As the future of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals continues to unfold, its recorded past has suddenly been thrown open.
Recently the festivals themselves almost disappeared, amid the financial collapse of their producing company, the Festival Network LLC. They returned last summer in a new guise, at their usual site, once George Wein, the founder of both festivals, regained the right to hold music events there.
Its a complicated story. But if you want to know why the Newport Jazz Festival has been so important to American music, its easy: you just have to hear the recorded evidence. Bits and pieces have emerged over the years, in live recordings by Ellington, Coltrane and others. Now Wolfgangs Vault, the online concert-recording archive, intends to fill in the gaps.
The company, based in San Francisco, bought the archives of the Newport festivals from the Festival Network last year. Bill Sagan, founder and chief executive of Wolfgangs Vault, says the archives include many, many tapes: 1,000 to 1,200 individual performances, dating at least to 1955, the festivals second year, and continuing to the end of the century. It is not a complete audio record certain years contain only a small number of performances, or are missing completely but it is a major one nonetheless.
Recently the festivals themselves almost disappeared, amid the financial collapse of their producing company, the Festival Network LLC. They returned last summer in a new guise, at their usual site, once George Wein, the founder of both festivals, regained the right to hold music events there.
Its a complicated story. But if you want to know why the Newport Jazz Festival has been so important to American music, its easy: you just have to hear the recorded evidence. Bits and pieces have emerged over the years, in live recordings by Ellington, Coltrane and others. Now Wolfgangs Vault, the online concert-recording archive, intends to fill in the gaps.
The company, based in San Francisco, bought the archives of the Newport festivals from the Festival Network last year. Bill Sagan, founder and chief executive of Wolfgangs Vault, says the archives include many, many tapes: 1,000 to 1,200 individual performances, dating at least to 1955, the festivals second year, and continuing to the end of the century. It is not a complete audio record certain years contain only a small number of performances, or are missing completely but it is a major one nonetheless.
