| Newport Jazz Festival | |
|---|---|
  McCoy Tyner andRavi Coltrane perform at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 13, 2005. | |
| Genre | Jazz,rock,pop |
| Dates | August |
| Location(s) | Newport, Rhode Island |
| Coordinates | 41°29′17″N71°18′45″W / 41.48806°N 71.31250°W /41.48806; -71.31250 |
| Years active | 1954–present |
| Founders | George Wein,Elaine Lorillard |
| Website | newportjazz |
TheNewport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-dayjazzmusic festival held every summer inNewport, Rhode Island.Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hiredGeorge Wein to organize the first festival and bring jazz to Rhode Island.[1][2]
Most of the early festivals were broadcast onVoice of America radio, and many performances were recorded and released as albums. In 1972, the Newport Jazz Festival was moved to New York City. In 1981, it became a two-site festival when it was returned to Newport while continuing in New York. From 1984 to 2008, the festival was known as theJVC Jazz Festival; in the economic downturn of 2009, JVC ceased its support of the festival and was replaced byCareFusion.[3]
The festival is hosted in Newport atFort Adams State Park. It is often held in the same month as theNewport Folk Festival.
In 1954, the first Newport Jazz Festival (billed as the "First Annual American Jazz Festival") was held atNewport Casino, in theBellevue Avenue Historic District ofNewport, Rhode Island. It incorporated academic panel discussions and featured live musical performances.
The live performances were set outdoors, on a lawn. These performances were given by a number of notable jazz musicians, includingBillie Holiday, and wereemceed byStan Kenton.[4]
The festival was hailed by major magazines and newspapers, and some 13,000 people attended between the two days.[5] In general, the festival was regarded as a major success.[6][7]
In 1955, organizers were planning a second year for the festival but needed to find a new venue. The Newport Casino would not again host the festival since its lawn and other facilities did not stand up well to such a large event. Festival backerElaine Lorillard, with her husband, purchased "Belcourt", a large estate which was available locally, in hopes of hosting the festival there. However, the neighborhood disallowed that plan, citing concerns about potential disturbance. Consequently, the workshops and receptions were held at Belcourt, while the music was presented at Freebody Park, an arena for sports located a block behind the casino.[8]
Some Newport residents were opposed to the festival. Jazz appreciation was not common within the established upper-class community, and the festival brought crowds of younger music fans to Newport. Many attendees were students who, in the absence of sufficient lodging, slept outdoors wherever they could, with or without tents. Newport was at first not accustomed to this. Traffic gridlock and other contention near the downtown venue were legitimate concerns. Moreover, many of the musicians and their fans were African American. Racist attitudes were probably a factor in some residents' opposition to the festival too as it commonly was across the country at that time.[7]
Nonetheless, the festival continued annually and increased in popularity, aided in part by 1958 concert footage released as the documentary filmJazz on a Summer's Day the following year.
In 1960, local papers on July 1 noted a string of violent, but minor, incidents in town on the opening Friday. Saturday was much worse, with thousands of people unable to enter the sold-out shows roaming the city streets and battling police. Some 200 people were arrested, a town record.[9] TheNational Guard was called in.[10] By Sunday word circulated that the Festival would be cancelled. PoetLangston Hughes, on the grounds, wrote an impromptu lyric called "Goodbye Newport Blues" and brought it toMuddy Waters, who was headlining the Sunday blues presentation. They announced a spontaneous performance of the piece with pianistOtis Spann leading the band. Likewise the Nashville All-Stars retreated to their rented mansion and recorded a live album on its porch, calledAfter the Riot at Newport. On Monday the 4th the last two days of the festival were indeed cancelled.
The 1960 event was also notable for the presence of a rival jazz festival that took place at the Cliff Walk Manor Hotel, just a few blocks away. This was organized by musiciansCharles Mingus andMax Roach in protest against the festival paying less to jazz innovators, compared to more mainstream performers;[11] the fact that the innovators were mostly black and the mainstream performers mostly white was also an aggravating factor.[12]
In 1961, presentation of the official Newport Jazz Festival was disallowed, due to the difficulties associated with the previous year's festival.[13][14] In its place, another festival, billed as "Music at Newport", was produced bySid Bernstein in cooperation with a group of Newport businessmen. That festival included a number of jazz musicians but was financially unsuccessful. Bernstein announced that he would not seek to return to Newport in 1962.[15]
In 1962, the Newport Jazz Festival resumed at Freebody Park. Wein did not resurrect the extinct not-for-profit organization which had run the Newport Jazz Festival through 1960; instead, he freshly incorporated the festival as an independent business venture of his own. He was a music festival pioneer and would run many festivals besides the Newport Jazz Festival during his career.
The 1964 festival was the last at Freebody Park, since the event had outgrown that venue also. Festival organizers saw a need to move the festival outside of the downtown area, since the festival-caused gridlock there was a contentious point in the community. A suitable site, actually a simple but ample field, which would become known asFestival Field, was identified, and the move was completed for the 1965 festival.Frank Sinatra played the festival that year, and new attendance records were set.[16] Festival Field remained the venue for the jazz festival until 1971.
The festival's 1969 program was an experiment in fusing jazz, soul, and rock music, and their respective audiences. The Thursday evening set featured performances by jazz musiciansSun Ra,Bill Evans,George Benson,Freddie Hubbard, andAnita O'Day, and a jazz jam session hosted by organistJimmy Smith and featuring, among others,Art Blakey,Hampton Hawes,Sonny Stitt, andHoward McGhee. Friday afternoon featured a rock-oriented bill featuring the jazz-fusion groupBlood, Sweat & Tears, eclectic jazz saxophonistRahsaan Roland Kirk, and the rock actsThe Jeff Beck Group,Ten Years After, andJethro Tull. Saturday's schedule mixed jazz acts, such asDave Brubeck andMiles Davis, with rock, blues and R&B artists such asJohn Mayall,Sly & The Family Stone,Frank Zappa and his bandThe Mothers of Invention, andO. C. Smith. Sunday's bill featured a morning performance of Brubeck's oratioThe Light in the Wilderness, an afternoon set byJames Brown, and an evening finale headlined by the British rock bandLed Zeppelin, jazz keyboardistHerbie Hancock, blues guitaristsB. B. King andJohnny Winter, and jazz drummerBuddy Rich and his orchestra.[17][18]
Davis remarked that the various artists involved were highly encouraging to each other and that he enjoyed the festival more than ever before. He also noticed and appreciated the spirited nature of the younger audience.
But some clashes did occur. Excess crowds, estimated at 50,000,[19] who had been unable to obtain tickets filled an adjacent hillside, and the weekend was marred by disturbances, including fence crashing and crowd surging, during the most popular performances. Saturday evening's disturbances were particularly significant, prompting producer George Wein, who feared a riot, to announce that the Sunday evening Led Zeppelin appearance was cancelled. That show was allowed to go forward as initially scheduled after much of the overflow crowd had left the city, following the cancellation announcement.[20][21]
The 1970 festival was three days instead of the usual four with an estimated attendance of 40,400.[19] Promoter George Wein reverted to an all-jazz policy after he stated the previous year had "maybe too much rock."[19] On the first day there was a tribute toLouis Armstrong featuringDizzy Gillespie,Bobby Hackett,Joe Newman,Wild Bill Davison,Jimmy Owns, andRay Nance.Mahalia Jackson made a rare festival appearance to pay respects to Armstrong. Saturdays performers includedNina Simone and theHerbie Mann Quintet withIke & Tina Turner closing out the night.[19] The festival concluded on Sunday with performances fromRoberta Flack,Gene McDaniels,Buddy Rich andElla Fitzgerald.[19]
For 1971, the festival booked the rock groupThe Allman Brothers Band alongside an otherwise predominantly jazz and soul-oriented bill that included performances byAretha Franklin,Ray Charles,Duke Ellington, Roberta Flack,Charles Mingus,Ornette Coleman,Dionne Warwick, Dave Brubeck,King Curtis,Dizzy Gillespie, andHerbie Mann, as well as the jazz-fusion groupsChase,Soft Machine, andWeather Report.[22] Many more fans were drawn than Festival Field could accommodate. On the second night, after the recording of what would becomeThe Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Gerry Mulligan –The Last Set at Newport, over 12,000 people on the adjacent hillside crashed the fence duringDionne Warwick's performance of "What the World Needs Now Is Love". The festival was halted after the stage was rushed and equipment destroyed. The festival would not return to Newport in 1972.[1][23]
In 1972, festival producer George Wein transplanted the festival to New York City, calling it the Newport Jazz Festival-New York. An expanded format involved multiple venues, includingYankee Stadium andRadio City Music Hall, and comprised 30 concerts with 62 performers includingDave Brubeck,Ray Charles,Duke Ellington, Roberta Flack, and Dizzy Gillespie.[24] This format continued for the next years, but Wein missed the outdoors of Newport which the venues of New York City failed to duplicate.
In 1977, Wein worked with the city ofSaratoga Springs, New York, to move the festival to theSaratoga Performing Arts Center during the following year. He established the Newport Jazz Festival-Saratoga and remained in New York City, retaining the Newport Jazz Festival-New York in what amounted to an expansion.[25][26] The Saratoga addition began a trend of using the "Newport Jazz Festival" name outside of Newport, as in theNewport Jazz Festival in Madarao, Japan, from 1982 to 2004.
During the 1970s, the Newport Jazz Festival pioneered corporate sponsorship of music festivals. Working withSchlitz andKOOL, the festival changed its name based on what company was sponsoring.[27]
In 1981, George Wein brought the Newport Jazz Festival back to Newport, partly to preserve the Newport Jazz Festival legacy and to protect his interest in the Newport Jazz Festival name. Arrangements with the title sponsor of the Newport Jazz Festival-New York had seen that festival promoted as the "Kool Jazz Festival".[28] The revived festival took place at Fort Adams State Park, where it has remained since.[29]
Newport, now quite keen to tourism, was extremely receptive to the resumption of its Newport Jazz Festival. The 1981 bill featured a lineup entirely of jazz performers, includingMcCoy Tyner,Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey.[30] The festival was immediately successful upon returning to Newport, although no longer quite the draw it had been in its first years, owing to shifting interests and to the proliferation of competing festivals.[31] Future installments in the 1980s and 1990s also predominantly featured jazz performers, although acts in other genres continued to appear sporadically, including return performances by B.B. King and Ray Charles in 1984, and blues rock guitaristStevie Ray Vaughan and his bandDouble Trouble in 1985.[32][33] In 1988, the festival began also hosting annual concerts at theNewport Casino, where the first festival was held in 1954, with performers such asTony Bennett,Mel Tormé,Illinois Jacquet,k.d. lang,Diana Krall, Ray Charles,Harry Connick Jr., andWynton Marsalis.[29]
JVC became the primary sponsor of the festival in 1984; Wein stated that the audio-visual equipment company, which had recently developed theVHS video cassette, offered a sponsorship package, and Kool agreed to withdraw its sponsorship for financial reasons. That year the event was renamed the JVC Jazz Festival. That year's lineup reflected a shift away from an almost exclusive focus on mainstream jazz, and introcuded blues, soul, and experimental jazz performers.[34] Performers included Charles, Gillespie, Davis, Ron Carter, and Flora Purim.[35] Coverage inThe Providence Journal characterized the lineup as "the most exciting in at least five years."[36] The festival drew a varied crowd of 7,000 that year.[37]
The festival continued to take place annually at Fort Adams through the 1990s and 2000s. Along with established jazz performers such as Wynton Marsalis and George Benson, the festival also featured contemporary jazz musicians, as well as appearances from artists who performed other, related genres. These included:Tito Puente andCelia Cruz (1990),Tower of Power (1992),Thomas Chapin (1995),Medeski Martin & Wood (1997),Femi Kuti,Cassandra Wilson,John Zorn, andMaceo Parker (2000),Isaac Hayes (2002),Pat Metheny (2003), andDr. John (2006).[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]
BassistChristian McBride made his Jazz Festival debut in 1991 as part of the Jazz Futures ensemble of young jazz musicians that also featuredRoy Hargrove andAntonio Hart.[46][47] In 2016, McBride was selected as the festival's artistic director and lineup curator.[48]
In early 2007, Newport Jazz Festival producerGeorge Wein sold his Festival Productions company to Festival Network, a company operated by former Shoreline Media executive Chris Shields. Festival Networked owned and operated the Newport Jazz Festival with Wein in a senior position.[49]
Starting in 2007, the Newport festival began serving beer and wine at Fort Adams State Park.[50]
Wein began running the festival again in 2009 after the company that owned the event experienced financial difficulty. In 2011, Wein established the non-profit Newport Festivals Foundation, which has operated the jazz and folk festivals since.[51]
The 2020 festival was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic crisis. Booked artists were invited to return in 2021.[52] Citing his advancing age and the pandemic, founderGeorge Wein was unable to attend the 2021 Newport Jazz Festival; it was only the third time he was not in attendance since the event's founding in 1954.[53] Wein died on September 13, 2021.[54]
Two of the most famous performances in the festival's history areMiles Davis' 1955 solo on "'Round Midnight" and theDuke Ellington Orchestra's lengthy 1956 performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", featuring a 27-chorussaxophone solo byPaul Gonsalves.[55]
A reconstructedEllington at Newport, from his 1956 performance, was re-issued in 1999. Aside from the actual festival performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", including the distant-sounding Gonsalves solo, the original album used re-creations, note for note, of some of the set's highlights, which were re-recorded in the studio. The new set restored the original festival performance after a recording from theVoice of America (which broadcast the performance) was discovered and, among other things, the oddtimbre of the Gonsalves performance. Gonsalves, it turned out, stepped up to the wrong microphone to play his legendary solo; he stepped up to the VOA's microphone and not the band's. Gonsalves' performance so excited the audience that the festival sponsors feared that the crowd was on the verge of rioting.[56]
The 1957 festival was well documented byVerve Records, which released 12 albums of recorded performances. The 1957 performances ofElla Fitzgerald,Billie Holiday, andCarmen McRae were released on the albumElla Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport (1958). Those by theGigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory and theCecil Taylor Quartet featuringSteve Lacy were released onAt Newport (1958). The performance ofCount Basie was issued asCount Basie at Newport in 1958. The notable filmJazz on a Summer's Day was made from footage of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival featuring such performers as Louis Armstrong, Anita O'Day and Mahilia Jackson. The film and its soundtrack have been widely released on VHS, DVD, Vinyl and CD.
Performances at the 1960 festival byMuddy Waters andNina Simone were released as the albumsAt Newport 1960 andNina Simone at Newport (1960).
The 1962 Festival is documented in a film released byStoryville Records. Among the performers areLambert, Hendricks & Bavan, theOscar Peterson Trio,Roland Kirk,Duke Ellington, and theCount Basie Orchestra featuringJimmy Rushing, at the closing.[57]
Part of the appearances byJohn Coltrane andArchie Shepp from the 1965 Festival appeared on the albumNew Thing at Newport. A set byHerbie Mann featuringChick Corea, at that same year's festival, was released on the albumStanding Ovation at Newport. Mann also released an album, mostly recorded at that performance, titledNew Mann at Newport (1967).
Albert Ayler's performance at the 1967 festival was released as part of theHoly Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962–70)box set (2004).
AnElla Fitzgerald performance fromCarnegie Hall in July 1973 was documented on the albumNewport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall (1973).
Past performers at the Newport Jazz Festival include:
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41°28′38″N71°20′22″W / 41.47722°N 71.33944°W /41.47722; -71.33944
