photo © Tourisme Montréal

Get ready for the world's best jazz festival, The Montréal Jazz Festival, which will run from June 27 to July 7 this year.

The biggest festive celebration of jazz music is offering advance ticket sales for the first block of seven concerts.

The complete schedule for indoor concerts (150 total) and free outdoor concerts (350 total) will be announced the beginning of May and in mid-June, respectively.

The 2002 edition of this major event, presented by General Motors of Canada, in collaboration with Labatt Bleue, will be welcoming many jazz greats, including trumpeter, composer and arranger, Wynton Marsalis, the recipient of eight Grammy Awards.

Two great singers will be appearing in Montréal for the first time at the Festival, for a double-header at the Salle Wilfred Pelletier of Place des Arts: Omara Portuondo, the only female vocalist in the mythical BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, who is to Cuban music what Edith Piaf is to French song, and South African singer Miriam Makeba, seen largely as a prime symbol of the struggle against apartheid.

Equally exciting, Dianne Reeves, who recently won a Grammy for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" with The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, and sang at the closing ceremonies for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, will seduce audiences at the Théâtre Maisonneuve by breathing new life into jazz standards with her always laudable voice and virtuosity.

There are many, many more artists on the line-up -- for more information on the festival, click here.

For more information on other attractions in Montreal, click here.