For jazz fans, the San Jose Jazz Festival is the most remarkable event of it’s kind in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Jazz Festival (really a concert series) may have more prestige, but for sheer concentration and scale, San Jose has no peer, unless one drives a few hours to Monterey.

Consider: for three days, jazz takes over the entire downtown area of the tenth largest city in the United States (I can scarcely believe it either). The festival — now sponsored by AT&T and celebrating 20 years of existence — sprawls across nine outdoor and indoor stages, with venues reserved for latin jazz, salsa and blues. When activity at the main stages ends, the music goes on at the featival’s “48 hour jazz club” and spreads out to nearby restaurants and bars through an innovative “club crawl” schedule.

I’ll be blogging live from San Jose today and tomorrow, posting updates direct from the Jazz Observer Mobile Journalism Headquarters (a.k.a. my iPhone). Check back for updates throughout the weekend!

View all my blog entries from the 20th Annual AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival