Postcard from Newport

Here are more images from the Sunday, August 5 performances of the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival now presents about 20 bands per day over three days - on four stages at Fort Adams State Park. It draws up to a maximum crowd of about 10,000 per day.

Harold Lopez-Nussa

Russell Hall

Pianist Eric Lewis

Herlin RIley

Alexey Marti

Nicole Mitchell

Shirazette Tinnin of Mitchell's Dusty WIngs band

NJF artistic director Christian McBride

Renee Rosnes of Artemis

Artemis

Pull up a chair - or a boat

Melissa Aldana of Artemis

GoGo Penguin's Chris Illingworth

Jazzmeia Horn and pianist Victor Gould

Noriko Ueda of Artemis

Tivon Pennicott

Gregory Porter

Alex White of James Carter's organ trio

James Carter and Gerard Gibbs

Naile Sosa of Maqueque

Lucinda Williams, Stuart Mathis, Charles Lloyd

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic

A lyrical legacy endures

Johnny Mercer's imprint is all over The Great American Songbook. He's best known for writing the lyrics to more than a thousand songs - for Broadway, for Tin Pan Alley, for film, and for pop singers.

Johnny Mercer's imprint also is all over Savannah, GA., the verdant and historic city where he was born. Any place live music is performed, Mercer's material seeps out at listeners.

Sunny and sultry weather blend with hot music for Newport Jazz Festival's 2018 finale

The scheduling gods complicated my 38th annual visit to the Newport Jazz Festival and/or Newport Folk Festival. It meant I was only able to attend on Sunday, August 5, covering the jazz event for JazzTimes. 

They came by land and sea

But the schedule turned out to be fortuitous. Saturday's monsoon-like intense rain and resulting mudfest (yes, the music went on), gave way to a humid day with brilliant sunshine and a wide range of hot music.

Favorite acts, caught during and after photo-pit dashes between the three outdoor stages and the club-like indoor Storyville venue, included several all-woman bands, some contemporary advances on the bebop tradition, and two fine singers: festival veteran Gregory Porter and newcomer Jazzmeia Horn.

Of particular note: