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Ellis Marsalis - The Last Southern Gentleman

The Last Southern Gentleman: Remembering Ellis Marsalis

My life and Ellis Marsalis’ have intersected in a few, fleeting moments. For me, at least, those interactions—some in person, most not—have made powerful impressions and abiding memories.

Mondavi Center Staff Picks: Rob Tocalino

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

Mondavi Center Staff Picks: Georgia Agerton

Mondavi Center Staff Picks: Erin Kelley

Greetings from Fred Hersch!

Fred Hersch sent us a video telling us about his upcoming series of performances at the Mondavi Center, April 10-13, 2019.

What is "jazz"?

What is “jazz”?

And why is it important?

Read on for thoughts on this seemingly unanswerable question published in our Gateway magazine.

Damien Sneed On "We Shall Overcome" At The Mondavi Center

Damien Sneed talks with us about his upcoming performance of We Shall Overcome, A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Don't miss Damien Sneed live at the Mondavi Center on March 1, 2019!

The Stan Kenton Christmas Carols - Liner Notes from Boston Brass and the Brass All-Stars Big Band recording

The decision to record an album of Christmas music was not easily accepted by Stan Kenton. Thanks to these liner notes from Boston Brass, learn how this seasonal classic from 1961 become a reality.

Student Voices: Institutional Infinity - The Power of Musical Patronage

With the right outlook, nonprofits should be able to provide commissioned artists not with a rigid set of expectations, but a nexus and an impetus to create art on their own terms and with their own idiosyncrasies. SFJazz showed me the power of that potential. With the infinitude of the universe for inspiration, how could musicians find the act of being commissioned anything but liberating?

Student Voices: History, Jazz, and the Educational Value of Live Performance

I am certain that without my class on Latin American racial dynamics, I would have been unable to appreciate the full implications of projects like these; similarly, without my seminar about 1950s jazz, I couldn't have put Charles’s boundary-pushing music in its proper context. But without the experience of that live performance in April 2017, my academic perspective on the music would’ve remained just that—academic. The Mondavi Center made it personal.