IN his 1939 undergraduate thesis at Harvard University, the composer, conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein noted that jazz is 'the ultimate common denominator of the American musical style'. Nowhere is that style and spirit more prevalent than in Newport, Rhode Island, home to the Newport Jazz Festival, which celebrated its 70th birthday last month.
Less than two hours' drive from Harvard through leafy New England, this elegant resort on the north-east coast of the US is where the 'aristocracy' of America's Gilded Age-the Astors, Kennedys, Roosevelts and Vanderbilts built their 'cottages', as they called them, in the late 19th century.
Intended as summer boltholes from New York's sweltering temperatures, the misnomer was as ironic as the false modesty.
One of those 'cottage' dwellers was Elaine Lorillard. She had married into the family who owned the site where The Breakers stands-Newport's grandest mansion of all -a four-storey-high, 70-bedroom monument to prosperity, designed by Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Lorillard, in combination with George Wein-a pianist and producer who ran Boston jazz club Storyville-founded the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1954 as a summertime distraction for her friends and neighbours.
Despite her dizzying wealth and Newport's rich abundance of leisure opportunities, Lorillard lamented to Wein 'there's just nothing to do'. To alleviate boredom the previous summer, she had helped organise a performance by the New York Philharmonic at the Newport Casino-now home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame-built in 1880 on historic Bellevue Avenue. She chose this location again for what was initially called the American Jazz Festival.
Denne historien er fra September 25, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 25, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
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It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
