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1991

The Playboy Jazz Festival goes international hosting two concerts in Japan: Playboy announced the expansion of the Jazz Festival to Japan in 1991 and 1992, with concerts in August 1991 in Tokyo and Fukuoka. Veteran Playboy Jazz Festival emcee Bill Cosby, who every year "sits in" briefly with groups on the lineup, made his debut as a full-set performer with his own group, Bill Cosby & Friends. Miriam Makeba made her first appearance at the Playboy Jazz Festival backed by Dizzy Gillespie. Gillespie also appeared with his own group the United Nations Orchestra the following day, only the third time any Playboy Jazz Festival artist has made back-to-back appearances. The most promising up-and-coming young stars of jazz made their Bowl debut as "Jazz Futures." Many of these outstanding performers had been featured in a Time magazine cover story on the resurgence of jazz in America. KLON-FM, Los Angeles' only full-time jazz radio station, joined KACE-FM as the official radio stations of the festival.

Jazz banjo made its first appearance at the Bowl with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. For the fourth consecutive year, the Playboy Jazz Festival program received top honors from Magazine & Design Production, the trade publication and organization. This year's program won the Gold Award for design excellence, competing in a field of more than 1300 entries for the award from across the U.S. and Canada. For the first time in the history of the Playboy Jazz Festival, all of the prefestival free community events were presented by a single sponsor, GUESS MEN cologne. The first-ever free community event in Beverly Hills, "Playboy Jazz in Beverly Hills," was held in association with the Beverly Hills Restaurant Association. A record crowd for that city -- estimated at more than 25,000 jazz fans -- heard headliners Joe Williams, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut Band and Poncho Sanchez. Three high school vocal groups, winners of the Fullerton College Jazz Festival Vocal Competition, were featured at "Playboy Jazz Festival Salutes the Winners," a free event at Hermosa Beach.

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