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| Message from George Wein: Join Me in Newport in August For one weekend every August, the idyllic setting of Newport merges with the passion of jazz to produce the Newport Jazz Festival . It's a symbiotic relationship. Since its beginning in 1954, the festival has delivered line-ups that have showcased jazz history and predicted it, while the city of Newport has lent the festival an unparalleled home steeped in history and culture. Throw in fans that really are more of a community than an audience, and you have much more than just a series of concerts. By bringing together the music, the people and the place, you create a festival, a real happening, an experience that is remembered long after the music ends. The 2013 festival kicks off Friday, August 2 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame with a concert under the stars. Built in 1880 as the Newport Casino, the grounds of the Tennis Hall of Fame are a portal to an era of Newport elegance and Gilded Age charm. It's hard to imagine a better place to see this year's headliner, Natalie Cole, along with Bill Charlap with special guest Freddy Cole. On Saturday, August 3 & Sunday, August 4, the festival moves to historic Fort Adams State Park. Set on a peninsula that juts out into Narragansett Bay, the Fort is in and of itself a spectacular experience. Sprawling lawns. Breathtaking vistas. Nineteenth century stone buildings. And inhabiting all of that are the sounds radiating from the festival's three stages. This year they'll be coming from icons that include Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock; and up-and-comers such as Hiromi, Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter, and Robert Glasper. Listen to the music from one of the two wine and beer cafes. Listen while exploring the rows of unique and diverse arts and crafts. Listen from the lawn of the showcase Fort Stage, where, in the shadow of the Newport Bridge, fans will be spread out on blankets and folding chairs, sharing lobster rolls and stories, bobbing their heads to the rhythms of the legends they've come to see, and exchanging glances at the unexpected chops of emerging artists. Part of what makes Newport and the Jazz Festival so compatible is an unbridled mutual respect. They are both proud of what each has brought to the other, in terms of culture, commerce, and history. What binds the city of Newport and the Jazz Festival is beyond rational explanation... It's in the air - a rich breeze of tradition that blows back over the Newport Jazz Festival every August, confirming where it's been, and reminding where it will go. See you in August! —George Wein, Founder & Producer, and Chairman, Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Jazz News :: home page |