Marking its twentieth anniversary, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) had much to celebrate in 2017. I can vividly recall the first Festival in 1998, a weekend-long event attended by what seemed like a handful of us, moving in unison between city venues. Even then, it proved a memorable experience, highlighted by three astonishing performances by Brad Mehldau, an up-and-coming pianist, still in his twenties, who had yet to make a name for himself. But that is exactly the sort of experience festivals should and do deliver.

In the intervening years, the MIJF, like any fledgling festival, weathered its ups and downs, endeavouring to strike the right balance between musical artistry and ticket sales. If the musical buzz and crowded venues of recent MIJFs are anything to go by, this calibration has been successfully managed. More importantly, the festival has achieved its success by paying respect to the elders of jazz, while at the same time embracing musicians whose innovations signal future directions for this music.