Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 270 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
I haven’t been to a live music festival in years, though I look forward to watching them when they are streamed or posted to social media, and listening to live albums. I love the interplay between musicians and their audiences. I think there is a special electricity that happens only in live performances. In spite of all the ugly that is going down in our country at the moment, there’s a lot of live music happening in the coming month ahead and beyond, so I want to share some of the venues and their histories, and I hope you’ll post information in the comments section below about festivals taking place in your neck o’ the woods.
When looking at Ebony’s “Upcoming 2025 Music Festivals Celebrating Black Music” list, I found some have already passed, yet one of the biggest—the Newport Jazz Festival—is scheduled for Aug. 1-3. I’ve never been, but for years I’ve listened to albums recorded there and watched videos, some of which I’ll post here. I realized I knew almost nothing about its history.
WUN—What’s Up Newp—had some answers:
In 1954, George Wein created an event that changed not just the history of jazz but of music in general, shaping all forms of the modern festival while providing a space in which art could be approached in a serious and respectful – yet not limited- manner. This series traces the history of the legendary Newport Jazz Festival from before its formation in the 1950s to the present day.
Thirteen thousand fans attended the inaugural event and the festival was regarded as a great success, the festival would move to Freebody Park in 1955.
The first Newport Jazz Festival, known as the First Annual American Jazz Festival, was held on July 17th and July 18th, 1954 at the Newport Casino. The two day event featured academic panel discussions and live music performances from Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Konitz, Eddie Condon and many more.
Thirteen thousand fans attended the inaugural event and the festival was regarded as a great success, the festival would move to Freebody Park in 1955.
An excerpt from How Newport Jazz Began by George Wein:
“The first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 set the formula for all major jazz festivals to follow. Popular artists were the attractions that sold tickets, but it was the important unsung jazz heroes from the traditional to avant-garde that attracted the critics and gave the festival an artistic credibility.
In 1954, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Gene Krupa, George Shearing, and Billie Holiday were popular jazz artists of the day. The program included tributes and reunions, which are commonplace nowadays. Panels treated the academic approach to the music. This formula, commercialism blended with artistic credibility, continues to this day. The difference is that as the great names in jazz passed away, the Ellingtons, Armstrongs, Fitzgeralds, etc. it had been necessary to sometimes use crossover groups that reflect many aspects of American popular music that do not necessarily reflect the purity of jazz. Yet, these artists sell tickets and all festival producers know that without people, there is no festival.
I wanted to know more and have spent several days reading and listening to the history compiled on the site PostGenre. Haven’t finished it all yet. I strongly suggest you pay it a visit.
A History of the Newport Jazz Festival – Prologue: Born in Storyville, 1950-1954
In September of 1950, twenty-four-year-old George Wein used his college savings to open a nightclub, Storyville, at Boston’s Copley Square Hotel. The venue boldly planned to present jazz in a new light. Taking its name from the legendary New Orleans district of debauchery, brothels, and flophouses from whence the music came, the budding entrepreneur planned to reform its image towards one more reflective of the art form’s true beauty. The approach was an instant success with people from across the city flocking to see the Bob Wilber Sextet’s performances there. Within six weeks, however, the building owner’s deceptive business practices forced Wein into an ethical dilemma. Rather than continuing to perpetuate these acts, he chose to shutter the business.
Storyville reopened in February of 1951 at the Buckminster Hotel near Fenway Park. Unlike its predecessor, it initially struggled to find an audience. While this would have deterred many, Wein remained undaunted. By the fall, he expended a significant sum to book pianist George Shearing, who had a large following. The gamble paid off, beginning a series of sold-out performances. Over time, journalists increasingly visited and, through their writings, also exposed artists to a new audience. Throughout, it was clear that Storyville would be a place of serious reflection. Gone were the culture of drugs and prostitution that once undermined the music. And while chatter and background noise were unavoidable, the venue’s focal point was unmistakable. As Nat Hentoff noted, “[c]ompared to the other clubs in town, listening to a jazz musician at Storyville is like sitting at home with a pair of earphones.”
The story continues with Wein having opened a second club—Mahogany Hall.
But it was on a cold winter night in 1953 at Storyville that Wein would take the first steps to make his greatest mark on history. That evening, a regular of the club, Professor Donald Born of nearby Boston University, was joined by a stylishly dressed redheaded woman who had been auditing his courses. Previously, she also studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston School of Fine Arts. Her name was Elaine Lorillard and, in addition to being an ardent music lover, she was the wife of Louis Livingston Lorillard, a descendant of tobacco tycoon Pierre Lorillard. The younger Lorillards were leaders of high society in Newport, Rhode Island.
While a beautiful small city with an old New England charm, Newport was, in Elaine’s words, “terribly boring in the summer.” She tried to add some excitement the prior year by hosting a performance by the New York Philharmonic at the Newport Casino, a historic club for the community’s social “elites.” The endeavor lost the Lorillards and their acquaintances $30,000. Elaine hoped that George could present something jazz-focused that would succeed where this prior project failed. Wein’s immediate inclination was to open a summer-only club there. However, he gradually moved towards something bigger. Drawing inspiration from the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s seasonal residency at Tanglewood, it ultimately became the Newport Jazz Festival.
Reading this history, I wondered when the first jazz festival took place, and Google landed me on an NPR story from musician/journalist Patrick Jarenwattananon:
At the Public Square of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., there’s a plaque that claims that “America’s First Jazz Festival” happened there in 1951:
On February 23, 1951 history was made in Wilkes-Barre. Eight jazz bands got together for “The Cavalcade of Dixieland Jazz” which became the country’s first jazz festival. On this occasion April 29, 1994 the City of Wilkes-Barre acknowledges and pays tribute to those early jazz musicians and promoters who initiated the tradition which continues today, not only here in its birthplace, but throughout the country.
Jarenwattananon debunks that claim and points instead to “the 1938 Carnival of Swing presented some 20-plus groups on New York’s Randall’s Island, including Basie and Ellington and a number of other legends,” and posted this video:
Lester Young is featured here. If you look closely you might see violinist Stuff Smith in the audience clapping along and guitarist Teddy Bunn on the side lines diggin’ the band.
This year’s Newport lineup, announced in April includes: Janelle Monáe, the Roots, Jacob Collier, Raye, Jorja Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Willow, De La Soul and Thee Sacred Souls, Dianne Reeves, the Yussef Dayes Experience, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Terence Blanchard, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Stanley Jordan, and Ron Carter.
The 1959 documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” captures the festival experience.
Filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and directed by world-renowned photographer Bert Stern, Jazz on a Summer’s Day features intimate performances by an all-star line-up of musical legends including Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, and closes with a beautiful rendition of The Lord’s Prayer by Mahalia Jackson at midnight to usher in Sunday morning.
There are so many Newport videos that it’s difficult for me to pick and choose for this story, so I’ll exercise my predilection for female jazz vocalists and post Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and Carmen McRae:
Also here on the East Coast, the city of Rochester, New York, is holding its 30th annual Rochester Summer Soul Music Festival, coming up on Aug. 9:
This year’s festival is headlined by the legendary Jeffrey Osborne, with featured performances by Dave Hollister, Sunshine Anderson, Sky Whatley, Negus IRap, Erin and Ross, Garth Fagan Dance, and DJ Dana. Hosting the festivities are Jazzy T from 103.9 WDYX, guest host Que of Day26, and Stage General DJ Flava
Former Mayor of Rochester William A. Johnson Jr. talks about founding the festival in this interview conducted by newsman Alton Baird:
You can check out some of the past live performances on the festival music channel. I grinned when I saw they had George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic there in 2018. Though the video is a bit rough, you can see they turned out the crowd with their “Flashlight” performance.
Rochester’s “Mambo Kings” were a Latin jazz crowdpleaser in 2023.
Rochester’s own MAMBO KINGS, together since 1995, are enjoying great success as Upstate New York’s foremost Latin jazz ensemble, and have rapidly earned a national reputation for their explosive blend of Afro Cuban rhythms and jazz improvisation.
Since their orchestral debut in 1997 with the Rochester Philharmonic and Conductor Jeff Tyzik, Mambo Kings have appeared at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and in Pops concerts with orchestras in Baltimore, Vancouver, Detroit, Dallas, Naples (FL) and Portland (OR), among many others, performing original compositions and arrangements by pianist Richard DeLaney.
Moving to the Midwest, also in August, on the 16th and 17th, is something new: Detroit’s AfroFuture.
Tee Grizzley, Kaytranada among AfroFuture Detroit’s first wave of performers
AfroFuture Detroit was announced in February. It is an extension of the flagship AfroFuture event in Accra, Ghana, and it takes the place of Detroit’s Afro Nation festival, which was held at the Douglass site the last two summers.
The fest will feature two stages of music as well as arts and culture, according to organizers.
“With an explosive lineup across two dynamic stages, we’re blending Afrobeats, Amapiano, hip-hop and techno with art, fashion, beauty, and food,” AfroFuture CEO and Co-founder Abdul Karim Abdullah said in a statement. “This summer in Detroit, we’re creating something truly transformative — a celebration where every sense is engaged, and every aspect of culture is elevated.”
Among the featured artists is Kaytranada:
Louis Kevin Celestin (a.k.a. Kaytranada), DJ, record producer (born 25 August 1992 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti). Kaytranada is a Haitian-born, Montreal-raised DJ and record producer. His electronic dance music draws on a wide variety of musical styles — including Afrobeat, hip-hop, funk, soul and R&B — and has been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Kaytranada has won three Juno Awards, two Grammy Awards and the 2016 Polaris Music Prize, among other honours. He also performs with his brother Louis-Philippe (a.k.a. Lou Phelps) as the hip-hop duo The Celestics.
On the West Coast, The Blue Note Jazz Festival: Black Radio Experience is taking place Aug. 29-31.
The Black Radio Experience returns to The Meritage Resort and Spa this summer, bigger and better than ever! For three incredible days, legendary artists and passionate music lovers will come together for a celebration unlike any other.
From jazz, hip-hop, and R&B to soul, spoken word, and live DJ sets, we’re celebrating the sound, legacy, and future of music in all its forms. Robert Glasper, the heart and soul of the festival, returns to lead this iconic weekend, bringing his visionary energy to a lineup that will blow you away.
In addition to amazing performances, dive into artist-led experiences, signature culinary events, and wine tastings that make the Black Radio Experience truly special. Labor Day weekend, it’s going DOWN!
Robert Glasper, who is one of the musicians I featured in last Sunday’s BMS, recaps last year’s festival:
I’ve been listening to Glasper’s “Black Radio Broadcasts”:
Last but not least—also in California—is the historic Monterey Jazz Festival:
Established in 1958, Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world. Since then, nearly 2,900 performances have taken place on the Monterey County Fairgrounds, with unforgettable weekends of music from iconic stars and up-and-coming artists over the course of 67 years.
1955
Where it all began
Jazz impresario and disc jockey Jimmy Lyons presents pianist Erroll Garner as an installment of his new “Jazz at the Sunset” concert series in Carmel. A confiscated bootleg recording of the show is released as Concert by the Sea and becomes one of the best-selling albums of the era.
1958
Using funds raised through $100 dollar donations, Jimmy Lyons and San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph Gleason present the inaugural Monterey Jazz Festival, October 3-5. Founded as a non-profit, performers included Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Harry James, and Billie Holiday, in her only MJF performance.
I grew up listening to this album—my mom was a big Erroll Garner fan—but did not know its history.
Jazz comes to the Monterey Peninsula with Concert by the Sea (1955)
In September of 1955, Lyons brought pianist Erroll Garner and his trio to the Sunset Center, which featured drummer Denzil Best and bassist Eddie Calhoun. By a stroke of luck, a local fan had brought a clunky Ampex 600 tape recorder to the concert. Martha Glaser, Garner’s manager, confiscated the tapes and brought them to New York City, where they eventually became Concert by the Sea, a hit LP for Columbia Records that remains to this day one of the best-selling albums in the annals of jazz. Slowly but surely, the Jimmy Lyons Presents series built up local support for a jazz festival that would compete with the recently-established Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. Erroll Garner’s Concert by the Sea was the event – and album – that suddenly brought national attention to the area and created a roadmap and appetite for a jazz festival on the Monterey Peninsula.
Erroll would only perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival once during his lifetime, in 1971. But in 2015, 60 years after the original Concert by the Sea, Monterey Jazz Festival presented the Erroll Garner Project on the Arena Stage, which featured pianists Geri Allen, Jason Moran, and Christian Sands as a historic revisiting of one of the Monterey Peninsula’s most famous concerts, in conjunction to the national release of the complete recordings from September 19, 1955.
Timeless and connected, indeed.
Erroll Garner: The Complete “Concert by the Sea”:
This year’s festival:
Garner wasn’t the only musician to record a “concert by the sea” album at Monterey. That honor went to jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader.
Cal Tjader crafted one the sleekest and most distinctive sounds in Latin jazz. His cool, shimmering, jazz vibes, gliding fluidly atop fiery, hot Afro-Cuban rhythms, made for a sonic signature that helped introduce the genre into a mainstream audience.
The album featured Al McKibbon on bass, Mongo Santamaria on congas, Paul Horn on flute and alto saxophone, Lonnie Hewitt on piano, Willie Bobo on timbales and drums, and Tjader on vibes.
Join me in the comments section below for more festival music, and please post news of upcoming festivals in your area, and share your past experiences attending them.