In a funny way, I didn’t fully appreciate the JVC Jazz Festival until I began sampling similar events in different cities around the world. Much as I love Montreal (and have heard great things about Umbria and NorthSea), there’s nothing quite like the JVC. Other festivals offer big names in big concerts, but the major legacy of Festival Productions founder George Wein, who pioneered the concept of corporate-sponsored jazz festivals and presents the JVC fest in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Warsaw, and Tokyo, is to present a succinct sampling of the entire jazz experience. Herbie Hancock and João Gilberto give concerts across the globe, but only JVC would think to present everything from stride master Dick Hyman to extreme avant-gardist Cecil Taylor and all the music in between — traditional jazz, distinctly nontraditional jazz, easy listening, hard listening, internationally flavored music, vocalists, and unusual combinations.

The first climax of the 25th edition of this annual jazz institution, which began yesterday and runs through June 28 at various locations around the city, is a four-night run of six different piano greats, appearing Friday to Monday. They include the modernist George Cables, the aforementioned Messrs. Taylor and Hyman (the latter of whom specializes in Fats Waller and Scott Joplin), the bop-to-pop savant Herbie Hancock, and the beyond-all-categories 90-year-old legend Hank Jones. If that’s not enough, there’s also the incredibly popular young keyboard phenomenon Brad Mehldau. It’s truly impressive that JVC is putting them all on equal footing (even if Messrs. Hancock and Hyman are appearing opposite each other on different stages in Carnegie, in a sort of battle of the H’s).

This year, the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College is out of commission (temporarily, one hopes), and most of the “special interest” events are being held at a new venue for the jazz world — the New York Society for Ethical Culture, on 64th Street right off Central Park. Though the JVC Festival continues its partnership with a number of key jazz clubs around the city, such as the Blue Note, Birdland, Smoke, and the Zinc Bar, this year the big news is that the event will begin a relationship with a new space on the site of the old Village Gate, an 800-seat nightclub and concert hall now known as Le Poisson Rouge. (Between its capacity and its diverse lineup, the venue seems like a successor to the Bottom Line as well as the Gate.)

With more than 200 events scheduled in clubs, schools, museums, and retail stores, it’s always easy to become overwhelmed. Here’s a quick preview of some of the best of the first week of the festival:

Today and Tuesday, June 17

Each day boasts a single event (coincidentally piano-centric) that, taken together, function as a prelude to the larger festival. At 3 p.m. today, it’s the annual Father’s Day piano concert at the Schomburg Center, starring the impeccable Kenny Barron. The following night at Ethical Culture, the late pianist-composer Alice Coltrane will be honored by a multigenerational group helmed by her son, the tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. The event will co-star two survivors of the 1960s scene — the bassist Charlie Haden and the drummer Jack DeJohnette — as well as two female instrumentalists — the pianist Geri Allen and the harpist Brandee Younger.

Wednesday, June 18

The first of two premodern-oriented nights at the festival, “A Celebration of 35 Years of Highlights in Jazz,” features musicians who have been semi-regulars at the long-running Highlights in Jazz concert series. However, it requires the occasion of a big anniversary and the resources of JVC to assemble so many stellar players at once: Billy Taylor, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ken Peplowski, Byron Stripling, Ted Rosenthal, Wycliffe Gordon, Gene Bertoncini, Jay Leonhart, and Lewis Nash are all scheduled to appear. If you have even the slightest notion that jazz existed before Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue,” this is the concert for you.

Elsewhere, Charlie Haden and his fabulous Quartet West come east to open Le Poisson Rouge, and James Brown’s longtime saxophone stalwart, Maceo Parker, makes it funky at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

Thursday, June 19

A late addition to the lineup is a show at Ethical Culture titled “Voices Beyond Boundaries,” featuring Mexico’s Raul Midón and the uncategorizable and often-brilliant Lizz Wright. Other boundary-broadening acts playing this night include the guitarist and electromagnetician extraordinaire Bill Frisell at Poisson Rouge, plus three acts at the Prospect Park Bandshell: “jam” band populists Medeski, Martin & Wood, Marc Ribot (who rivals Mr. Frisell as a guitar experimentalist), and the vocalist/beat-boxer Taylor McFerrin. Union Square Park will host is a lineup of three college ensembles at lunchtime.

Friday, June 20

The mini piano festival within the larger festival unofficially gets under way with the combination of George Cables and Cecil Taylor. Mr. Cables is a veteran bop stylist (known for his work with Art Pepper and Dexter Gordon) who has been on the sick list as of late, so this set will be especially welcome. And since Ornette Coleman is sitting out JVC this year, Mr. Taylor’s set will be the major avant-garde event of the season. As experimental as it gets, Mr. Taylor’s highly aggressive music isn’t so much heard as it is experienced. Also tonight: the veteran drummer Billy Hart at the Rubin Museum, and the soul singer Jill Scott at Carnegie Hall.

Saturday, June 21

This won’t be your last chance to celebrate Hank Jones’s 90th birthday — he already has a week scheduled at Birdland around the time of the actual event — but this is bound to be a superb, not-to-be-missed concert just the same. Mr. Jones is the reigning elder statesman of the piano, and the pianist to whom all the other elder statespeople (Marian McPartland, George Shearing, Billy Taylor, John Bunch, Dick Katz) defer. Saturday is also the first of several international nights, with Sergio Mendes and Zap Mama at Carnegie, and the Swedish E.S.T. trio at Poisson Rouge.

Sunday, June 22

The pianists take five and the internationalists claim the spotlight: This is the first appearance in a few years for João Gilberto (at Carnegie Hall). Every time he comes to New York, it’s always the same thing — Brazilian classics (of his own and friends like Jobim) in a low monotone with his light guitar accompaniment — and every year it’s brilliant. This is an especially a good year to see Mr. Gilberto in that it marks 50 years since the birth of bossa nova.

If you can’t get enough piano, Brad Mehldau and his trio are at Carnegie, and if you want more international, the Cuban All-Star group the Conga Kings, featuring the percussion legend Candido Camero, are at Ethical Culture.

wfriedwald@nysun.com

For ticket and venue information visit jazz.jvc.com.