Newport Jazz Festival records

One of the oldest annual jazz festivals, the Newport Jazz Festival (NJF) was organized in Newport, Rhode Island by wealthy Newport socialites and jazz fans Louis and Elaine Lorillard. They engaged George Wein, then owner of Storyville night club in Boston, as director. The first Festival was held in the summer of 1954. Although almost exclusively jazz-oriented, from 1958 Newport Jazz Festival included a sampling of diverse genres of music including folk, gospel, rock 'n' roll, and rhythm and blues. Despite, or perhaps as a result of its steady rise in popularity and acclaim, the festival was temporarily canceled in 1961 because of the city's allegations that it attracted unruly crowds. NJF resumed in 1962. By this point, the Newport Jazz Festival had become a profit-making venture, a departure from its early years as a nonprofit organization. George Wein's activities kept in pace with the success of the festival -- he organized a jazz component of the World's Fair in Brussels with the U.S. Department of State in 1958 and organized other festivals and shows in Boston, Buffalo, Toronto, Cape Cod, and French Lick, IN. Wein also organized a Newport Jazz Festival tour of Europe in 1962 and during the 1960s managed the Newport All-Stars.

A riot in 1971 ended the festival's residency in Rhode Island. The next year saw the festival at its new home, New York City, as the Newport Jazz Festival/New York. Because of financial backing from Kool cigarettes in 1980, NJF/NY became the Kool Newport Jazz Festival and then the Kool Jazz Festival in 1981. The festival's name changed yet again to the JVC Jazz Festival/New York in 1986 when JVC (Japanese Victor Corporation) became its principal sponsor.