His precise role in the worldwide festival operation he helped create may be a little fuzzy these days, but George Wein is determined to remain active — with or without the help of his new employer, Festival Network.
Wein remains an executive of Festival Network, which bought his company, Festival Productions, last year. But he no longer has total control over the Newport Jazz Festival, the JVC New York Jazz Festival, or any of the other properties that were once his. He is, however, free to present music under other organizations’ auspices, and that is what he will be doing, beginning later this year, at Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall’s intimate underground performance space.
In a letter to friends and colleagues, Wein announced the first three concerts in what he is calling the Joyce Wein Series, in honor of his wife, who died in 2005. “Why am I doing this?” he asked rhetorically, and then answered his own question: “It is important to keep the memory of Joyce Wein alive.” There’s no doubt that he’s sincere about this; anyone who knew George and Joyce Wein knew that theirs was a love story for the ages. But — not to sound cynical or anything — presumably it is also important to him to keep his own career alive.
The first concert in the Joyce Wein Series — Wein explains that he is “producing and funding these performances, but they are Carnegie Hall presentations” — will be on Nov. 13 and feature the pianist Michel Camilo, solo and with a rhythm section. The next one, on Feb. 19, will showcase the jazz chops of the composer, conductor and pianist André Previn. The third concert, on April 2, will be an all-star affair called “To Joyce With Love” featuring Dick Hyman, Regina Carter, Anat Cohen, and many others.
Wein is also remaining active as a pianist. Following his triumphant performance at the Newport festival, he and his group, the All-Stars, will be at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, in the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex, from Nov. 4 through Nov. 9. Unfortunately, this will not be the same version of the All-Stars that tore it up in Newport. The guitarist (Howard Alden) and drummer (Jimmy Cobb) are the same, but Anat Cohen will not be on clarinet and saxophone and Esperanza Spalding will not be on bass, and their replacements — Randy Sandke on trumpet, Lew Tabackin on tenor saxophone, and Bob Cranshaw on bass — are likely to prove more than competent but a little bit less than exciting.
