That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

242
Part III: The Beat Goes On: Jazz Appreciation 101
Starting with the Newport Jazz Festival
As a teen, George Wein was an aspiring jazz pianist who studied with legendary
musician Teddy Wilson at Juilliard. But his business side won out, and he
opened his Storyville jazz club in Boston in 1950. Four years later, prompted by
upscale jazz buffs, he launched the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island.
Today this festival is regarded as the first of the big outdoor music festivals, as
well as a place where many of jazz’s key innovations went on public display for
the first time.
From the start, Newport Jazz (now known as the JVC Jazz Festival at Newport)
presented a phenomenal lineup inspired by Wein’s goal of mixing New Orleans
jazz with swing, bebop, and modern variations. (See Part II for a tour of
different jazz styles.) The first year’s program at the Newport Tennis Casino
included Ella Fitzgerald, Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz, Gerry
Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, and Lennie Tristano, as well as a power-packed
tribute to Count Basie featuring Buck Clayton, Vic Dickenson, Milt Hinton, Jo
Jones, Teddy Wilson, and Lester Young.
Today, JVC Jazz Festivals take place in both Newport (August) and New York
City (June). During the summer, satellite versions of the festival are held in
several American cities.
� In Newport, a waterfront town of 26,000 situated on Aquidneck Island in
Narragansett Bay, festival concerts take place during four days at the
Newport Casino at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The casino,
designed in 1880 in the Shingle style by architects McKim Meade and
White, is a grand piece of American architectural history.
� In New York City, festival concerts take place over the course of 12 days
at Carnegie Hall, the Rose Theater, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and
other venues. Just as Newport takes on the relaxed, breezy atmosphere
of its setting, the New York festival moves to the rhythms of this major
city, with its forest of high-rise buildings and its long tradition of innovative
jazz. New York has the world’s highest concentration of top-notch
jazz musicians (and fans!), and that’s reflected in this festival’s ability to
draw stellar talent and big audiences. After all, they don’t have to travel
far to perform. New jazz is often heard first in New York, and it’s inspiring
when “locals” like saxophonist Don Byron and guitarist/vocalist John
Pizzarelli bring their latest music and bands here.
For more information, check out www.festivalproductions.net/
jvcjazz.htm.