Jazz and Knowledge
(20) Jazz on a Summer's Day, Newport Jazz Festival (in Japanese)



Newport, Rhode Island, USA
An extraordinary large millionaires were born when the United States advanced from a new nation to the large country in the world, from the latter half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Such millionaires were called King steeled, King railway, and a King colliery, etc.

Large millionaires chose the villa area for summering, and fashionable town Newport in the east coast about three hours from New York by car was chosen . Newport became a summer resort in the United States with the histories most.

It is said that the royalty and aristocrats in Europe were invited to this summer resort and the parties were held. Being surprised. According to the record, it expended 200,000 dollars at a night for a party of 400 people. Might feeling "hundred million yen" of the current amount of money.


You who see this home page may recall "Newport Jazz Festival". Or, the first golf tournament in the United States resulted here, too, and the yacht race "America's Cup" was born here, too. the first baseball stadium was also built here. Anyway, there are a lot of things that the adjective "first in the United States" attached .

The first "Newport Jazz Festival" started at Newport in 1954, and became famous. The movie titled "Jazz on a Summer's Day" is the documentary film of Newport Jazz Festival of 1958. It was open to the public in 1960 in Japan. Great Jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong appear, and we are impressed at present days even though it is a movie of more than forty years ago.

Differ from the Jazz concert, Jazz festival is usually held in the open air, so that more people can enjoy it in outdoor. According to the material of Hideo Suzuki who is called "Doctor of Jazz History" by me, "A Jazz festival is that the place is definite, it's held regularly and continuously. The prototype of Jazz festival appeared first at Melbourne in Australia in 1946, Satchimo was invited to the Jazz festival at Nice in France in 1948, is called the beginning of Jazz festival."


Documentary Movie (1959)

Jazz has taken out from a dim bar where the thick smoke of the cigarettes to healthy outdoor and in front of thousands or tens of thousands of audience. And, the image of Jazz festival to be held in the midsummer has settled.

Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lorillard proposed talking to a man named George Wein who owned a jazz house "Storyville" in New York. Business of the Lorillard Family was a tabacco industry and a large millionaire of the first use of the word "Millionaire" because of doing as for the fortune.

When we know such a fact, we have a feeling that Jazz is of high society although it was formed in vulgar environment.