‘Port of Call: At age 50, ‘Newport Jazz Festival’ celebrates its storied past

Spencer Patterson

Friday, March 12, 2004 | 8:35 a.m.

George Wein's plans for 1954's landmark "Newport Jazz Festival" included a savvy marketing technique.

"I suggested calling it the first annual, and they said, 'How do you know it's an annual when you may not do a second one?'," Wein said. "I said, 'Well, if we don't do a second one, what's the difference?'"

As it turned out, the following year did indeed see Wein bring his groundbreaking festival back to Newport, R.I. It has been an annual event ever since, through this, its 50th year as an American musical institution.

"Critics started coming, and the press, writers and photographers," Wein said in a phone interview from his New York City office. "And the next thing you knew, you had a real convention every year, people coming to Newport because that was where it was happening with the world of jazz."

To mark the festival's golden anniversary, Wein has assembled an all-star combo, which will spend part of 2004 touring the country. The ensemble plays UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall at 8 tonight.

"George has a very legitimate reason to celebrate," pianist Cedar Walton, one of eight musicians on tonight's bill, said in a phone interview from his Brooklyn, N.Y., home.

"There was no precedent for something like this, a jazz festival. Now there are hundreds all over the world, but this was the first one."

Along with the 70-year-old Walton a mainstay on the jazz scene since his days in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1960s tonight's concert will feature Lew Tabackin on flute and saxophone, Ken Peplowski on clarinet, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Howard Alden on guitar, Peter Washington on bass, Karriem Riggins on drums and vocalist Lea DeLaria.

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard, originally scheduled to participate, was forced to drop out for unspecified health reasons. He was recently replaced by Pelt, a 27-year-old widely considered one of his instrument's rising stars.

Walton said the group will perform original compositions along with jazz standards in various lineup configurations over the course of two sets.

"We want the audience to be satisfied," Walton said. "We've all been at our craft for a while now, and we've learned the importance of keeping the audience happy. So far, they've been very appreciative. We've been called back for encores every night."

Some of tonight's material will pay tribute to a few of the legendary jazz musicians who played on early Newport bills, recreating moments from some of the festival's best-known performances.

"The Duke Ellington set (from 1956) stands out," Walton said. "They say that got Ellington's career back on track. In hindsight maybe it did, but not being in the band I didn't know it wasn't on track (laughs)."

"We've been playing the (Ellington) song 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,' which he performed at Newport. And we've been paying tribute to Miles (Davis) and Dizzy (Gillespie) and others."

Getting started

Wein was a 24-year-old Boston nightclub owner when he devised his concept for a massive outdoor jazz festival.

"The people from Newport asked me to come up with an idea to liven up the summer with jazz," Wein, 78, recalled. "I didn't know if they wanted a club or a series of concerts. I asked them if they would underwrite a festival, and by a festival I meant two days, which is what it became."

Wein said he borrowed the idea from the classical music world.

"I got the idea not from jazz but from classical music, from the 'Tanglewood Festival' in New England, which was home to the Boston Symphony," Wein said. "They have a summer festival every year and I said, 'Why can't we have one with jazz?' So that was really my inspiration."

After Wein's event proved successful, other jazz festivals began sprouting up around the world, including the "Monterey Jazz Festival" in Northern California and the "Montreux Jazz Festival" in Switzerland.

And it wasn't long before the rock world began to take notice as well.

"Monterey Jazz was a direct descendent of us, and then came Monterey Pop," Wein said. "Then when they did Woodstock in 1969, our sound and light people were involved with Woodstock.

"I was slightly amused when, 25 years later, they had a second Woodstock, and we'd been running 25 festivals in those 25 years. And we're still going."

The "Newport Jazz Festival" also spawned its sister "Newport Folk Festival" in 1959. That event would gain considerable notoriety of its own for housing Bob Dylan's electric debut, as well as the comebacks of several noted bluesmen, including Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt.

"In the early days of Newport we did an afternoon of tap dance and an afternoon of gospel music, and then I scheduled an afternoon of folk music," Wein said. "But it was so popular that I thought we had enough for a whole festival."

Wein relocated the Newport festival to New York City in 1971, then returned it to Rhode Island in the early 1980s. This year's Newport Festival, officially called the "JVC Jazz Festival," will take place Aug. 12-15.

Memorable moments

The Newport festival remains a key part of America's jazz heritage, not only for paving the way for other music festivals, but also for creating some of the most memorable live moments in the history of the genre.

Wein recalled some of his favorites from the event's 50 years:

"The reunion the first year of Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Lester didn't want to go onstage, since he hadn't spoken with Billie in years, and then he just sort of muttered, 'I'll guess I'll have to help the lady out,' and walked onstage. That was exciting."

"Miles Davis' comeback the next year (1955). He didn't have his own group, and (Thelonious) Monk didn't have a group and Gerry Mulligan didn't have a group, so I put together this jam session with all of them. Miles played ' 'Round About Midnight' and just walked away with the whole festival. He got signed to Columbia after that, and began his next career."

"Of course, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerland at the festival. And things like a drum solo by Chico Hamilton, or 'Sweet Georgia Brown' by Anita O'Day. Or having Red Norvo and Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson and Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson -- all these great vibe players -- on the same workshop."

"John Coltrane playing there, first with Miles and then with his own group. And (Count) Basie bringing back Jimmy Rushing, and Jimmy Rushing singing with Duke (Ellington) one year. And Monk and Pee Wee Russell playing together. Or Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins playing together. It just doesn't stop."

For Walton, who has played Newport several times during his storied career, the interaction between musicians stands out as a highlight of his festival experiences.

"It's a great tradition and a fun place to play outdoors, in the sun or under the moonlight," Walton said. "Somebody always precedes you, and somebody always follows you, and it's nice to be around other musicians you might not have seen for a while. You hear them play and maybe exchange phone numbers again, or even (musical) ideas. It's a very festive occasion, as it should be."

And for Wein, a pianist himself, the "Newport Jazz Festival" remains a jazz devotee's dream come true half a century after its creation.

"I'm a jazz fan myself. That's why I'm in the business," Wein said. "So it's always been very important to me to do this for jazz fans."