[Dixielandjazz] Newport Jazz Festival

[Stephen G Barbone]

Like many jazz and music festivals, Newport is moving towards youth,  
but still presenting older acts, at least on the first night. Reminds  
me of  the advice I got from a musical mentor 60 years ago. "Above  
all, be flexible because the audience and their musical tastes will  
change many times as you age."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


Newport Jazz Festival Embraces Fresh Talent


MARCH 22, 2011 - NY TIMES - BY LARRY RICHTER

There will be plenty of new blood and young performers on stage this  
summer at the Newport Jazz Festival, whose 2011 schedule was announced  
on Tuesday. The bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding, who last month  
won the Grammy for best new artist, will perform on two of the  
festival’s three days of shows, which begin on Friday, Aug. 5, in  
Newport, R.I., where the festival was first held in 1954.
George Wein, who produced the first Newport festival and remains in  
charge, said bookings of what he called “adventurous younger artists”  
were part of an effort “to recognize that jazz is an ever-evolving art  
form.”Besides Ms. Spalding, 26, the festival will feature the  
saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who has been voted “a rising star” by  
Downbeat magazine in recent years, in a duo with the veteran horn  
player Bunky Green. Also performing will be the trumpet player Ambrose  
Akinmusire, 28, whose career got off to a flying start in 2007, when  
he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.

The festival’s first night, however, will be devoted to established  
talents from opposite ends of the jazz spectrum. The trumpet player  
Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center  
program, is one of the genre’s best-known names and honors the music’s  
roots in New Orleans dating back to Louis Armstrong. The pianist and  
singer Michael Feinstein is a specialist in the Broadway-influenced  
Great American Songbook.
Acknowledging the increasingly international reach of jazz, the  
festival will also feature up-and-coming performers from around the  
world. The pianist Hiromi Uehara, 31, is from Japan and has recently  
drawn attention for collaborations with Chick Corea and other  
prominent keyboard players. Avishai Cohen is an Israeli trumpet player  
whose appearance will feature the saxophonist Joshua Redman as a  
special guest, and Miguel Zenón often leads ensembles that offer jazz  
versions of Puerto Rican folk music.
In addition, the veteran saxophonist Charles Lloyd, a supporter since  
the 1960s of what has come to be called world music, will perform with  
the Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain, and the pianist Randy Weston,  
who around the same time began exploring the African origins of jazz,  
will play with his African Rhythms Trio.
Festival tickets will go on sale Friday.