For decades he helped shape Rhode Island’s venerable folk and jazz events, presenting stars and unknowns alike. One colleague called him a “test pilot of jazz.” By Richard Sandomir Bob Jones, who ...

NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI) — Since 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival has been drawing thousands of people to the City by the Sea. The festival was founded by George Wein, a pianist from Massachusetts who ...

The very first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 included London-born pianist George Shearing. The next year, his fellow British pianist — and future NPR host — Marian McPartland was on the bill. More ...

Bob Jones, who began as a volunteer at the Newport Folk Festival in the early 1960s before rapidly gaining the trust of its impresario, George Wein, and going on to produce the event over two decades, ...