There aren’t too many left. You scan through the pages of the Newport Jazz Festival program from 1954 to 1976 and you see the sheer numbers of players who have passed on (or “grabbed their hat” in jazzbo parlance). Trumpeter and close personal friend of George Wein, the great Bobby Hackett, died in 1970 (which was noted in the festival program that year). From the first festival in ‘54, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Billie Holiday, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke, Pee Wee Russell and Eddie Condon have all passed on. Of course, jazz royalty like Duke, Count and Satchmo are gone, as are vocal jazz legends Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Max Roach passed, as have his fellow drumming stars Buddy Rich, Jo Jones, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Gene Krupa. Trumpeters Art Farmer and Freddie Hubbard are gone. Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young are gone. Add the names of Gerry Mulligan, J.J. Johnson, Miles Davis, Erroll Garner, Jimmy Smith, Chet Baker, George Shearing, Woody Herman, Tony Scott, Thelonious Monk, Stan Kenton, Charles Mingus and Stan Getz to the rolls of those who have grabbed their hats.
So who’s left? Who’s still around to tell the tale of the Newport Jazz Festival from ‘back in the day.’ Pianist Dave Brubeck, who played at Wein’s inaugural clambake in ‘54 and who just performed this past weekend at the 2009 Newport Festival, is still active on the scene at age 89. Roy Haynes, who also recently appeared at Newport with his aptly-named Fountain of Youth Band, remains ageless at 84. Pianist and avant garde pioneer Cecil Taylor, who first apeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, is as energetic and provocative as ever at age 80. And then there’s pianist Dr. Billy Taylor, the renowned educator and purveyor of swinging sounds on New York’s 52nd Street at the height of bebop during the late ’40s. Taylor, a talented player and Art Tatum scholar, made several appearances at the festival, beginning in 1955. At age 88, he’s still swinging hard and on the scene.
And there’s Marian McPartland, who also played at the ‘55 Newport Jazz Festival and recently celebrated her 91th birthday with a gig at Dizzy’s nightclub in Manhattan. And don’t forget the amazing Lee Konitz, who performed on Miles Davis’ 1948 nonet session, Birth of the Cool and was on the bill with his own quartet at Wein’s first festival in 1954. Konitz, at age 81, is a freer and more daring improviser than ever (as evidenced by a recent performance with the great drummer Paul Motian at Birdland in Manhattan). And, of course, there is George Wein himself, who will be celebrating his 84th birthday in October and shows no signs of slowing down at the piano (as he showed during a recent appearance at the Montreal Jazz Festival with the 2009 edition of his George Wein All-Stars.
All of these legendary cats are a part of the great legacy of the Newport Jazz Festival. And they are still out there dealing..still swinging after all these years.
