Jazz Currents

Jazz fans, you have a rare opportunity, but you need to act quickly. The 51st Monterey Jazz Festival, sponsored by Verizon, tickets are on sale now. The festival takes place September 19-21st this year, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Grounds tickets to view any of the artists appearing at the 7 festival grounds venues are available for all three days, but that’s not unusual for mid-July. The opportunity is tickets for the arena shows are still available. That is very unusual; six weeks after the tickets went on sale to the public. Festival subscriber (anyone who purchased arena tickets last year) ticket sales open each year around March 30th. They have until May 31st to renew or upgrade their arena packages. Missing the deadline by just a day means losing your seats, and having to start over again in the back of the arena, in the bleacher seats. Normally, the small pool of available arena seats is gone by late June. Prime arena package seats are extraordinarily valuable. They are