Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival announced its lineup Tuesday, and it includes a robust mix of all-stars and up-and-comers, from major jazz names like guitarist Pat Metheny and drummer Jack DeJohnette to hot young acts such as trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. The festival takes place Aug. 4 and 5 at Fort Adams State Park, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. The list of more than two-dozen acts includes Dianne Reeves, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Christian McBride, James Carter, Jason Moran, Kurt Elling, the Bad Plus, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a blues group led by wife-and-husband team Susan...

Jack DeJohnette is celebrating his 70th birthday all year long and in some major ways. The jazz drummer, one of the best ever to touch a kit, is finishing up a tour of the West Coast with pianist Chick Corea and bassist Stanley Clarke. Later in the year he's playing with both Keith Jarrett's trio and the resurrected Gateway trio with guitarist John Abercrombie and bassist Dave Holland. In between he's taking a variety of groups to summer jazz festivals, including the one in Ottawa, where he's headlining.

NEWPORT, R.I. -- News bulletin: Major theft this weekend at Fort Adams State Park during the JVC Jazz Festival. Description of subject: Elderly gentleman, white hair, thick glasses, walks and speaks slowly, but plays piano like a madman. Date of birth: 12-6-20. Item stolen: the show. Yep, it happened again. Dave Brubeck, 86, plays the Newport jazz festival virtually every year, and every year he defies age and expectations, showing up nearly everyone around him. This is not intentional -- you couldn't ask for a nicer guy. It is merely the result of persistence of...

The Newport Jazz Festival announced its lineup Tuesday, and it includes a robust mix of all-stars and up-and-comers, from major jazz names like guitarist Pat Metheny and drummer Jack DeJohnette to hot young acts such as trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. The festival takes place Aug. 4 and 5 at Fort Adams State Park, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. The list of more than two-dozen acts includes Dianne Reeves, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Christian McBride, James Carter, Jason Moran, Kurt Elling, the Bad Plus, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a blues group led by wife-and-husband team Susan...

Jack DeJohnette is celebrating his 70th birthday all year long and in some major ways. The jazz drummer, one of the best ever to touch a kit, is finishing up a tour of the West Coast with pianist Chick Corea and bassist Stanley Clarke. Later in the year he's playing with both Keith Jarrett's trio and the resurrected Gateway trio with guitarist John Abercrombie and bassist Dave Holland. In between he's taking a variety of groups to summer jazz festivals, including the one in Ottawa, where he's headlining.

Live at Newport '58 (Blue Note) Pianist Horace Silver was notoriously shy about issuing live recordings, which is something of an oddity for a jazz artist; only one authorized concert recording was released during his career. Now Blue Note, after digging through the archives at the Library of Congress, has unearthed a treasure, and it is bound to be one of the great finds of 2008. Silver's performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival is simply stunning. Horace's then-new quintet - which included trumpeter Louis Smith, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Louis Hayes -...

WEST PALM BEACH. Fla. -- Mort Fega, the hip, mellow-voiced New York radio personality who brought the music of jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and John Coltrane to the masses, died Jan. 21 of complications from back surgery. He was 83 and had been living in Delray Beach after retiring from radio, his wife of 60 years, Muriel, said Thursday. Mr. Fega's radio career began in 1955 in his hometown of New Rochelle, N.Y. He went to New York City, where he started his Saturday show "Jazz Unlimited," becoming popular for his music selection and use of "jazz slang.

NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL At: Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I., Saturday and Sunday NEWPORT, R.I. - If the organizers of the Newport Jazz Festival flubbed anything this year, it was in putting Esperanza Spalding on the second stage. Spalding, the 26-year-old bassist and vocalist who this year became the first jazz musician to win the Best New Artist award at the Grammys, played a set each day on the festival's midsize stage. Her appeal has grown so wide so fast that she could have easily been on the main stage.

"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer" begins with a bang. An elderly O'Day briefly rehearses a version of "Yesterdays" (an aptly retrospective choice). Cut to a gangbusters montage of album covers and publicity stills from her '40s and '50s prime, with a big band muscling out "Sent for You Yesterday" in the background. Then Bryant Gumbel's voice comes in. "Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction. " O'Day cuts him off in a chiding tone. "It's the way it went down , Bryant.

NEWPORT, R.I. — The eclectic mix of styles that is the hallmark of the Newport Jazz Festival could not have been displayed better than it was midafternoon yesterday. As trumpeter Wynton Marsalis took his quintet through an hour of buttoned-down, straight-ahead jazz on the main stage, saxophonist Ken Vandermark’s thrash-jazz outfit Powerhouse Sound unfurled its fury on one of the two side stages. Talk about stark differences: Legendary class act Dave Brubeck even sat in with Marsalis for a few tunes, his swiftly ascending chords defying his 89-year-old hands on a romp...

NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL At: Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I., Saturday and Sunday NEWPORT, R.I. - If the organizers of the Newport Jazz Festival flubbed anything this year, it was in putting Esperanza Spalding on the second stage. Spalding, the 26-year-old bassist and vocalist who this year became the first jazz musician to win the Best New Artist award at the Grammys, played a set each day on the festival's midsize stage. Her appeal has grown so wide so fast that she could have easily been on the main stage.

NEWPORT, R.I. — The eclectic mix of styles that is the hallmark of the Newport Jazz Festival could not have been displayed better than it was midafternoon yesterday. As trumpeter Wynton Marsalis took his quintet through an hour of buttoned-down, straight-ahead jazz on the main stage, saxophonist Ken Vandermark’s thrash-jazz outfit Powerhouse Sound unfurled its fury on one of the two side stages. Talk about stark differences: Legendary class act Dave Brubeck even sat in with Marsalis for a few tunes, his swiftly ascending chords defying his 89-year-old hands on a...

NEWPORT - In the warmer months, when day fades into night, Newport comes alive. Its labyrinth of lanes such as Thames Street, Broadway, and America's Cup Avenue fills with tourists and locals headed to taverns, restaurants, and live music clubs. "You never have to walk far to get a drink. Newport is a verywalkable city," said Jim Gillis, entertainment writer for the Newport Daily News. Besides its great night life and beaches, the city hosts the acclaimed Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival, along with other fests featuring classical music and...

Live at Newport '58 (Blue Note) Pianist Horace Silver was notoriously shy about issuing live recordings, which is something of an oddity for a jazz artist; only one authorized concert recording was released during his career. Now Blue Note, after digging through the archives at the Library of Congress, has unearthed a treasure, and it is bound to be one of the great finds of 2008. Silver's performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival is simply stunning. Horace's then-new quintet - which included trumpeter Louis Smith, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer...

NEWPORT, R.I. -- News bulletin: Major theft this weekend at Fort Adams State Park during the JVC Jazz Festival. Description of subject: Elderly gentleman, white hair, thick glasses, walks and speaks slowly, but plays piano like a madman. Date of birth: 12-6-20. Item stolen: the show. Yep, it happened again. Dave Brubeck, 86, plays the Newport jazz festival virtually every year, and every year he defies age and expectations, showing up nearly everyone around him. This is not intentional -- you couldn't ask for a nicer guy. It is merely the result of persistence of...

"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer" begins with a bang. An elderly O'Day briefly rehearses a version of "Yesterdays" (an aptly retrospective choice). Cut to a gangbusters montage of album covers and publicity stills from her '40s and '50s prime, with a big band muscling out "Sent for You Yesterday" in the background. Then Bryant Gumbel's voice comes in. "Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction. " O'Day cuts him off in a chiding tone. "It's the way it went down , Bryant.

NEWPORT - In the warmer months, when day fades into night, Newport comes alive. Its labyrinth of lanes such as Thames Street, Broadway, and America's Cup Avenue fills with tourists and locals headed to taverns, restaurants, and live music clubs. "You never have to walk far to get a drink. Newport is a verywalkable city," said Jim Gillis, entertainment writer for the Newport Daily News. Besides its great night life and beaches, the city hosts the acclaimed Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival, along with other fests featuring classical music and international film.

When the Astors, Vanderbilts, Whitneys, and their ilk decided in the late 1800s to build their summer "cottages" along Bellevue Avenue in Newport, the Gilded Age began, and this little colonial fishing village on Aquidneck Island was transformed into a center of American society, at least in summer. That doesn't mean Newport stalled forever in the late 19th century; think Newport Jazz Festival , America's Cup races, and International Tennis Hall of Fame , for starters. But the mansions, now open to the public for touring and partying, are the core of Newport activities for visitors.

When the Astors, Vanderbilts, Whitneys, and their ilk decided in the late 1800s to build their summer "cottages" along Bellevue Avenue in Newport, the Gilded Age began, and this little colonial fishing village on Aquidneck Island was transformed into a center of American society, at least in summer. That doesn't mean Newport stalled forever in the late 19th century; think Newport Jazz Festival , America's Cup races, and International Tennis Hall of Fame , for starters. But the mansions, now open to the public for touring and partying, are the core of Newport activities for visitors.