It’s all how you look at it. The 67th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival arrives Friday with the promise of new beginnings. It may seem an oxymoron for such a long-lived event to be considered new. The local nonprofit institution is considered the longest continuously held jazz festival in the world and with that distinction it’s understandable that it goes through growth spurts now and then.

This year’s festival is artistic director Darin Atwater’s first as the designer of its musical personality. He’s sketched the blueprint with a concept-based approach, placing a number of his thematic elements under the overarching motif “Crescendo in Blue.” Having gone through the “audition” process in the search for a successor to Tim Jackson’s long-held position, Atwater was awarded the job prior to last year’s festival. He was able to analyze the interactive workings of the five-stage festival while attending the 66th edition, with Jackson available going forward to assist in any number of ways to make the transition go smoothly. The unveiling of Atwater’s initial creative vision has arrived.

The three-day event at the Monterey Fair & Event Center features the talents of top tier acts like Stanley Clarke N•4EVER, Jason Moran, Samara Joy, Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa, Eastwood Symphonic and more.

“The Crescendo in Blue festival theme riffs off Ellington’s resurrection after his set at Newport (Jazz Festival, 1956) where Paul Gonsalves played those 27 choruses,” Atwater said in a phone interview from his East Coast base. “When big bands were becoming passé, Duke was questioning whether he had any relevance in the culture. The Newport performance resurrected his career and he went on to write the sacred concerts and to have another 20-year run after that. So I’m playing on that.

“I’m also playing on the whole idea of Monterey as a destination, experiencing it as a global destination filtering it through the language and the feeling of the Monterey Jazz Festival, where it’s not that you’re just coming to hear music, but understanding it’s a vacation spot, it’s the weather, it’s the this and that. I want to create a feeling of joy with blues skies. If I had to have something hanging on my white board for these six to seven months, it’s that Irving Berlin/Ella Fitzgerald cover of ‘Blue Skies.’

“And I think jazz is often seen as such an ivory tower, where it’s very sophisticated and real hard for people to engage with it. We tend to lose the joy and that’s intrinsic in the tradition. That’s something I wanted to remind everybody about, specifically in this day and time that we live in. There’s something very light, very joyous, and very communal about this lineup. Kind of like the blues with its ideology that we face adversity with optimism. It’s that kind of thing. Let’s find the optimism inside all of this. How do we rise to meet this blue sky?”

One could argue the merits of any festival’s lineup, depending on how deeply you’re interested in a particular music genre or how actively you listen. To understand the evolution of music is to understand that new artists and new groupings are going to seem unfamiliar at first and there’s a fair amount of new music at this year’s festival. And that’s a good thing.

The opportunity to discover and appreciate a wide range of talent in multiple layers, whether based locally, nationally or internationally and in diverse ethnic and cultural voices, can be as stimulating as hearing a favorite you’ve known for years. You’ll also find plenty of well-known names and rising stars you’ve already been introduced to at previous festivals. Jason Moran is 2024’s Artist in Residence and he makes several appearances over the course of the festival, to include the traditional collaboration with the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra led by Gerald Clayton that kicks off Sunday afternoon in the arena.

“Jason did this whole project on Ellington with a big band,” Atwater said.“We met earlier this year and we thought to honor Ellington at 125 (years since his birth; 2024 is also the 50th anniversary of his passing). How can we put that as a high mark, to lionize and commemorate that and at the same time sort of throw a thread back and tether together the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, who plays Ellington as standards here and there? The answer was to have a concentrated set list to really dig into the music and Jason has done a whole storyline behind it. So we have that aspect of Ellington appearing in the festival with Jason, one of the most provocative innovators and thoughtful artists today, conceptualizing Ellington in context with the idea of bringing the music into the future.”

Moran will also engage with music historian/professor Ashley Kahn in a conversation titled “His Mother Called Him Edward, The World Called Him Duke” in the Pacific Jazz Café Sunday at 4:15 p.m. He also leads two of his groups in performance, Jason Moran & The Bandwagon featuring Tarus Mateen, Nasheet Waits and Akili Bradley (young trumpeter from Seaside who came through the Monterey Jazz Festival education system) Saturday, 2 p.m., West End Stage; and Jason Moran with BlankFor.ms and Marcus Gilmore, Friday, 7:30 p.m. at the Tim Jackson Garden Stage presented by Alaska Airlines.

What Atwater has done is utilize a creative process that is rooted in his strong musical background as a composer, conductor, pianist, record producer, artist, arranger, film composer, vocalist, entrepreneur, educator and arts advocate. He inhabits the same world as any of the musicians you’ll find in the festival’s lineup who can meld American pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, gospel music into many dazzling fusions. This is what jazz is today, an art form that could easily find its way back to its roots as American popular music. He’s got some great ideas on how to reframe the festival into a mosaic of experiences, where dancing is encouraged and where youthful attendees can find their niche.

“What I want to highlight is Christian Pepin & Orquesta Bembé: Stompin’ the Blues with the dance show every night at the Pacific Jazz Cafe,” Atwater said. “The thematic showcases I’m developing are created to be a recurring series every year, to have its own weight as a theme and not just hinged on an artist for engagement. Coda (which is the last set every night following the evening’s headliners in the Arena) has music that younger generations can appreciate. (It is an idea that could evolve into a hip afterparty kind of vibe, separate from the earlier Arena lineup.) I consider it a late night set that we can now define as its own brand … I tend to think of the festival in a different way, in terms of a thematic approach and not just slotting artists.”

Atwater’s festival design brings into play a prismatic display of the brilliant and varied aspects of modern jazz music. The veterans are there, with bassist Stanley Clarke leading a youthful group that recalls the music of Chick Corea and Return to Forever, of which Clarke was a founding member. There’s the legendary Mavis Staples, carrying the torch of her family’s deep gospel tradition in her own inimitable style, and the Blind Boys of Alabama with special guest Bobby Rush, lending a touch of the blues to start off what was once traditionally the Saturday blues afternoon. The joy of gospel music is present in many groups around the festival, including our local representatives John Nash & the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir, and Tammy Hall featuring the Texas Southern University Gospel Choir.

Lila Downs, one of the most influential artists in Latin America, brings the Mexican culture to life with her multi-dimensional approach, singing folkloric music in Spanish and her own compositions that “often combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheros and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia and North American folk music. Her music often focuses on social justice, immigration, and women’s issues.”

Other Latin music is represented by El Arte del Bolero: Miguel Zenón/Luis Perdomo Duo, Pedrito Martinez Group, and the aforementioned Christian Pepin.

There are also North American indigenous people represented by Julia Keefe Indigenous Jazz Ensemble. On the other end of the spectrum is Don Was & The Pan-Detroit Ensemble. Bassist Was wears many hats in the music world, most notably his work as a producer (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Wayne Shorter, The B52s, Charles Lloyd) and as president of Blue Note Records. He’s been quite busy performing with Bob Weir & the Wolf Brothers and he brings his jazz performer side to the Jazz Fest with this group.

“There’s a unique sound and feel to Detroit that permeates the music in a way that resonates all over the globe,” Was said. “There is a rawness, a lack of pretension and an unmistakable, underlying groove that reflects the people and culture of the entire city.”

And there is no shortage of powerful jazz vocalists to enjoy. Samara Joy, G. Thomas Allen and Somi. Atwater explained that the West End Stage has a particular vibe that creates its own festival within a festival with a very young and groove-oriented approach. You’ll catch some really great acts there.

Other don’t miss performers are Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles, Donald Lawrence & Company, the commissioned piece by Robert Glasper featuring Yebba, SFJAZZ Collective: 20th Anniversary Celebration, Keyon Harrold Presents “Foreverland” featuring P.J. Morton and two more of our local groups, Leon Joyce Jr. Quartet and The Carolyn Sills Combo. Of course, it’s impossible to name all the great groups.

As always, the Jazz Fest presents not only music at the beautiful, oak tree studded, verdant Monterey Fairgrounds. There’s all the good food, drink and carefully curated vendors to make hanging out all the more fun. There’s a Premier Club with special perks. Tickets are available in all categories, available online at www.montereyjazzfestival.com. You can also purchase parking passes for general parking at Monterey Peninsula College where you can catch a shuttle to the fairgrounds. The festival website is where you will find everything you need to know about the artists and their music and festival information you should know before attending.

A quick mention of the Hyatt Regency’s weekend of Jazz Fest adjacent jazz action, the place where festival artists and attendees can mingle and enjoy the jazz musicians slated to perform late into the night. Festival performers are known to sit in and jam. A great place for post-festival drinks and people watching. The Hyatt is located at #1 Old Golf Course Rd. at the intersection with Mark Thomas Drive. Music is scheduled Thursday through Sunday, varying hours.

Also, Clint Eastwood who is a longtime Jazz Fest board member will be honored with the inaugural Cultural Leadership Award on Sunday, as part of the Jazz Festival. The award will be presented Morgan Freeman. The presentation will be followed by Eastwood Symphonic, a musical project led by American jazz musician and composer Kyle Eastwood. The project features his quartet along with an orchestral ensemble performing the movie themes from his father’s films such as “Gran Torino,” “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Bridges of Madison County.”