The Concord Jazz Festival is an annual event that was established in 1969 in Concord, California

Concord, California

Concord is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California, USA. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 122,067. Originally founded in 1869 as the community of Todos Santos by Salvio Pacheco, the name was changed to Concord within months...

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The festival was launched by Carl Jefferson

Carl Jefferson

Carl Jefferson was an American jazz record producer, and was the founder of the Concord Records label.Prior to entering the music business, Jefferson sold used cars. In 1969, he organized a jazz festival in Concord, California, the Concord Summer Festival; several years later it was renamed the...

, a car dealer and jazz enthusiast, who managed to get a group of friends to support the concept. The city agreed to pay for half the cost. The first festival was held on 26 January 1969 in a field next to the high school called the Concord Boulevard Neighborhood Park. It attracted 17,000 attendees.
Performers in subsequent years included Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

, Pearl Bailey

Pearl Bailey

Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...

, Peter Nero

Peter Nero

Peter Nero is an American pianist and pops conductor.-Early life:Born in Brooklyn, New York, As Bernard Nierow, Nero started his formal music training at the age of seven. He studied piano under Frederick Bried...

, George Shearing

George Shearing

Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

, and Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck

David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...

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In May 1975 the Concord Pavilion was opened, a roofed area with no walls that covers 3,500 seats with room for 4,500 more on the surrounding lawns. The pavilion is used for many other purposes.

Carl Jefferson founded Concord Records

Concord Records

Concord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...

 in 1973, with the Concord Jazz label.
In 2004 the Concord Music Group was formed by the merger of Concord Records with Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...

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The labels have released many classic albums.

Live recordings

A few of the live recordings that have been made at the festival:

• Seven, Come Eleven
  Seven, Come Eleven
  Seven, Come Eleven is a live album by jazz guitarists Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, released in 1973. It was recorded the day before Jazz/Concord, which was to become the first recording issued by Concord Jazz.-Reception:...
  
  by jazz guitarists Herb Ellis
  Herb Ellis
  Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
  
   and Joe Pass
  Joe Pass
  Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
  
  , 29 July 1973
• Sugarloaf Suite, Charlie Byrd
  Charlie Byrd
  Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
  
  , 1980
• Dynamite "Live" at The Concord Jazz Festival Don Menza
  Don Menza
  Don Menza is an American saxophonist, arranger, composer, session musician, and jazz educator noted for his many contributions to American jazz and big band music. -Early years:...
  
   (1980)
• The Woody Herman Big Band Live at the Concord Jazz Festival 1981, with Stan Getz
  Stan Getz
  Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
  
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• Live at the 1990 Concord Jazz Festival Third Set Ernestine Anderson
  Ernestine Anderson
  Ernestine Anderson is an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival , as well as at jazz festivals all...
  
  
• Fujitsu-Concord 26th Jazz Festival, Charlie Byrd and various artists, 1995.