Bridgefest Creates Endless Music Between Major Festivals

David Amram plays the Irish flute

In a clever double entendre, The Arts & Cultural Alliance of Newport County for the second year "bridged" ( think Newport Bridge) the 4-day musical silence between the Newport Folk Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival by creating a series of events calling upon the talents of Newport's very gifted musicians, and utilizing the city's arresting venues.

This year, Bridgefest hosted a supernova of the classical and jazz worlds, composer and performer David Amram, who is know for mixing the world's ethnic music, jazz, classical genres and creating interesting instrumentation in his works. Newport Seen has been a fan of the gifted Mr. Amram since hearing the scores for both "Splendor in the Grass" – a uniquely American heartland style for a film set in 1920s Kansas, and "The Manchurian Candidate," a terrifying political thriller about brainwashing. After meeting Mr. Amram, one suspects that this was all in a day's work.

Dominique Alfandre & Justin McLaughlin at the opening party

The Alliance held an opening night reception for Mr. Amram at the Stanford Covell Inn on Washington Street, Newport, attended (should we say "mobbed"?) by Charles Young, Dominique Alfandre John Hirschboeck, and literally a hundred others at which Mr. Amram picked up an Irish flute, and serenadad the guests on the porch overlooking the Pell Bridge at sunset – sweets sounds in a beautiful spot.

Tuesday evening featured a rare treat, as the The Aurea Ensemble played several classical works by Mr. Amram, in the Hawes Room of Trinity Church, Queen Anne Square, Newport. The acclaimed composer, who has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger and Dizzy Gillespie, gave learned remarks on his serious chamber works. The night of music played by the remarkable gifted musicians of the Ensemble also played chamber works of Debussy, Kodály, Gershwin and Bartók. And what musicianship! This was a concert of the highest order.

Musicians of the Aurea Ensemble listen to Mr. Amram

Newport Filmmaker Lawrence Kraman, of Newport Classics, Ltd., was filming all of it. The Newporter, who created a documentary on Mr. Amram, "David Amram: The first 80 Years", showed the musician to be truly a "Renaissance Man" of music. The documentary was screened at the Jane Pickens Theater & Events Center, after which Mr. Amran, his son and a percussionist played jazz – including the theme from "Splendor in the Grass."

On Wednesday, evening, the engaging Newport Daily News columnist and jazz aficionado Jim Gillis interviewed George Wein at 41 North aboutut Newport's world famous summer entertainment Festivals.. Mr. Wein was there at the beginning, as manager and impresario, and through some difficult years. He gave highly entertaining responses, abetted by jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen, who gave her perspective on the jazz festival from a performer's point of view, touching on the new channels of distribution for music, iTunes, YouTube, downloads et alia, and the pre-eminence among musicians of the Newport Jazz Festival around the world.

Composer David Amram & Charles Young

At the Friday (Bridgefest having completed its mission) opening night of the 54th Newport Jazz Festival, patrons attended a cocktail party on the Horseshoe Piazza, and lined up on Bellevue Avenue to hear Michael Feinstein and Wynton Marsalis play at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. In the audience were Dolly Briggs, Bea Temkin, John Sawicki, Ruth Orthwein, and Dr. Tony Regine. The two-day Jazz Festival (the second day plagued by rain) was almost stolen by the ladies: Grammy- Award winner Esperanza Spalding, Jen Shyer and Regina Carter, as Steven Goleman and the Five Elements , Sangam, Trombone Shorty, Miguel Zenon, Mr. Marsalis and the pianist Hiromi delighted the crowds at Newport's historic Fort Adams.