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George Wein

George Wein Never Stopped Listening

A pioneer of the modern music festival, George Wein co-founded the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk festivals and helped launch the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He died Sept. 13 at 95. Jonathan Chimene/WBGO hide caption

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Jonathan Chimene/WBGO

Editors' Picks

George Wein Never Stopped Listening

Nate Chinen remembers Newport Jazz impresario George Wein, who helped create the modern music festival but never lost his appetite for listening in small rooms and connecting at a human scale.

Obituaries

Remembering George Wein, Founder Of The Newport Jazz Festival

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Christian McBride, host of Jazz Night in America about the life of George Wein, who founded the Newport Jazz Festival.

Remembering George Wein, Founder Of The Newport Jazz Festival

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Highlights From Newport Jazz With George Wein

George Wein's Newport All-Stars perform at the 2008 Newport Jazz Festival. Michael Weintrob Photography hide caption

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Michael Weintrob Photography

Concerts

Highlights From Newport Jazz With George Wein

Some say the best way to experience Newport Jazz is from a sailboat. On the Fort Adams stage, looking into the harbor, Wein relaxes at the piano with an all-star group. Later in the hour, bassist Dave Holland and three friends (including Chris Potter on tenor) stand up to the sun with rhythmic invention and assertive solos.

Highlights From Newport Jazz With George Wein

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Music Interviews

Producer George Wein

Fresh Air

Veteran producer, pianist, singer, club owner George Wein. He's the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In the early 1950s he founded the jazz clubs Storyville and Mahogany Hall in Boston where jazz giants Art Tatum, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis played. In 1954 he launched the Newport Jazz Festival where he presented Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Dave Brubeck and others. The other music greats he knew and worked with: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong. Now 77 years old, Wein has written a new autobiography (with Nate Chinen), Myself Among Others: A Life In Music.

Producer George Wein

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George Wein Reinvents His Jazz Festival At 84

George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival New York is under way in venues big and small. Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images hide caption

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Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images

Music Interviews

George Wein Reinvents His Jazz Festival At 84

The promoter and impresario virtually invented the jazz festival back in 1954, when he brought a busload of artsy musicians to Newport, R.I. The first Newport Jazz Festival was a huge success, and now, Wein has set out to reinvent the way promoters present concerts. His CareFusion Jazz Festival New York is now under way in venues throughout the city.

George Wein Reinvents His Jazz Festival At 84

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