George Wein’s very first Newport Jazz Festival, held in 1954, took place on the lawn of the historic Newport Casino (lawn capacity of 5,000), which they rented for two days for a grand total of $350. Performers at that maiden voyage in Newport included Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, George Shearing, Johnny Smith, Oscar Peterson, the Lennie Tristano-Lee Konitz Quintet and the Gene Krupa Trio. Wein’s overall profit for that first year — $142.
The second Newport Jazz Festival was held just a few months after Charlie Parker had passed. The original plan for the was to hold the festivities on the lawn of Belcourt, a late 19th century Moorish-styled castle (lawn capacity of 8,000). After that plan was nixed at the last minute, arrangements were made with the city of Newport to use Freebody Park, a large municipal playground behind the Newport Casino. The lineup of that second Newport festival was a true smorgasbord of jazz from modern groups like the Lee Konitz and the Modern Jazz Quartet to traditionalists like trumpeters Bobby Hackett and Roy Eldridge, four saxophone masters in Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster and Bud Freeman and two big bands in Woody Herman’s Third Herd and the Count Basie Orchestra. The cool school of jazz was represented by Chet Baker’s Quintet and an ensemble led by trombonist Bob Brookmeyer while the hard bop contingent was well represented by Miles Davis leading an all-star ensemble including Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Percy Heath and Connie Kay and by the Max Roach- Clifford Quintet. Dinah Washington, Wein’s protege Teddi King, Joe Williams and Joe Turner were the vocalists on the bill during that first year. Louis Armstrong closed the proceedings on opening night in regal fashion. The total audience over three days was 27,000.
More than half a century later, Wein is still providing over the Newport Jazz Festival, which is now held in historic Fort Adams State Park, an imposing fortress dating back to the War of 1812 which affords spectacular views of yachts floating on Narragansett Bay. There are now three separate stages at the festival and several of the acts are recorded for live streaming on National Public Radio (check www.npr.org for archived performances by Tony Bennett, Joe Lovano, Brian Blade’s Fellowship, Branford Marsalis, Michel Camilo and others who appeared at the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival). And the spry octagenarian seems as excited by the music today as he was as a teenaged boy back in Newton, Massachusetts. Here’s looking forward to the 2010 Newport Jazz Festival!
