Attendance at Monterey Bash up 25%

Brian Holland’s admonition on Facebook said it all. “If you weren’t in Monterey the first weekend in March for the 2026 Jazz Bash By The Bay, you missed out. The Festival was one for the record books. Best time EVAHHH!”

Brian collaborated with Jeff Barnhart as co-artistic directors responsible for lining up 90 musicians to fill 173 sets in eight venues scattered about the Portola Hotel and Monterey Conference Center over the three days for the 46th annual festival presented by Dixieland Monterey.

Festival director and Monterey Hot Jazz Society president Julian Bills welcomed those in attendance, pointing out, “Many of us marvel at how fast the decades have passed and how immensely popular our event remains. It is a spectacular testimony to all of us who appreciate and love the traditional music of Dixieland.

“Popularity sometimes dwindles with changing cycles (economic, political, cultural), and the temptation to update, reinvent and 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 by the number of young musicians who are playing traditional music from Dixieland. Many current 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.”

While adhering to Dixieland Monterey’s mission statement “to facilitate the live performance and broader appreciation of early jazz and other historically-related music from the 1920s and ’30s as part of our American heritage,” Bills attributed the increase in badge sales (from 1500 in 2025 to 1950 in 2026) to a modern-day technological phenomenon: increased utilization of Social Media in promoting the Festival.

Festival Dedicated to Bob Draga

The Festival was dedicated to the memory of clarinetist Bob Draga was passed away in September 2025 at the age of 78. He was described as “a man who shared much music, joy and laughter with so many over the past 40 years on the jazz circuit.”

Before a full house in the DeAnza Ballroom, a succession of speakers that included Yve Evans, Pieter Meijers, Tom Rigney, Dave Ruffner and Danny Coots exchanged tall tales about Bob’s well-known antics and payed tribute to the man who was known as a larger-than-life personality as well as a superb musician.

Tom Rigney called Bob “one of the most brilliant natural musicians I have ever met or played with. His virtuosity on the clarinet was matchless, but it was linked to a deep musicality and a powerfully expressive sense of tone and phasing.”

“He was also one of the funniest humans in our planet’s long history, and his humor was aways surprising, inappropriate, usually in poor taste, and nevertheless, hilarious for its lack of decorum. Who can ever forget when he jumped on stage wearing a silver wig, long-flowered kimono, and red-painted sneakers. He was the consummate entertainer, having mastered the art of pleasing an audience with his musical talent, classy appearance and entertaining repartee.”

Hal Smith, Musician of the Year

The Festival has been honoring a Musician of the Year annually since 2004, and the latest to join that distinguished list is peripatetic drummer Hal Smth. Hal has been playing jazz for 63 years and has been a full-time professional for nearly 50 of those years.

Jazz blogger Michael Steinman has written: “I don’t know what religion Hal Smith practices, but he works miracles when he plays. He is an old-fashioned drummer in the best contemporary style. His rollicking beat makes any band sit up straight and play a thousand times better.”

Over the years, Hal has compiled an impressive resume not only as a versatile drummer, but also as a bandleader, recording artist, jazz society administrator, journalist, and, not the least, as an enthusiastic rail-fanning hobbyist.

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of virtually every old-time musician who ever picked up a horn or beat a drum as evidenced by the “Ain’t Cha Got Music” column that runs monthly in this newspaper.

Hal made a point of studying the techniques of top drummers like Nick Fatool, Ben Pollack, Wayne Jones, and Fred Higuera in live performances and took lessons from the legendary Jake Hanna. He cites Bill Dart (Lu Watters’ drummer) and Zutty Singleton as among his early influences, noting, “I would pick up various aspects of drumming from those pros, and it all became my interpretation of their various styles.”

“Later on, Chris Tyle introduced me to Dave Tough’s drumming, which really opened my eyes and brought about changes in the way I play the drums.” (Considered one of the most important drummers of the 1930s and ’40s, Tough was influential in defining Chicago-style jazz.)

Impressive Roster of Past & Present Performers

The Festival program included an impressive list of some 175 bands and over 80 guest artists that have performed on the Monterey waterfront over the years. The likes of Dave Bennett, Tom Rigney, Yve Evans, Eddie Erickson and Ann & Jeff Barnhart are always among the top draws, the 2026 festival being no exception. The Blue Street and South Frisco Reunion bands brought back fond memories of the heyday of Dixieland festivals.

“Variety” was the theme for the 70 special sets on the program. Crescent Katz’s off-the-cuff. no-rules, no-arrangements style harkens back to the days when jazz was party music, and the party never ended. The 33-member Pacific (British-style) Brass Band gave a stimulating two-hour concert of military marches, rags and folk tunes.

There were piano players aplenty on hand, so just name a tune or style, and the twin pianos of Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi or Caroline Dahl, Andrew Oliver. Frederick Hodges, Carl Sonny Leyland, Virginia Tichenor, Jason Wanner, or Chris Dawson undoubtedly played it during the 30-plus hours that music permeated the hotel and conference center. Even Jeff Barnhart and Brian Holland managed to demonstrate their keyboard skills along with their booking and scheduling duties.

Nicole Pesce Impresses

Festival directors are just discovering stride pianist-composer Nicole Pesce, who happens to be the busiest and most popular jazz musician in Phoenix, Arizona. Beginning at age 7, she was classically-trained by her late father. At 10, she had memorized 500 tunes and soon landed a steady gig at the prestigious Phoenician Resort, becoming the youngest pianist ever hired to play for “high tea.”

She began composing at 11 and has since written 300 songs. Sixty-million television viewers saw her on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon when she was 12, followed by a year-long residency in Los Vegas. She has memorized and cataloged 12,000 songs that she can and has performed, and her “Happy Birthday Variations” has had over 20 million YouTube views.

Eddie Erickson’s Warehouse Reunion

Jovial Eddie Erickson joined his banjo-playing buddies to reminisce about their colorful days performing at Capone’s Warehouse on Cannery Row in Monterey. “The Warehouse was a family joint that evolved into a nightclub. It was usually a free-for-all where anything was apt to happen.”

“But for me, it was like a university for learning about show business and being an entertainer. We did a lot of Spike Jones routines, and I even had a guitar shaped like a toilet seat. The waitresses were called ‘The Untouchables,’ and I ended up marrying one of them.”

Considered the West Coast’s premium Zydeco band, the Zydeco Flames kept the dancers happy with their sizzling, roots-driven rhythms. Josh Duffee’s 10-piece Graystone Monarchs recalled the hot jazz of the territory bands of the 1920s and 30s. San Lyon transported the audience to the cafes of Paris with their Parisian melodies, and Dave Bennett did his Jerry Lee Lewis routine without demolishing the piano. The final set in the DeAnza Ballroom was an all-out, no-holds-barred jam session led by Katie Cavera.

Festival #47: March 5-7, 2027

This review only covered a sampling of what transpired March 6-8, 2026 in Monterey, California. So as Brian Holland pointed out, best you plan to be in Monterey the weekend of March 5-7, 2027 so you won’t miss being part in all the festivities – when most of this year’s lineup will return along with the addition of vocalist Dawn Lambeth, super reedman Adrian Cunningham (originally from Australia, now living in Spain), Marc Caparone’s All-Stars, the Travis Anderson Trio and many more.