JAZZ : NEWPORT IMPORT : Sampling the Generations and Styles of the Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is the jazz world’s Woodstock, Altamont and Lollapalooza all rolled into one.

The longest-running festival of its kind, it is the subject of one of the all-time great concert films (“Jazz on a Summer’s Day”) and has played host to historic performances by such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis.

Begun in 1954 in Newport, R.I., the festival has survived tumultuous times and a variety of name changes. Both a cigarette brand (Kool) and an electronics corporation (JVC) have at various times added their names to the festival’s logo. The Newport City Council canceled the event in 1961 after years of crowd-control problems, then allowed it to return in ’62. A riot broke out during the 1971 festival, a year when the event included a number of folk and rock acts, eventually forcing it to move to New York for much of the ‘70s.

Since 1981, the fest has been back at the same location where it started, the casino of the Newport Tennis Club (this year’s performances are Aug. 11-13). But no matter the name or location, the Newport Jazz Festival, under the direction of promoter George Wein, has for the last 40 years brought together some of the biggest names in jazz under a single banner.

In 1975, the festival began sending some of its participants on tour under the name the Newport Festival All Stars. That tradition continues this weekend when an 11-piece ensemble dubbed the Newport Jazz Festival On Tour, directed by trumpeter and Gillespie protege Jon Faddis, makes its U.S. debut at UCLA on Saturday and at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Sunday.

The traveling band’s current lineup is a rich one. Joining Faddis will be trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison, cornetist Warren Vache, saxophonist-flutist Lew Tabackin, saxophonist Red Holloway, clarinetist Bill Easley, trombonist Urbie Green, guitarist Howard Alden, pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.

“We start the concert all together with an ensemble tune,” explained Faddis, over the phone from Oklahoma City during a stop on the tour, “then we break off into smaller groups. Each of the musicians chooses the number they want to be featured on. All I ask is that it has something to do with Newport or relates to someone who once played at Newport.”

The current group, like the festival itself, is a coming together that spans generations and styles. Through performers who range in age from the 30-year-old Washington to the 79-year-old Edison, Newport Jazz Festival On Tour promotes the message that jazz is a shared language, able to unite players of various ages and musical directions.

That message is central to the thinking of promoter Wein, a pianist turned impresario who once played with the likes of cornetists Bobby Hackett and Ruby Braff. (Wein also produces the Playboy Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.)

“I grew up in the swing era,” Wein said from his home in New York City. “I cut my musical teeth in the early ‘40s when big bands were popular and there wasn’t yet such a thing as be-bop. But when I came out of the Army a few years later, everyone was saying the swing era was dead. But I didn’t believe that. So I devoted myself, as did a lot of others, to the realization that all these styles of music were closely related.”

The current touring ensemble provides proof. Tabackin, an ambitious 55-year-old who is principal soloist with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, is known for mixing classical influences and avant garde tendencies in his play. He’s one of the last people you’d expect to find playing Count Basie tunes with the veteran Edison. But that’s exactly what happens on this tour.

“Those involved in jazz, real jazz, all of us come from the same root,” Tabackin said from his Oklahoma City motel room. “If you’re connected to the tradition and how it evolved, you can make just slight adjustments (in your style) and fit right in, no matter the period. You don’t really change the way you play. Just the frame changes. Miles Davis basically played the same way throughout his career. Just the frame he played in changed, whether it was bop or fusion.”

And age difference, continued Tabackin, doesn’t keep musicians from finding common ground. “I think age makes a difference in the way you play. But (combining musicians of different ages) is the natural way and the beautiful thing about jazz. It should be younger and older musicians playing together.”

“There’s no generation gap happening here,” Faddis added. “It’s not at all difficult bringing these musicians together, especially with the rhythm section we have. Lewis Nash is the premier young drummer now, and he can play in any style. Same goes for (bassist) Peter Washington. Even on the old tunes, they’re both right in there and very versatile.”

Like the 41-year-old Faddis, cornetist Vache, at 43, falls in the middle of the Newport band’s age range. But despite his near-junior status, Vache, who proudly displays the influence of Louis Armstrong, is a musician who is practiced in more classic styles. He is a veteran of a long stint with the Benny Goodman orchestra beginning in 1975 and is remembered for a concert that same year at Carnegie Hall in which he re-created the music of horn man Bix Biederbecke, who died in 1931.

“Many of the situations I find myself playing in are similar to this one: a group of very well-known musicians put together in a relaxed setting,” Vache said. “And they come up with very exciting music. . . . It’s nice to have a pigeonhole for everyone, but jazz is more interrelated than that. All of us are stealing from everyone else all the time.”

Edison is one of the people Vache has been stealing from, “since about the time that I was 13,” Vache laughed.

“I’m old friends with Jon (Faddis) and Warren,” Edison said. “Musicians don’t look at each other as to who’s the oldest and who’s the youngest. We just have lots of respect for each other. I can still learn from them, and I’m sure they’ve picked something up from me.”

That notion of the Newport tour as a learning experience, a type of traveling jazz seminar for both musicians and audience, was echoed by all of the participants.

“That’s the way it works,” Edison said. “When I first joined the Basie band I was 19 and the youngest member. Everybody else there was in their 30s and 40s. But they felt the same way toward me that I feel toward the youngsters in this band.”

Faddis, whose career began as a teen-age prodigy, knows the value of being taken under an older musician’s wing. “I was 15 when I first played with Dizzy, and I almost fainted. That experience was invaluable; you can’t buy that education at any cost. I first played with Sweets in the early ‘70s on the Sammy Davis Jr. show, and now, playing together with him again, it’s just a thrill. Back when we first met, Sweets and (trumpeter) Snooky Young would do stuff like take me out to buy a coat. ‘You’re in New York, you need a winter coat,’ they said. They were always very supportive and fatherly, not just about music, but in everything.

“Now I think of (22-year-old trumpet sensation) Nicholas Payton and watch him spend time with (74-year-old) Clark Terry. Even though Nicholas’ sound and style are pretty developed, he can’t help but get better standing next to Clark. That’s just the way it works.”

* What: The Newport Jazz Festival On Tour.

* When: Sunday, April 9, at 4 p.m.

* Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Jamboree Road exit and head south. Turn left onto Campus Drive. The theater is on Campus near Bridge Road, across from the Marketplace mall.

* Wherewithal: $24 and $28.

* Where to call: (714) 854-4646.