I Got A Song: A History Of The Newport Folk Festival (Music Interview) Book Pdf

The Newport Folk Festival was started in 1959 by George Wein, founder of the already-well-established Newport Jazz Festival, and owner of Storyville, a jazz club located in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1958, Wein became aware of the growing Folk Revival movement and began inviting folk artists such as Odetta to perform on Sunday afternoons at Storyville. The afternoon performances consistently sold out and Wein began to consider the possibility of a "folk afternoon embedded within the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival".[1] Wein envisioned the program to be "similar in scope and tone to the highly successful blues and gospel shows" that had taken place at the Jazz Festival in previous years. Wein asked Odetta, Pete Seeger, and the Weavers to perform on the afternoon in addition to the Kingston Trio. Some in the jazz community accused Wein of crass commercialism in booking these groups because they deviated from, and had a larger following than, most jazz musicians of the time.[2] This pressure coupled with his various conversations with those in the folk community made it clear to Wein that an afternoon program at the Jazz Festival would not suffice and that there was demand for a full Folk festival.

Aware of his own limitations in the folk scene, Wein asked Albert Grossman, then Odetta's manager, to join him in planning and producing the festival. Grossman accepted and began working with Wein to book talent and organize the weekend. Pete Seeger was also involved with the founding of the festival.[3]

I Got A Song: A History Of The Newport Folk Festival (Music Interview) Book Pdf

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The festival returned in 1960 and was expanded to include three nights.[5] The lineup placed an emphasis on music diversity, booking performers from Africa, Scotland, Spain, Israel, and Ireland alongside "traditional" folk musicians such as Pete Seeger, Ewan McColl, John Lee Hooker, Cisco Houston and Tommy Makem.

In 2008, Executive Producer, George Wein hired Jay Sweet as an associate of the festival. At the time, the folk festival was struggling financially and with Sweet's recommendations, the 2008 line-up varied drastically from previous years. Rock band the Black Crowes and Trey Anastasio, frontman of Phish, headlined and other artists on the bill included Stephen Marley and Damian Marley, sons of reggae icon Bob Marley. The Festival was well attended and received favorable press, despite folk purists questioning the modernization of the festival.[22]Sweet continued his unconventional and somewhat controversial style of booking artists that challenged the conservative definitions of folk music. With 2009 being the 50th anniversary of the festival, Sweet used the opportunity to book both modern and traditional folk acts; symbolizing the past and current styles of folk music. The success of the 2009 festival marked a turning point in the festival's history. In 2011 the two day festival sold out Saturday and in 2012 the festival sold out both days. In 2013 the festival expanded to three days and sold out both Saturday and Sunday. In 2014 the festival sold out all three days months in advance. The festival has sold out every year since.[23]

Ray Copeland. Born Jul 17, 1926 in Norfolk, VA. Died May 18, 1984 in Sunderland, MA An accomplished composer and instructor, Ray Copeland was a solid trumpeter from the '40s until the '80s in swing, bebop, hard bop and even with stage bands. He gave many workshops and jazz history courses, and his playing demonstrated a confident, engaging tone and crackling energy, as well as effective range and timbre. Copeland studied classical trumpet and played with various rock and pop groups as a teenager in Brooklyn. He toured in the late '40s with Mercer Ellington and Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans. Copeland played with Andy Kirk and Sy Oliver in the early '50s, and played bebop and swing with Lionel Hampton, Randy Weston, Oscar Pettiford and others in the late '50s. He was featured in the 1959 film "Kiss Her Goodbye." Copeland played in The Roxy Theater Orchestra in the late '50s and early '60s, while also working with Art Blakey, Cat Anderson, Johnny Richards, Louis Bellson and Pearl Bailey. Copeland was one of Ella Fitzgerald's accompanists in 1965. He rejoined Weston in 1966, and toured Africa on State Department-sponsored events in 1967 and Morocco in 1970. He toured Europe with Thelonious Monk in 1968. Copeland played at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival and continued performing periodically into the '80s. He also led orchestras in New York during the '70s, and his "Classical Jazz Suite in Six Movements" composition premiered at the Lincoln Center in 1970. Copeland worked in Broadway shows and toured Europe with the revue "The Musical Life of Charlie Parker" in 1974. His book "The Ray Copeland Method and Approach to the Creative Art of Jazz Improvisation" was published that same year. Copeland didn't issue any dates as a leader, but can be heard on various reissues by Monk, Weston, Blakey and Anderson. Biography by Ron Wynn. All Music Guide

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