{"id":993,"date":"2012-08-03T15:35:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T19:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=993"},"modified":"2019-09-12T18:48:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T22:48:01","slug":"jazz-festivals-in-newport-and-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/08\/jazz-festivals-in-newport-and-everywhere.html","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Festivals in Newport, and everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 58th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival<\/a> starts tonight (Friday, 8\/3) in Rhode Island, and thanks to producer George Wein, there’s a press bus going that I’ll be on. But you don’t have to go to Newport for the jazz fest experience — small towns as well as large ones throughout America (and beyond) have discovered that jazz fests are good, clean fun, fine for the local economy and for giving a town a good name, too. (Tip: you can watch<\/strong> the Newport Jazz Fest’s Saturday and Sunday shows as broadcast live<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0by a partnership of WGBH and WBGO — how ironic! –\u00c2\u00a0which will be archived as audio, reportedly).<\/p>\n

Peekskill’s 6th annual Jazz and Blues Fes<\/a>t, for instance, two weekends ago, was a day-trip from Manhattan and an easy pleasure. An hour and a half on Metro North from Grand Central Station, which cost about $50 apiece rt, and my friend and I alit into a low-key town on the Hudson. A mile walk uphill to Peekskill center, where the streets were blocked off for pedestrians only, a stage was set so the sun would sink behind it. Rows of folding chair awaited sitters. The restaurants were all open, with either seating or grills or steam tables out front. Each had booked jazz performancers: I heard singer Alexis Cole with pianist Richard Sussman while lunching. A local flutist sat in nicely on a bossa nova.<\/p>\n

Officially that fest’s music didn’t start ’til 4, so we shopped at the used book store (of course) and poked into a couple shops. Then Nation Beat came on. An energetic NYC-based Brazil cum New Orleans ensemble led by<\/p>\n

drummer Scott Kettner, it is by no means a purist jazz ensemble, and no one cares. Singer Liliana and the fiddler-clarinetist soloist loosened up the crowd, so little kids and parents were comfortable dancing in front of them, and the foldings chair filled up (though mostly the shaded ones first).<\/p>\n

Pianist Marc Cary’s Focus Trio followed — and though he had only a Fender to work with, no grand piano, Cary was inspired by the crowd’s good energy and afternoon’s mellow vibe to play a long, propulsive theme–to-theme jam with his bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Sameer Gupta, the only person I’ve ever seen deal with his \u00c2\u00a0tabla simultaneously with his traps. Alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, with her very loud r&b party band, took over as dusk fell. We copped some excellent jerk chicken with sides, ate sitting on a street stoop, and headed home exhausted, missing (sadly) headliner Bobby Sanabria, whose Latin jazz band Ascensi\u00c3\u00b3n with trombonist Chris Washburne, amongst others, was sure to be a blowout final\u00c3\u00a9.<\/p>\n

I estimate the crowd was about 2000. The Peekskill Business Improvement District (BID) is the presenter of the festival, with sponsors including D. Bertoline & Sons (which appears to be an Anheuser-Busch distributor), Verizon, Wells Fargo and Wheelabator Westchester LP, “a waste management company,” with in-kind help from the City of Peekskill, the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce, and the Paramount Center for the Arts, a local presenter based in a restored movie palace.<\/p>\n

Just from notifications in my e-mail I know that this weekend is also Chicago South Shore Jazz Festival<\/a> (featuring Pharoah Sanders and local star singer Dee Alexander; next weekend (Aug 10 – 12) is the Litchfield Jazz Festival<\/a>; Aug 8 – 12 is the New Haven Jazz Festival<\/a>, and the third annual Bancroft and Maynooth Jazz and Blues festival<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in Bancroft, Ontario (thanks to saxist-flutist Jane Bunnett and trumpeter Larry Cramer, producers); Aug 16 through 19 is the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival<\/a> in Warwick, NY; Aug 18 and 19 there’s\u00c2\u00a0a Jazz on 2nd Avenue Festival<\/a> in Niwot, Colorado, and Poughkeepsie’s “Jazz in the Valley Weekend”<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and Morristown NJ’s Jazz and Blues Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also: Chene Park<\/a> in Detroit has just begun its Wednesday evening series (leading up to the Detroit International Jazz Festival<\/a> over Labor Day — at which time I’ll be at the Chicago Jazz Festival<\/a>). The Jazz Journalists Association just presented Jazz Awards, belatedly, to Amiri Baraka (for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism) at the Lincoln Park Music Festival<\/a> in Newark, NJ, and to Gretchen Parlato (as Best Female Singer of the Year) at the Caramoor Jazz Festival<\/a> in Katonah, New York.<\/p>\n

And so on.\u00c2\u00a0There must be something productive about jazz festivals, or this wouldn’t be happening.<\/p>\n

howardmandel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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All JBJ posts <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 58th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival starts tonight (Friday, 8\/3) in Rhode Island, and thanks to producer George Wein, there’s a press bus going that I’ll be on. But you don’t have to go to Newport for the jazz fest experience — small towns as well as large ones throughout America (and beyond) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/george-wein.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-g1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/08\/radio-days-newport-jazz-fest-on-npr.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":0},"title":"Radio Days: Newport Jazz fest on NPR","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"National Public Radio does jazz fans worldwide a huge service today (Sat., Aug 6) and tomorrow, broadcasting live from the Newport Jazz Fest. See the complete schedule and listen at NPR.org if your local station's not carrying the feed. I'll be tuned in from 2:45 pm EDT for violinist Regina\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/regina1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/08\/music-people-and-context-at-newport-jazz-fest-2012.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":1},"title":"Music, people and context at Newport Jazz Fest 2012","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"My new CityArts-New York column covers some of what went down at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival. With three stages running staggered but near-simultaneous performances, there was much too much happening to hear it all (I've been listening to some of what I missed, like Bill Frisell's modern string band\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/yScheinmanandBillFrisellphotocreditLaNitaAdamsIMG_4893-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":166,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/03\/george_wein_to_produce_newport.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":2},"title":"George Wein to produce Newport jazz & folk fests","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"George Wein will celebrate the 55th anniversary of the historic\u00c2\u00a0Newport Jazz Festival and the 50th anniversary of his equally renown Newport Folk Festival by producing both a jazz fest and a folk fest in that Rhode Island resort town next August, according to a press release issued on March 3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allaboutjazz.com\/iviews\/gwein2003.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/03\/weins_jazz_fest_without_jvc_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":3},"title":"Wein’s jazz fest without JVC Corp","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Calling all jazz sponsors: that's the message producer George Wein released today (March 17) in search of corporate support for his proposed 55th anniversary Newport Jazz Festival.So doing, Wein also announced the end of a 24-year association with JVC Corp., the electronics manufacturer that has been title sponsor of fests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":104,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/07\/newport_by_bus.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":4},"title":"Newport by bus","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"July 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As an enclave of the newly gilded during the Gilded Age, the town of Newport, Rhode Island was \u00c2\u00a0 somewhat privileged by its relative isolation. The easiest ways to get to this promontory during the 1890s may have been by making a fortune in railroads, or by yacht -- the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/05\/jvc_jazz_fest-ny_cancellation.html","url_meta":{"origin":993,"position":5},"title":"JVC Jazz Fest-NY cancellation reported","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No major, mainstream, corporate-supported jazz fest will occur in New York City this summer, according to today's New York Times report confirming my posting of\u00a0 April 15. Festival Network principal Chris Shields, purchaser in 2007 of the production company headed by George Wein which staged June jazz concerts at major\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}