Uncategorized

newportfolkfest:

“In 1958, Odetta appeared at Storyville, which was my jazz club, but where I occasionally presented important folk performers, including Josh White and Pete Seeger. If I had to pick one person responsible for the establishment of the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, it would be Odetta. We had Sunday afternoon sets at Storyville in those days and I saw that hundreds of young people were filling the club, buying $1 ginger ales, just to hear this magnificent artist whose beauty and power of self-presentation reached deeply into their musical minds. I scheduled her for an afternoon set at the Newport Jazz Festival – which also included The Weavers and The Kingston Trio – and the response was huge. I thought, why just do a folk afternoon when we could do an entire festival? Henceforth, the Newport Folk Festival."– George Wein