Wednesday, July 15, 2009

NPR Music to air George Wein's Folk Festival and CareFusion Jazz Festival performances

NPR Music, together with five partner radio stations, is exclusively live webcasting and broadcasting dozens of performances from George Wein’s Folk Festival 50 and CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 next month in Newport, RI, offering four days of music by some of the country’s most acclaimed artists. NPR Music and WFUV New York, FolkAlley.com (WKSU) Kent, Ohio, and mvyradio on Martha’s Vineyard and in Newport are covering all acts from the Folk Festival on August 1 and 2 – which celebrates its 50th anniversary with performances by trailblazers Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, and current favorites The Decemberists and Neko Case. At the Jazz Festival on August 8 and 9, NPR Music with WBGO Newark and WGBH Boston are broadcasting and webcasting four complete line-ups from three stages, headlined by Tony Bennett, Mos Def, Miguel Zenon Quartet and The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis.

For the second straight year, festival concerts will be accessible through free, live audio webcasts at NPR Music, and live station broadcasts. NPR Music’s folk and jazz festival coverage will be available at npr.org/folkfestival50 and npr.org/jazzfestival55, where there will be artist interviews and festival news from the All Songs Considered blog and A Blog Supreme. In addition, NPR Music will archive all content and provide podcasts of the performances.

Music from this year’s festivals can be previewed by downloading two free 12-song “NPR Music at Newport” Samplers (one folk, one jazz), featuring many of the acts NPR Music will webcast and broadcast from both festivals. Songs on the folk sampler include the Avett Brother’s single off their forthcoming record I and Love and You, Pete Seeger’s “Shenandoah” and “Mykonos” from the Fleet Foxes. The jazz sampler offers “Summer Song” by David Brubeck, “Precious” from Esperanza Spalding and Miguel Zenon’s “Penta.” Both samplers are redeemable at iTunes.

NPR Music, together with WFUV, Folk Alley and mvyradio, will webcast and broadcast two days of performances from the Folk Festival on August 1 and 2 from noon to 6:00PM (ET). The following week, performances from the festival will be available to stream at NPR Music and the station Web sites, and download through NPR Music’s “Live in Concert” podcast. The festival will celebrate 50 years of music history in Newport, with Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins performing alongside The Decemberists, Neko Case, Iron & Wine, The Avett Brothers, Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, Mavis Staples, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and many others.

The next weekend, August 8 and 9 from noon to 6:00PM (ET), NPR Music teams with WBGO and WBGH to live webcast and broadcast four stages from the Jazz Festival. Saturday’s bill includes performances by Mos Def, Esperanza Spalding, the Joshua Redman Double Trio and Miguel Zenon Quartet. On Sunday, hear from the likes of Tony Bennett, The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis, Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band and the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Hosting NPR Music’s coverage of the Folk Festival are Bob Boilen, host and creator of the popular show All Songs Considered and its “Live in Concert” series, and WFUV host and music director Rita Houston. Josh Jackson, WBGO special projects producer and host of The Checkout, will anchor all Jazz Festival coverage. Updated artist lists and performance schedules are at NPR Music, where there is also an archive of last year’s performances from Newport.

NPR Music, a free, multimedia music site with content from NPR and 12 station partners, offers original programs such as All Songs Considered, JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater and World CafĂ©, live concerts, studio and video sessions, interviews, reviews, music lists and blogs – curated and aggregated for audiences to explore, experience and enjoy. The site expands constantly, with sections dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz/blues, world and urban music. More than 250 new features are added each month; the site’s popular “Concert” section offers hundreds of streaming concerts in every genre. This March, NPR Music webcast and broadcast some of the most anticipated performances from SXSW in Austin, TX, including The Decemberists, Heartless Bastards, K’NAAN, Dirty Projectors, Blitzen Trapper and BLK JKS. Those concerts are archived at: npr.org/sxsw

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