Yamaha Supplies Pianos for Monterey Jazz Festival

At the 2017 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF), per tradition, Yamaha supplied pianos and drum sets for all eight MJF stages and connected with jazz’s future stars.

 “MJF has always combined great music from the masters with education—and that mission has always been part of Yamaha’s DNA,” said David Jewell, marketing communications manager, Yamaha Corporation of America. “It was wonderful to see the greats perform, but just as inspiring to hear the talented high school and college students taking part in MJF’s Next Generation Jazz Festival program. It was also gratifying to see their excitement when they visited the Yamaha Musical Experience Tent, where they got to sample the same professional quality trumpets, saxes, basses, flutes, basses and other instruments used by our artists.”

One member of Yamaha’s artist family found the collection of instruments in the Experience Tent to be a show-saver.

“At one point, Sean Jones stopped by and told us he’d come to MJF with only his trumpet—he expected to be playing outside—but now needed a flugelhorn for an indoor performance,” Jewell said. “We were able to lend him one for the show—and it sounded amazing. We’re really proud that our artists use the same off-the-shelf Yamaha instruments available to everyone.”

This year, the musical instruments team also reached out to their friends at Yamaha Motor Corporation USA for golf carts to transport artists and equipment throughout the event.

“For over 40 years, the Monterey Jazz Festival has enjoyed a strong partnership with Yamaha, who has provided pianos, drum sets and, most recently, golf carts for our major festival,” said MJF’s managing director Colleen Bailey. “The Yamaha team has become like an extension of the Monterey Jazz Festival family. They bend over backwards to ensure the success of the festival.” “We were able to save the festival thousands of dollars, money which will go towards its mission of supporting music education,” Jewell adds. “That’s one of the reasons we’re so proud to work with MJF—they’re a true non-profit that uses its resources to help kids study and make music. We’re proud to be part of the family!”