Early on, listening to Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, jazz was something in another yard, walled-off, and separated from what I was listening to on the radio. It was an idea–segregated by race, primarily, and from behind that wall, everything else in the music stayed hidden. So when I listened to traditional New Orleans jazz, […]
Following the riots of the prior summer, there was no Newport Jazz Festival in 1961. However, the city had not abandoned the idea of being a cultural center for jazz. Instead, promoter Sid Bernstein hosted “Music at Newport.” In some ways, it emulated the original. It was set in both the same venue and time […]
By 9:18 PM on the evening of July 17, 1954, Eddie Condon’s tribute to Dixieland finally began its delayed performance. Next was vocalist Lee Wiley, a jam session, and then a series of musicians who in hindsight left an indelible mark of music: the Modern Jazz Quartet with Horace Silver filling in for John Lewis, […]
