Today marks the 58th anniversary of the first Newport Jazz Festival. The first festival was held on the evenings of Saturday July 17th and Sunday July 18th, 1954 and featured appearances by jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Kenton, Eddie Condon, the Modern Jazz Quartet, George Shearing and Gene Krupa.
After the inaugural year of the festival held at Newport Casino, the festival moved to Newport’s Freebody Park. The event continued to grow in popularity throughout the 1960’s, with the addition of rock and blues acts in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In 1972 promoters moved the festival to New York City where it became known as “Newport Jazz Festival-New York” and, later, thanks to a sponsorship by a cigarette brand, the “Kool Jazz Festival”.
The Newport Jazz Festival returned to its rightful home in 1981, with festival events scheduled for three stages at Fort Adams State Park, which has been the primary venue ever since. In recent years, an opening night has been held back at the festival’s original home, Newport Casino. 1959 was the first year of the Newport Folk Festival, now also held yearly at Fort Adams. This year’s folk festival is scheduled for July 28-29, 2012.
The 2012 Newport Jazz Festival will be held August 3-5, with performances by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dr. John, Dianne Reeves, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Jenny Scheinman and many more.
Newport is located on the southern end of Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay on Rhode Island’s Atlantic Ocean coast. In addition to the famous music festivals, visitors come to Newport for the beautiful ports, a large collection of colonial-era buildings and the large mansions built during the “Gilded Age” of the late 19th century.
