Hodge and Scott are more than capable. Both have an empathy and rapport that has developed from their years in Blanchard’s quintet and from numerous other performances and recordings. They have the natural ability to go wherever the music needs to go, and they’ll provide the proper foundation of swing that the music demands.

Since its inception, the festival has been highlighted by many legendary performances. Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Joe Henderson and John Handy, to name a few, are among the players who have left indelible marks on the MJF. In 2007, festival organizers began releasing a series of recordings from past festivals on their own label, MJF Records, with more releases planned for this year and beyond. As Tim Orr explained, the process began partially out of a need for preservation.
“The fact is that the original recordings that were made were deteriorating. The tapes were literally falling apart,” he said. “These releases are like opening a gift. Each of these recordings is so unique, and they have significant historical value to a lot of people.”

Two recordings from last year’s releases that are worth checking out are a 1963 performance by the Miles Davis Quintet, featuring Herbie Hancock, Geroge Coleman, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and a 1964 performance by the Thelonious Monk Quartet, with Charlie Rouse, Steve Swallow and Ben Riley. Both are prime examples of the energy and high level of performance generated at Monterey.

Thursday’s concert should instill a sense of community that is largely absent from jazz today. Six artists from stylistically divergent arenas within the jazz idiom will utilize the music’s core language to honor an event that has taken great strides to perpetuate the music. Over the years, the Monterey Jazz Festival has become more diverse in its offerings, sometimes putting artists like Los Lobos or James Hunter on the same bill as some of the legends mentioned earlier. Many jazz fans describe MJF as the West Coast’s answer to the Newport Jazz Festival, but I feel that such comparisons are too dismissive of how each festival honors and presents the music in its own unique fashion. The show on Thursday will celebrate a prestigious jazz festival in one of the premier listening venues in the Northeast.

The Montery Jazz Festival begins at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28, and will be followed by a members-only after party at 10:30 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $52. To order tickets, visit www.themusichall.org or call 603-436-2400.