The 2022 edition of the storied Newport Jazz Festival had a strong New Orleans presence throughout the three-day event, July 29-31, and culminated with a poignant, powerful tribute to the late George Wein. The festival’s founding producer passed away last September, three weeks shy of his 96th birthday.

  The Crescent City contingent included trumpeter/keyboardist Nicholas Payton’s trio; trumpeter Terence Blanchard, whose band was augmented by the Turtle Island String Quartet; plus pianist Sullivan Fortner, the Nth Power, Tuba Skinny, P.J. Morton, and the Soul Rebels Brass Band. Trombone Shorty was featured as part of the Wein tribute that closed the weekend at picturesque Fort Adams State Park on the shore of Newport Harbor.

The Wein celebration began with several numbers featuring members of Wein’s recent Newport Jazz Festival All-Star groups: trumpeters Randy Brecker and Jon Faddis, tenor saxophonist Lew Tabackin and clarinetist Anat Cohen, backed by pianist Christian Sands, bassist Christian McBride (who succeeded Wein as the festival’s artistic director), and drummer-for-all-seasons Lewis Nash.

Then came the special guests and band permutations. Sands, Nash and bassist Jay Leonhart backed singer Cecile McLorin Salvant’s take on “Thou Swell.” Energetically soulful pianist Hiromi took the stage for one solo number, then backed Faddis on a stunning version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” with subtle backing from Leonhart and Nash.

Trombone Shorty joined the celebration, playing and singing on “The Sunny Side of the Street” with Hiromi, McBride and Nash. Then Scott, Leonhart and Nash backed him on the New Orleans jazz staple “St. James Infirmary.”

The closing number had all of them back on stage, with powerful solos from the horn players, Hiromi and Sands tossing the melody back and forth with some four-handed piano wizardry, and even Leonhart and McBride mixing it up on bowed bass interludes. Festival newcomer Giveton Gelin, a trumpeter from Bahamas, snuck in for a solo after fellow horn men Brecker and Faddis.

The artistry was top shelf. The audience, most of whom stayed until the emotional end, floated home with smiles and a few tears.

All photographs by Ken Franckling