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George Wein: A Life and Legend in Jazz
Last summer, in June of 2017, I had the privilege and opportunity to interview George Wein, founder and producer of the seminal Newport Jazz Festival. At 91, he was just in the process of supporting and transitioning the new artistic director Christian McBride into this demanding and critical role for the future of the Newport Jazz Festival, to ensure the continuation of the legacy. The impact of this festival has been historically felt by the jazz community for its breadth ...
read moreWein, June & Jazz
As I write this, I am sitting in the Gran Hotel Havana in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. My friend Joan Cararach, Artistic Director of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival, and the festival promoter Tito Ramoneda asked me to join them in a collaboration to cross-promote our festivals. CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival (Aug. 6th-8th) and Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival (Nov. 3rd-Dec. 4th) are now sister festivals. By the time you read this, I will have had the opportunity to perform with ...
read moreGeorge Wein: Back to Doing His Thing
Not many people stand in shoes similar to the ones in which jazz impresario George Wein now finds himself. Having invented the jazz festival more than half a century ago, his name is synonymous with the Newport Jazz Festival, his first and most well- known child of that genus. He led a company that expanded on the flagship festival in the Rhode Island resort city and produced a number of festivals at one time, including those in New Orleans, Saratoga ...
read moreGeorge Wein: George Wein Is Alive And Well In Mexico
Impresario George Wein has given the music he loves invaluable support for more than half a century and no one would dare question that. But Wein also insists on being taken seriously as a jazz pianist and bandleader of the Newport All-Stars. His taste in musicians is excellent and his groups have provided gigs and record contracts for superb mainstream players. His long advocacy of Ruby Braff and Pee Wee Russell has been particularly commendable. This Mosaic ...
read moreGeorge Wein & The Newport All-Stars at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, NYC
George Wein & The Newport All-StarsDizzy's Club Coca-ColaJazz At Lincoln CenterNew York City, New YorkTuesday, October 2, 2007
The avuncular George Wein is beaming like he's holding his own personal jam session at home, inviting his favorite players and basking in their glow. Well, this is pretty close to the reality of this opening night at Dizzy's, and this is what the octogenarian Wein always used to do when programming the Newport Jazz Festival, only ...
read moreGeorge Wein: A Life in Music
No matter what you think of the jazz festival, you can't think of it without thinking of George Wein. In 1954 he presented the first Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, and it became the template for the modern jazz festival. Wein went on to bring the jazz festival concept to New York, where it has been an annual event since 1972, as well as to many other cities across the country and in foreign lands. His Festival Productions Inc. ...
read moreGeorge Wein: Dinosaur Walks the Earth
George Wein is in his 47th year of producing jazz festivals. He invented them, going back to the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. Now they take place all around the globe. He's 75 in October, but still going strong. How much longer will be the most famous jazz impresario? Even he doesn't know. So cherish him while he's still out there. He is a hall-of-famer for sure. Probably the most important non-player (though he does play decent jazz piano) ...
read moreMyself Among Others, A Life in Music
Myself Among Others George Wein with Nate Chinen Da Capo Books 2003
George Wein started playing piano during his youth and went on to become one of the most important figures in the music world. His playing, though, wasn’t what brought him to prominence. Make no mistake about it, he’s got plenty of talent in the music department, but his love of jazz and desire to promote it proved to be the ...
read moreA Fireside Chat With George Wein
As the man behind what seems like every major jazz festival in this country, if not the world, George Wein has seen and heard everything. You can't argue with someone who has seen the likes of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and my hands are getting tired. To think he was a Harvard dropout. It must say something about Harvard when the two most famous people I know to ...
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