ASBURY PARK -- Kevin Kenney remembers being on the beach at Asbury Park's first jazz and blues festival in the early '80s.
Since then, he and his wife, Patricia, of Wall, try to make every free music festival in the area they can.
Kevin and Patricia were sitting in beach chairs basking in the blazing sun at Bradley Park Saturday afternoon at the annual Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Festival listening to the soothing textured slides and bends of the blues guitar and the warbling trill of the accompanying harmonica being amplified from the stage.
Until the early 2000s, Kevin said Asbury Park and Monmouth County maintained a prolific jazz and blues scene. But after the financial crash in 2008, he said there was a steep decline in hosted events.
"It's becoming more of a niche thing," Kevin said, noting particularly with jazz music in the area. "It's not as prevalent as it was in the '90s and 2000s. After the crash, it kind of died out."
Likely due to a decline in investment, he believes.
But regardless, the blues and jazz played on Saturday brought the City alive, with attendees of all ages dancings to the riffs.
Saturday's festival was hosted by the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation, a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that held another music event earlier this summer in what the Foundation dubbed the "Summer Series of Festivals."
There was a festival held in June in Point Pleasant, and on Saturday, Aug. 27, there will be another festival in Long Branch from noon to 9:30 p.m. at the Great Lawn on the Boardwalk, located on Cooper Avenue.
The Foundation donates the proceeds from the festival's to educational, scholarship and outreach programs, according to its website.
Along with the music, Saturday's event featured an array of food tents, beer and wine garden and countless crafters set up throughout the park.
Johnny Vaughn, stage production for Music Men, which handled the stage production for the festival, was standing by the company van adjacent to the stage listening to solo rifts by a blues guitarist.
"I grew up right here in the Spring Lake, Belmar area, and my family was born and raised in Asbury Park," he said.
Pointing to the Paramount Theater across the street behind the stage, Vaughn said that's where he saw his first music concert and his first introduction to rhythm and percussion.
He said the area maintains a decent music scene still, but he also said it's not what it once was years ago.
"It's smaller," he said, adding that the scene consists mostly of bands playing cover songs.
But he said there are still and always be young and up-and-coming bands to keep the music in Asbury Park alive.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.