In 1958, jazz promoter Jimmy Lyons worked with legendary San Francisco music writer Ralph J. Gleason to organize a jazz festival, the first of its kind on the West Coast. Gleason and Lyons (not to be confused with the late free-jazz alto saxophonist) chose the picturesque town of Monterey for the setting, and within a few years the Monterey Jazz Festival was one of the premier jazz festivals in the world. Its success inspired 1967's landmark Monterey International Pop Festival, which featured an exciting cross-section of popular and cutting-edge performers, from Buffalo Springfield to the Who to Ravi Shankar, bringing mainstream focus to... More >>>