CBJC Festival Magazine 2016

if presented with quality and dignity
could be positively presented to the
public, beyond the clichéd confines and
nocturnal nuances of the nightclub, into
the light of the sun. He also proved that
black and white mix and swing in ebony
and ivory harmony. (It is no coincidence
that festival launched the same year of
the historic Brown v. Board of Education
ruling).
This year’s
Newport Jazz Festival 2014
festival lineup
is as dancing and diverse as ever. It
includes: pianists Michel Camilo, Gerald
Clayton, Jon Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Fred
Hersch, and Hiromi; saxophonists
Kenny Garrett, James Carter, Lou
Donaldson; drummers Herlin Riley and
Jack DeJohnette; guitarist Pat Martino;
trumpeters Irvin Mayfield and Ambrose
Akinmusire and vocalists Cassandra
Wilson and Jose James.
“The focus of this year’s festival is what
is the future of jazz,” Wein recently told
the Associated Press. “We can never
ignore the history of the music, but at the
same time, there is such energy and spirit
among young musicians today. We try to
find the ones that are creative and give
them a stage to be heard.”
The festival has been a place of discovery
of new talent, and of artistic rebirth.
It was where Miles Davis and Duke
Ellington revived their careers in the
fifties; where John Coltrane unveiled
his lovely supreme saxophone in
impressions in the sixties; where rock
and jazz merged in the seventies; where
60
the Marsalis brothers
launched their neoclassic,
‘Young Lions’ revolution in the
eighties and well into the nineties. Today,
well into the change of the century, a
new generation of improvisers including
Houston’s Jason Moran, Christian Scott
from New Orleans, and Portland’s
Esperanza Spalding are now writing their
sonic signatures on the artistic epidermis
of their generation.
“… [I] think we should allow these
young players to share the spotlight,
until the public can fully accept them,”
Wein says. These are all great players
who are trying to find their own voice,
trying to add something to the music
that becomes part of the mainstream of
what is happening. And it’s a privilege for
me to present them at Newport.”
Through all of the music’s twists of tone
and tempo, Wein has stood as a kind of
eternal MC – a master of ceremonies to
the longest jazz gig on the planet.
That said, Wein’s achievement must be
viewed in a broader context than just
the music. What he did was prove that –
contrary to even the haters today – jazz,
But just as a jazz solo is an exercise in
grace under pressure, Wein’s stewardship
at the helm has had its moments of
titanic turmoil. There was protest festival
spearheaded by Charles Mingus and
Max Roach in 1960. There was a time
when Wein tried to meld rock and jazz –
a move he later regretted. And there were
always critics who thought the festival
was a sell-out because it didn’t feature
more adventurous programming. To
their credit, sometimes they were right.
But with the ease of a Lester Young solo,
Wein adjusted, mended, and molded the
festival to walk the near irresolvable tight
rope between art and commerce. He
performed this balancing act when the
jazz masters were dying; when traditional
jazz record stores and terrestrial radio
stations have almost all disappeared, and
when the mention of a jazz musician on
TV or in the newspapers was hardly seen
unless the musician was in a drug bust
or deceased.
In the words of Ellington’s hit, “Things
Ain’t What They Used To Be.” Now,
a la Bud Powell, the scene changes.
It’s Newport, Rhode Island in 2014.
Although Wein is without his wife Joyce
, who passed away a few years ago, he
is in good spirits, as he rolls around the
festival in a golf caddy. Now, a 501c3 not-