Newport Jazz Festival

FZ in "The Real Frank Zappa Book" (1989): "In 1969, George Wein, impresario of the Newport Jazz Festival, decided it would be a tremendous idea to put the Mothers of Invention on a jazz tour of the East Coast. We wound up working in a package with Kirk, Duke Ellington and Gary Burton in Miami at the Jai Alai Fronton, and at another gig in South Carolina."

The Newport Jazz Festival was founded by Jazz pianist George Wein in 1954 as the first outdoor music festival of its kind devoted entirely to Jazz, and is now universally acknowledged as the grandfather of all Jazz festivals. During the last half-century, the name Newport has become synonymous with the best in Jazz music. In its long illustrious history, the Newport Jazz Festival has presented a virtual pantheon of Jazz immortals alongside an array of rising young artists.