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Newport news

The Newport Jazz Festival — more properly known these days as JVC Jazz Festival–Newport — is pulling out all the stops for its 50th anniversary. You’ll recall that George Wein organized the first Newport festival back in 1954, employing the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Gerry Mulligan, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Lennie Tristano, Teddy Wilson, and Buck Clayton.

At a recent press dinner, Wein joked about his reputation for commercial compromise, which is probably why this year’s line-up includes more "pure" jazz — including folks like Lee Konitz who haven’t played the event in eons — than any other in recent memory. As became a tradition in the festival’s early years, Wein and his Festival Productions are again presenting all-star line-ups as opposed to the working bands of the headliners. Back in the day, Newport was more ambivalent about jazz — and about mixed-race events — invading its tony peninsula. Now, Wein is treated as hero, and as for the whiff of racism, well, the first concert in this year’s event, on August 11, will be Dave Brubeck’s sacred orchestral work, "The Gates of Justice," written to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. It will be performed at Newport’s Rogers High School. On August 12, there will be a gala fundraising event at the legendary Vanderbilt mansion the Breakers, a benefit for the Preservation Society of Newport County. On Friday the 13th, Harry Connick Jr. and his orchestra hold forth at the Newport Casino and International Tennis Hall of Fame.

On Saturday, August 14, the event moves out to Fort Adams State Park, where the real fireworks begin. From 11:30 to 7:30, on three stages, performers will include Brubeck, Connick, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, McCoy Tyner, Michael Brecker, Phil Woods, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, Jackie McClean, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, George Shearing, Christian McBride, Clark Terry, Cedar Walton, James Moody, Marian McPartland, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lew Tabackin, Russell Malone, Howard Alden, Lewis Nash, Mulgrew Miller, Peter Washington, Randy Sandke, Frank Wess, Ravi Coltrane, Ken Peplowski, Renee Rosnes, Terell Stafford, "and many others."

Sunday, August 15, brings Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Dave Holland, Clark Terry, Dave Douglas, Bill Cosby, the Mingus Big Band, Peter Cincotti, Nicholas Payton, Regina Carter, Roswell Rudd, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, James Carter, Lee Konitz, Gary Burton, Geri Allen, Chico Hamilton, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Wallace Roney, Percy Heath, Bobby Watson, Peter Washington, Cedar Walton, Donald Harrison, Brian Blade, Doug Wamble, Lewis Nash, Steve Turre, Barry Altschul, "and many others."

You can get tickets at Ticketweb.com, or call (866) 468-7619. The Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival will take place at Fort Adams on August 7 and 8. Line-ups will be announced in May.

— Jon Garelick

Sandman Fund concerts

Hi-N-Dry studio near Central Square, originally created by Morphine’s Mark Sandman, has become something of an axis for the Cambridge music community. There’s a series of benefit shows this month on Thursdays at the Sit N’ Bull Pub in Maynard that will help put the breadth of the Hi-N-Dry community in focus for local fans. The dates will raise money for the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund, which provides music-making experiences for children in the Cambridge public schools.

The line-up for the next four shows embraces jazz, rock, roots music, and experimentalism. This Thursday, April 8, it’s improv outfit Club d’Elf; low-rocking Bourbon Princess led by poetic singer-songwriter-bassist Monique Ortiz; and Blastro. On the 15th, it’s Asa Brebner and the Family Jewels playing rock and the kind of witty swinging R&B that gave birth to that style. On the 22nd, it’s crafty songwriter and electric performer Dennis Brennan and One Thin Dime. And the series culminates April 29 with mandolinist-songwriter Jimmy Ryan, lush rock envelope pushers the Twinemen, and the elegant Sandman tribute group Orchestra Morphine. The Sit N’ Bull is at 163 Main Street in Maynard; call (978) 897-7232.

— Ted Drozdowski