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Home , George Wein, Stan Getz, Storyville (nightclub), Storyville Records

alumni notes () alum profile software engineering, I am enjoying a composer, a bandleader, and an retired life. I’m pursuing my lifelong educator will celebrate the 40th sea- love of barbershop harmony singing son of his Aardvark Orchestra as a performer, conductor, judge, cli- through 2013. Season highlights will For the Love nician, and coach. I divide my time include the release of Aardvark’s equally between northern Califor- 11th CD, Evocations, the group’s 40th of Jazz nia, where I have lived for more than annual Christmas Concert at ’s 30 years, and New Zealand’s South Emmanuel Church, and the world Island, where I’m now involved in the premiere of Mark’s new work, Bos- Music led George Wein (CAS’50) to fund wine industry.” ton JazzScape, at Boston’s Museum professorship in African American Studies of Fine Arts. One of the longest con- !"#"" $%"&' (DGE’67, SED’69) of tinually running large jazz ensem- Hypoluxo, Fla., completed a portrait bles in North America, Aardvark of rapper Vanilla Ice, which she was has given premieres of more than invited to unveil on his show, The 130 compositions by Mark. Find out Vanilla Ice Project, in March 2012. more at www.aardvarkjazz.com. !" ! #$%&' soldier stationed in Wein soon started his own label, Renee runs her own portrait studio, Oklahoma in the mid-1940s, George . Renee Plevy Studio, in Hypoluxo. -/#;)/ 9."%%")-5+0* (SED’71, Wein once rode a train 18 hours Storyville also became the incu- Visit www.reneeplevy.com. CFA’79) of Brookline, Mass., dis- to Chicago to hear jazz trumpeter bator for Wein’s career. Jazz fan and played her paintings in the exhibition “Red” Allen and swing trombonist Storyville reg ular Donald Born, a BU 1970 Degrees of Abstraction this past sum- J. C. Higginbotham. Earlier, when English professor, introduced him to mer at the Agora Gallery in New York he was a piano-playing high school Elaine and Louis Lorillard, summer !(' $")*+#,(# (GRS’70) of Framing- City. Visit http://www.agora-gallery kid in Newton, Mass., he went to residents of fashionable Newport, ham, Mass., writes that two of his oil .com/artistpage/sandra_mueller New York City every chance he got R.I. They were looking for something paintings, Train Tracks, Winter and __dick.aspx. to visit clubs and catch musicians, to liven up the social scene in New- Airport at Dusk, were selected for the hoping to sit in with them. “They port, and with the classical music Community of Artists exhibition at 1972 would let me play a number and festival at Tanglewood in mind, Wein the Danforth Museum in Danforth, then kick me off the bandstand,” proposed creating a jazz festival Conn. Visit danforthmuseum.org or <)"; 8/'%", (COM’72) of Boston, says the legendary jazz impresario there. It was agreed, and in 1954 the www.perkinsonpaintings.com. Mass., published Field Guide to Cov- and pianist, now 86. “Jazz was my now-famous ering Local News: How to Cover Cops, very first love.” launched—the first of its kind. “That -.,/# -012/)34 (SSW’70) of Para- Courts, Schools, Emergencies and Graduating high school dur- year we broke even,” he says, “and dise Valley, Ariz., coauthored Cou- Government (CQ Press/SAGE, 2011). ing World War II, Wein enrolled at we were off to the races with it as a ples at the Crossroads: Five Steps to Fred writes that the book has since Northeastern University, where he nonprofit festival.” Finding Your Way Back to Love (Cre- been adopted by two dozen journal- took premed courses at the urging In 1959, working with his friends ateSpace, 2012) with Daniela Roher. ism programs around the country. of his physician father, Barnet Wein and his wife, Toshi, The book offers tools and strate- (MED’20), despite his lack of interest he cofounded the Newport Folk gies that help people develop more $"3") :. 8%((= (CAS’72) of Somer- in medicine. Soon he was drafted Festival. Four years later, the event enriching relationships. Email Susan ville, Mass., a flutist, performed into the army and, when his ser- featured , Joan Baez, and at [email protected]. in concert with pianist Mary Jane vice hitch was up, came to Boston Peter, Paul and Mary. Wein was a Ruper in New Zealand and Austra- University on the G.I. Bill. Switch- pioneer of the corporate-sponsored 5/# 6"/)#( (CAS’70,’71) of Haymar- lia in March 2012. During their five- ing to a history major, he played music festival in the mid-60s. Over ket, Va., received a 2011 President’s week tour, the duo performed works in local venues. “I was the past six decades, he has pre- Award from the Washington Govern- by American and New Zealand com- working six-week stretches,” says sented jazz and folk music festivals ment Relations Group, an organiza- posers, including Kleemation by >%+4- Wein (CAS’50), “seven nights and all over the country as well as in tion of more than 200 African Ameri- /?"31 @")0(" (CFA’78). Peter recent- Sunday afternoons, and still going Europe and Japan—from New can lobbyists. Dan was recognized for ly performed at the National Gallery to school.” Orleans to Nice to Tokyo—bringing leadership in corporate diversity. He in London with the baroque trio He played more piano gigs after recently retired as senior vice presi- Ensemble Chaconne. He also toured graduation, and through his net- dent and chief corporate relations the southeastern United States and work of jazz musicians assembled officer for Heineken USA after 30 the Midwest with mezzo-soprano bands for Boston bookings. When years in the U.S. beer industry. Email D’Anna Fortunato and performed he was just 24, he leased space at him at [email protected]. in New York and New England with the old Copley Square Hotel and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra un- turned it into his own jazz club. 1971 der director 9/)* :/)&"' (STH’71, Storyville, which later moved to GRS’83). Classmates can email Peter the Buckminster Hotel in Kenmore 7+01(%/, 8/)(#" (CAS’71) of Lin- at [email protected], or visit Square, became a hot spot over- coln, R.I., was elected a director of the www.americasmusicworks.com. night, and for the next decade drew American Board of Orthodontics. He many of the artists who were or has maintained a private orthodon- 5+/#/ :"=/# 9())+,(# (COM’72) would become some of the world’s tic practice in North Providence of Orlando, Fla., discusses “every- most famous—, Billie since 1977. thing from pizza to ladybugs to the Holiday, , Charlie quality of political discourse” on her Parker, (Hon.’78), Allison Blakely 9/)* :/)&"' (STH’71, GRS’83) blog, bigdeemagnifies.blogspot.com. , and , then

of Arlington, Mass., a trumpeter, Diana writes, “The writing is as clear a new talent, among many others. KALMAN ZABARSKY

!! BOSTONIA Fall 2012

84-98 Bostonia Fall 2012_03indd 88 9/22/12 9:45 AM ı Three piano players backstage at Newport: (from left) , George Wein, outdoor music performances to mil- and Erroll lions. “We must have had 20 to 25 Garner. festivals a year at the height of what I was doing—we were traveling all the time,” he says. He produced so many festivals that “somewhere between 500 and 600, I lost count.” A jazz festival is “a convention of the greatness of what jazz music is,” Wein says. The power of great music reaches “into your soul. You can remember the times when you are transported listening to music. Those moments are priceless. I’ve had them in jazz, folk music, opera, and symphony.” and Duke Ellington both made comebacks in the mid- 50s after playing Newport, and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was introduced to the broader general public there. The list of artists whose careers benefited from playing New- port is long, Wein says. “I feel very proud of that. I don’t feel that we created anybody, because their tal- ent was theirs. We just got a chance to give them a stage.” Over the years, he has known all the best, including Parker, , , Cab Calloway, Wynton Marsalis (Hon.’92), and Ellis Marsalis. Wein’s autobiography, Myself Among Oth- ers: A Life in Music (Da Capo, 2003),

is a who’s who of jazz greats. WEIN OF GEORGE COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH His first heroes were jazz per- formers, mostly . Obama to the National Council on DaCapo Foundation and Friends which he is now executive producer “When I was 17 or 18, I became very the Humanities, Blakely researches of the United Nations, a National emeritus. “It goes beyond anything racially concerned because I was the historical evolution of color Endowment for the Arts Jazz Mas - I ever imagined,” he says of the close to musicians,” he says. When prejudice and is writing Blacks in ter Fellowship, DownBeat maga- quality of jazz, , world, and black artists arrived at a club, “they Europe, a book on the black identity zine’s Lifetime pop performances by couldn’t go in the front door; they of modern-day Afro-Europeans. The Achievement Award, such musicians as Ellis !"# "$%&' Watch had to go in the back door. I wanted professorship is “really a great gift and France’s Légion George Wein at the Marsalis, Esperanza respect for jazz musicians.” He and for the African American Studies d’honneur. He has piano at bu.edu/ Spalding, and Buckwheat his late wife, Joyce, who was African Program to continue in the vein that performed for Presi- bostonia. Zydeco, to name just a American, were concerned for “mi- George and Joyce were hoping we dents few. He also played piano norities who really have a difficult would follow—to further education and . He is also a winner on a couple of numbers with the time” and together they supported about diversity,” says Blakely, the of a College of Arts & Sciences Dis- Preservation Hall and was inner-city education programs, such new program director. “It meant tinguished Alumnus Award. looking forward to his next gig in as the Harlem Children’s Zone in something to me to give that,” Wein These days Wein, the CEO of New August with the Newport All-Stars New York, and other efforts to pro- says, “because my life has been Festival Productions LLC, keeps a at the scene of the first festival mote appreciation of cultural diver- so involved with African American schedule that would challenge many he created. sity and racial tolerance. culture and the friends who directed far younger. He works pro With characteristic gusto Wein With a million-dollar gift, the my life.” to assure the continuation of the travels to Europe in between U.S. Weins in 2002 established the For his philanthropy and his gift of Newport Jazz Festival, which has festivals to take in music perfor- George and Joyce Wein Professor- bringing grand-scale music festivals returned to nonprofit status. mances and visit with fellow festi- ship in African American Studies at to the world, Wein has garnered a He was exhilarated this spring val producers. “They treat me like BU, held by historian Allison Blakely. list of impressive honors, including when he returned from a week at I’m their granddaddy,” he says, A champion of the liberal arts who a Global Peace and Tolerance Life- the Jazz & Heritage “because I am their granddaddy.” was appointed by President Barack time Achievement Award from the Festival, which he founded and of !"#$ %"$$"&&' (")*%

www.bu.edu/campaign !"

84-98 Bostonia Fall 2012_03indd.indd 89 9/25/12 6:33 PM