Jazz festival celebrates 50 swinging years

If George Wein had been a better pianist, there might never have been a Newport Jazz Festival.

Fortunately, Wein realized his true calling as a concert impresario. His groundbreaking open-air festival, which created a new respect for jazz as it dragged the art form out of small, smoke-filled clubs, celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer from Aug. 11 to 15.

"I like to use the expression that 'jazz' is no longer a dirty word," Wein said.

In the unlikely setting of a Rhode Island resort known for high society airs and lavish Gilded Age mansions, Wein made jazz accessible to audiences in the thousands, creating a model that would be imitated worldwide. Today, Wein estimates there are more than 1,000 jazz festivals around the world.

For Wein, it was all about legitimizing the music he loved. Newport helped pave the way for the music's eventual inclusion at universities and cultural institutions.

Spreading the music"I was very much concerned with jazz being accepted as an art form ... because I knew that if jazz was respected ... it would help me earn the respect in my life that I wanted," said Wein, 78, seated behind a cluttered desk in his wood-paneled office in a Manhattan brownstone.

Today, as CEO of Festival Productions Inc., Wein is producing more than 20 festivals this year, including the flagship JVC Jazz Festival in New York, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and a new JVC festival in Seoul, South Korea.

On July 17 and 18, 1954, the First Annual American Jazz Festival drew 11,000 fans to the Newport Tennis Casino. The bandstand at center court was filled with jazz giants, including Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday.

Newport's impact was soon felt beyond the United States. Starting in 1955, the Voice of America began taping festival concerts for broadcast. Soon festivals began to spring up throughout Europe. Wein also played a major role in the folk revival when he created a spinoff Newport Folk Festival in 1959 that included performances by Pete Seeger, the Kingston Trio, Earl Scruggs, and an 18-year-old Joan Baez.

As for the upcoming festival, Wein is determined to restore Newport to its past grandeur. More than 125 jazz musicians will be performing in August, but most have been asked not to bring their own groups so they can be mixed in unique all-star combos as in the past.

"I hope this festival is a success ... because I've really gone back to just pure jazz," said Wein. "I want to create a salute to the past with the music of the future and the music of the individual. I want to reflect the glories of Newport, but also the fact that jazz is alive and still one of the most important musics in the world."