Newport Jazz Festival Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hired George Wein to organize the first festival and bring jazz to Rhode Island. Most of the early festivals were broadcast on Voice of America radio, and many performances were recorded and released as albums. In 1972, the Newport Jazz Festival was moved to New York City. In 1981, it became a two-site festival when it was returned to Newport while continuing in
Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve is a 1990 box set by jazz musician Charlie Parker. It features every extant note Parker recorded for the Verve label as well as his appearances at Jazz at the Philharmonic. Parker recorded for Verve primarily in the last five years of his life, a period during which, besides playing with his famous quintet, he experimented with strings, Afro-Cuban jazz and mixed chorus. Among the albums produced during Parker’s Verve years were "Bird & Diz", "Charlie Parker with Strings", and "Swedish Schnapps". Disc: 1 Disc: 2