Jazzville, NJ

Newport Jazz Fest 2010 – A Survival Guide For Those Left Behind

Posted by D.A. Gutierrez in Commentary, History, Jazz Events, News

August 1st, 2010   No Comments »

In August of 2007, I took a week-long road trip through New England with a friend of mine. The first night’s itinerary called for a stop in my favorite New England town – Newport, Rhode Island.

Since the trip was a spur-of-the-moment event, I was blissfully unaware that we were about to drive into town on one of the most popular summer weekends – that of the Newport Jazz Festival. After driving around to a few bed & breakfasts, we realized finding a room was not going to be easy. But it was only after speaking with the folks at the majestic Hotel Viking and being quoted a rate of $700/night that we found out why we were having such trouble.

I won’t bore you with the details, but we ended up finding the last room left in Newport at a very modest $150/night. Of course, the room didn’t have a lock on the door, and the bedspread looked like it had last been changed during the American Revolution, but I digress. . .

This year however, Jazzville, NJ writer Maria Miaoulis and I will be heading to the Newport Jazz Festival in style. We’ve planned our trip in advance: we’ve gotten reservations at a B&B that is just a half-block off the main drag, we already have our festival tickets in hand, and we’re ready to give you, our loyal readers, an up-close and personal look at this year’s events.

We’re particularly excited to see performances by Ben Allison, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Anat Cohen and the incredible pianist Chick Corea who will be performing together with Christian McBride.

In preparation for our upcoming travels, I’ve put together a “survival kit” (or maybe I should call it a consolation prize) of sorts for those readers who won’t be able to make it to this year’s festival:

• NPR has posted a live version of “Round Midnight” recorded by Miles Davis & Thelonius Monk at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival along with some commentary and analysis of the recording.
• Wolfgang’s Vault has available for free streaming everything recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1964.
• Also at Wolfgang’s Vault, miscellaneous recordings of other Newport Jazz Festival performances from 1959 and 1960.
• NPR has recordings of some of the 2008 and 2009 Newport performances on their page (look in the left hand column).

For those looking for more current coverage, check out the following links:

• “Newport Jazz 2010: The Lesser-Known Giants” – An NPR writeup featuring some not-so-famous performers who will be at this year’s festival.
• Another NPR story featuring “Eight More To Watch” at this year’s festival – NOTE: one of our favorites, Ben Allison, is mentioned in this one.
• NPR will be live streaming much of the 2010 festival on their website.
• Jazzville, NJ will be posting live videos of performances on our Qik video stream (sadly we can’t stream the whole weekend!).
• We will also be posting photos & commentary on our Twitter page.

Oh and by the way, all the while I’ve been writing this post I’ve been listening to Ben Allison’s “Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzilla” on endless repeat. Can’t get enough of that song! Check out a live performance of it below: