Newport preparing for return of Jazz Festival

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was founded to safeguard traditional New Orleans jazz and share it with the world. Over the years the band has survived the deaths of members, Hurricane Katrina and America's on-again, off-again love affair with jazz.

So it's only fitting that the band is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Newport Jazz Festival, an event that since 1954 has highlighted the biggest names in jazz. The band is one of dozens of acts performing at the three-day festival that begins Friday. Preservation Hall also played the Newport Folk Festival this weekend — one of only a few acts that have played at both iconic events.

"We are a family of musicians," said Preservation Hall band leader Ben Jaffe, the son of the band's late founder, Allan Jaffe. "And Newport creates a family of musicians. Even when I'm not playing I try to get to it every year. It's just the granddaddy of festivals and created the blueprint for every festival that followed."

Preservation Hall, Dr. John and other acts will kick off the festival with a Friday performance at Newport's International Tennis Hall of Fame. The festival then moves to its long-time venue at Fort Adams State Park on Saturday and Sunday, with a lineup featuring Pat Metheny, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dianne Reeves, Jack DeJohnette and Vince Giordano.

The Newport Folk Festival sold out three months early this year but tickets are still available for the jazz festival.

Festival creator George Wein acknowledged that the jazz festival has not enjoyed the tremendous success of the folk festival in recent years. The 86-year-old musician and long-time producer of the festivals said America's love of jazz seems to run in cycles.

This year's lineup again features a mix of jazz icons and new voices. Jack DeJohnette will celebrate his 70th birthday at the festival. The drummer, who played with Miles Davis and a long list of other jazz notables, has played Newport many times.

"George has always supported the older musicians while bringing on younger ones," he told the Associated Press. "That's become part of the tradition. There should always be something passed down from the older ones to the younger musicians."

The collaboration between musicians and the blending of styles, traditions and sounds is part of what makes Newport so special, according to Derek Trucks. Known as a guitarist and a member of the Allman Brothers Band, Trucks and his wife Susan Tedeschi have created a new band that blends strands of jazz, blues and rock.

"You have to play the music that moves you," Trucks said. "Every once in a while you have to shed your skin. If you play it too safe, you're not trying hard enough."

Metheny said he's looking forward to bringing his guitar playing back to Newport, adding "there's no gig like that anywhere in the world."

He said he wishes jazz would attract a wider audience, and suspects that too many people think of it as "some kind of PBS thing."

"We require from audiences a certain kind of sensitivity and a certain kind of listening that can be difficult, especially now that there are so many distractions," he said. "I don't worry about it too much, though. I'm interested in playing good notes."

Wein was playing piano and running the Storyville jazz club in Boston when Newport socialite Elaine Lorillard asked him to organize a performance to entertain Newport's summer social scene. More than five decades later, Wein is still heading out to New York's jazz clubs to hear the latest bands.

"I want to hear every new group that we book," he said. "I don't want to just listen to a record. I want to hear it live. That's what you have to do with jazz."

Last year Wein created the nonprofit Newport Festivals Foundation to ensure the long-term success of both festivals. Nonprofit status allows for tax-deductible contributions from fans and corporate sponsors. The jazz festival is also sponsored by the investment firm Natixis Global Asset Management.

Several other music festivals are already nonprofit, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which Wein also created.

Foundation board member Jonathan Nelson said it's critical to ensure the survival of the festival — as an incubator for new music and a way to preserve the heritage of jazz. Nelson is the CEO of Providence Equity Partners, a global private equity firm founded in Providence. Nelson said the festival also gives Rhode Island a way to shine on an international stage.

"George said, 'Look, I want to make sure this thing lasts longer than me,'" he said. "This is really important for jazz, and it's obviously important for Rhode Island."

Copyright Associated Press, Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.