Tuesday, March 11

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL 50th ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Used to be you traveled far to take in an event peculiar to a place or region—Mardi Gras in Mobile or New Orleans, the circuit of East Coast bluegrass festivals, the running of the bulls—and travel was part and parcel of the experience. Nowadays, however, purveyors of regionally branded institutions send their product directly to you. Sometimes, as in this case, that’s a good thing: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Monterey Jazz Festival has unmoored its venerable self, pared down to a skeleton crew of ace musicians and set sail on a 22-state tour. The touring band features Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Moody on saxophone, Benny Green on piano, Derrick Hodge on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums, along with vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Each member of this lineup has a close affiliation with Monterey Jazz, none more so than Moody, who has been playing there since 1963, when he backed up Dizzy Gillespie. Blanchard was Monterey’s artist-in-residence last year, when he premiered A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina, parts of which were featured in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke.

—geoff kelly

8pm. UB Center for the Arts, North Campus

(645-ARTS/ubcfa.org). $30, $15 students

(box office, Ticketmaster)