NEW YORK, N.Y. — Jazz legend Herbie Hancock will be feted at a belated 70th birthday bash at Carnegie Hall that will highlight the revival of a major summer jazz festival in the Big Apple, scheduled for June 17 to 26.

The pianist, who will soon turn 70, will be joined by comedian Bill Cosby, saxophonist Joe Lovano, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Hancock’s bandmate in Miles Davis’ famed 1960s quintet, with more guests to be announced. The June 24 concert, Herbie Hancock, Seven Decades: The Birthday Celebration, will benefit The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

After lining up new sponsorship from medical technology company, CareFusion Corp., festival producer George Wein, 84, has resurrected New York’s flagship summer jazz festival, which he first launched in 1972. It was cancelled last year after the electronics firm JVC withdrew sponsorship.

The CareFusion Jazz Festival will make its debut in June with some 45 concerts at 20 venues, including concert halls, parks, museums and libraries in four boroughs. There will also be several free outdoor concerts, with Latin jazz star Eddie Palmieri performing in a Bronx park and pianist McCoy Tyner’s quartet featuring saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and the Stanley Clarke Band with Japanese pianist Hiromi playing at Central Park’s SummerStage.

But otherwise, Wein says that this year’s festival will take a new youth-friendly approach highlighting up-and-coming musicians.

“We feel the future of jazz relates to the young people that are playing now,” said the 84-year-old Wein. “Jazz is not a dying situation — it’s more alive than ever because there are more people playing the music than ever before.”

To that end, Wein has teamed with a new generation of music presenters at venues in downtown Manhattan, Harlem and Brooklyn. The festival is paying the musicians and letting the clubs collect the gate, asking only that ticket prices be kept at a recession-friendly $15 for most events.

Learn more online at www.newfestivalproductions.com