Talk:Newport Jazz Festival

1971
I question the statement about the move of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1971. My wife and I had tickets to the festival held in Newport that year, but we sold them to the hippies that took over the venue. We were unable to get into the festival because of the hippie invasion. The police were unable to handle the drug scene that occurred when the hippies invaded in 1971. Hippies were lying all over the grounds either high or overdosed.

A. C. Singer acsinger457@yahoo.com 66.19.241.177 21:31, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Expansion of article
I've begun expanding this article since it is highly important to both the wiki's Jazz and Rhode Island projects, yet it remains (remained?) a stub. I think it could be improved further, for example by becoming a source of specific information about the upcoming summer festival in Newport. There is a fair chance that I will be on an extended Wikibreak starting immediately. If you would like to take up working on this article, don't be shy. Ldecoursey (talk) 06:23, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Notable Performances
Has this festival really gone the past 45 years without any notable performances? Has it really all just been a rehash? Ldecoursey (talk) 06:23, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Kool Jazz Festivals In Sports Stadiums
I'm in favor of eliminating this section. In my mind, more than anything else, there's simply no way that "Kool Jazz Festivals In Sports Stadiums" can properly be a major section in an article about the Newport Jazz Festival.

The outline's first point shows how KOOL sponsored music festivals successfully. This is relevant since the Newport Jazz Festival in fact successfully pioneered corporate festival sponsorship, involving KOOL. I mentioned this development and indicated that it was novel in the "Expanded format, relocation to NYC" section, and I wonder if my treatment might be sufficient?

The outline also highlights technical specifications of video equipment used by certain KOOL-sponsored festivals. I'm not sure how this level of detail is relevant or even if it is related to the Newport Jazz Festival.

The Newport Jazz Festival-New York may have for a time been among those festivals branded as "Kool Jazz Festival", and did (at least in the early 70s, not sure about the KOOL years) operate events in New York sports venues such as Yankee Stadium, but it would be a mistake to fully equate "Kool Jazz Festival" with "Newport Jazz Festival" since a majority of the jazz festivals which KOOL sponsored around the country were other festivals - not the Newport Jazz Festival - although some may have been other George Wein festivals.

At a minimum, I would prefer if this material could be migrated away from an outline and into flowing text explaining its points better. Ideally, again, I think it would be best for this section to go away (since "Kool Jazz Festivals In Sports Stadiums" isn't properly a major chapter in the history of the Newport Jazz Festival) and other sections be augmented as needed. But again, with at least part of this material, I'm not even sure what the relevance is to the subject (for example, in listing specific properties of particular video equipment), so I'm hesitant to move forward with any changes without seeking clarification. Ldecoursey (talk) 06:23, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Redirect from Kool to Newport inappropriate
Kool Jazz festivals existed in many cities in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cincinnati's festival was heavily promoted by WNOP and other stations, although it has encompassed Jazz, Soul, Rock, and other forms. Now it goes by the name Cincinnati Jazz Festival, with Macy's being a local sponsor.

So I feel the Kool festival should be a short article, reflecting sponsorship of regional festivals across the country. Newport jazz festival needs its own page, as do some of the other major festivals.

Wikip rhyre (talk) 21:36, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Newport Jazz Festival in Boston?
"In 1973, there were two concerts at Fenway Park in Boston, under the name 'Newport New England Jazz Festival.'"

There was a fabulous "Newport Jazz Festival in Boston" concert I attended in the early 70s, I think at the Boston Garden. Dizzy Gillespie, Big Joe Turner, Aretha Franklin and a bunch of other greats. It might have been part of the 1972 concerts, in which case the text should be revised to include it; but I'm not sure it wasn't in 1971. Wein presented the performers.

Newport New England Jazz Festival 1973 Fenway Park, Boston MA
It was 1973 and was called Newport-New England Jazz Festival July 27 & 28, 1973 at Fenway Park, Boston MA
 * Friday: War, Ray Charles, Herbie Mann, the Staple Singers, and Billy Paul.
 * Saturday: Donny Hathaway, B.B. King, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Stevie Wonder.

I attended the Saturday night show which opened with Stevie Wonder playing Superstition with special guest Jeff Beck on guitar & most of the other nights acts supporting Stevie on that tune. Charles Mingus on Bass ETC... The performance started out in the dark at The Fenway & when Superstition started the Fenway Lights blasted on all at once. Quite memorable. At Fenway Park, July 27 and 28. Tickets were $5.50-$7.50.

Newport Bridge
Wasn't the construction of the Newport Bridge (now the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge), which took a big chunk of the land used, a factor in the festival, and the folk festival, leaving Newport? deisenbe (talk) 03:47, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (February 2018)
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Merger proposal
There's a 2019 proposal to merge Festival Field here which seems reasonable. Notable primarily for its association with this festival (and not even mentioned on the folk festival page), it's a poorly developed stub which doesn't seem to be capable of development. There's a block of flats with a similar name, but I can find no evidence supporting an association. Klbrain (talk) 04:55, 3 May 2020 (UTC)


 * That sounds good to me; The block of flats - or apartments - are built on top of the original field where the festival was held. I can find a couple old newspaper refs about them, but nothing that isn't behind a paywall. Regardless, this field doesn't seem to have any independent notability outside of these festivals, its page does not establish any, and does not exist anymore. Doc StrangeMailbox Logbook 18:07, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

Newport Jazz Festival-New York
We drove from Chicago to attend I believe in 1976. Radio city Music Hall - Tribute to Charlie Parker Carnegie Hall Miraslov vitous, Urzula Dudziak, Freddie Hubbard. Avery Fisher Hall Staten Island Ferry Can't remember all the artists and venues.

any help appreciated

Jerryo — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:240:4600:ECA0:349C:295F:CA16:9861 (talk) 21:04, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

2000s
This portion is inaccurate. Festival Productions was NOT sold to Shoreline Media. It was sold to Festival Network which was run by a former Shoreline executive (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/arts/music/25jazz.html). Further, the Festival is NOT still under Festival Network management. FN went bankrupt after two years and, due to such, the Festival stopped being managed by FN. In 2010, George Wein restarted the Festival outside of FN. The Newport Festivals Foundation was started in 2011 to take over and has since.