NEW YORK (AP) – Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein is more interested in where jazz is going than in where it’s been as he marks the 60th anniversary of the first outdoor jazz festival.
That’s why the 88-year-old Wein is adding a third day of music at Rhode Island’s Fort Adams Park on Friday, dedicated to emerging artists such as Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and singer Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Wein is acknowledging Newport’s history with a Friday night concert at the site of the inaugural 1954 festival – now the Tennis Hall of Fame. Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will celebrate Billie Holiday and Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will play “signature pieces” from past festivals by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and others.