A 90th birthday tribute to late jazz trumpet master Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong will open this year's Newport Jazz Festival, a weekend event packed with jazz and blues greats, the producers say.
The Aug. 17-19 event, formally known as the JVC Jazz Festival-Newport, will mark the festival's 10th year back in Newport. The original Newport Jazz Festival was held from 1954 to 1971, when a riot by gatecrashing rowdies sent the event packing to New York.Producer George Wein's companion event, Ben & Jerry's Newport Folk Festival, will spotlight women in folk music, from Joan Baez to the Grammy-winning Indigo Girls, in its Aug. 11-12 run at Fort Adams State Park.
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis will produce the jazz festival's Aug. 17 Armstrong tribute at historic Newport Casino, site of the first Newport Festival. Newport was the scene 20 years ago of a loving 70th birthday tribute to Armstrong, a year before his death.
This celebration of Armstrong's music will feature trumpeters Marsalis, Doc Cheatham, Ruby Braff and Jon Faddis, singer Carrie Smith and New Orleans musicians. Actor Ossie Davis will act as host for the evening.
The festival shifts to Fort Adams for its afternoon, fun-in-the-sun programs on the 18th and 19th. Saturday's lineup features Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, B.B. King, Elvin Jones and the Latin jazz of Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Sunday's finale will feature George Benson, McCoy Tyner, Harry Connick Jr., the Count Basie Orchestra, the Phil Woods Quartet and fusion keyboard innovator Joe Zawinul.
The Folk Festival, sponsored for the third straight year by Vermont ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, draws its talent from throughout the folk spectrum. The emphasis this year is on women in folk music. Headliner Joan Baez, whose career was launched at Newport, is marking her 30th year as a performer.
"Folk music seems to be on the rise right now," Wein said. "It has been growing in popularity for the past few years, and I have great hopes for the '90s. Given this popularity and the assistance Ben & Jerry's have given us since they saved the event in 1988, it looks as though the festival might be around for the next few years."
The Aug. 11 lineup includes Baez, the Indigo Girls, Christine Lavin, Lad-ysmith Black Mombazo, Greg Brown, the Subdudes and Irish singer Luka Bloom. The Aug. 12 roster is the Roches, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Richard Thompson, the Wild Magnolias, the Rebirth Jazz Band and newcomer Ashley Cleveland.
The Saturday event will be preceded by a special Southern songwriters mini-concert with David Olney, Chris Smither and other artists on the main stage.