Wein is gearing up for August 2012 in Newport

The competition for the live entertainment audience has intensified as the number of venues has increased over the years. People only have so much time and money to travel to concerts and festivals. As a result, promotion of those events starts earlier and earlier.

Announcement of the Newport Jazz Festival lineups used to come in April or May. This time around, producer George Wein will roll them out on March 13, and he is already providing a sneak preview on select artists who will perform at Newport August 3 to 5.

Composer Maria Schneider (pictured, with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen soloing) will be in the lineup with her always exhilarating Maria Schneider Orchestra, which made its Newport in 2010. Schneider will debut the music from her third fan-funded ArtistShare project at Newport on Sunday, August 5.

Sunday’s program at Fort Adams State Park also includes Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Centennial Project. Truesdell will present music from his soon-to-be-released CD of newly discovered, unrecorded works by Evans from the 1930s to the 1980s.

On Saturday, August 4, saxophonist John Ellis will bring his band Double-Wide - featuring sousaphonist Matt Perrine, drummer Jason Marsalis and organist Brian Coogan. Ellis calls the band’s New Orleans-inspired sound “very raucous, kind of festive, wild, carnivalesque, but sophisticated.”

Already, Newport in August is sounding most intriguing.