Chuck you, Farley! Newport Jazz celebrates its 50th with a hurricane of good music BY JON GARELICK

In celebrating the 50th anniversary since the year he first brought a jazz festival to Newport, George Wein took a gamble. He announced that this year’s festival would be returning to its roots — which meant as pure a jazz line-up as possible, and the kind of mix-and-match, one-time-only all-star jams that become possible only when musicians are willing to bend their schedules with their regular touring bands. Wein made good on his promise. The JVC Jazz Festival — Newport, R.I., which ended Sunday night at Fort Adams State Park, was one of the most uncompromising in memory. Wein wanted to make this Newport Jazz Festival special, and it was.

Not that there weren’t obstacles besides the commercial considerations for an art form that’s somewhere along the spectrum with classical music — a smaller, older demographic than that which routinely draws crowds of 15,000 and 20,000 to pop-music "sheds" like the Tweeter Center. The allowable capacity at Fort Adams is 10,000, nowhere near enough for a presenter to break even with 36 acts in two days — for that, Wein depends on multiple corporate sponsorships. Wein himself, now 78, underwent emergency abdominal surgery the week before the event. Nonetheless, he showed up at a gala celebration in Newport on Thursday night. On top of all that, weather — always a factor for a concert that takes place on an unsheltered venue on a tiny peninsula jutting into Narragansett Bay — was especially iffy this year, with Hurricane Charley moving up the East Coast.

In the end, Wein and his Festival Productions crew surmounted the odds. Saturday was hot and muggy, with plenty of sun, and drew an audience of 9000. Hurricane rain drenched Newport early Sunday morning, clearing before the gates opened, with low clouds moving overhead all day. Attendance was 6500.

During both days, there were many variations on the all-star theme. For one, Newport booked three big bands (never guarantors at the gate), with two of them paying tribute to departed jazz legends. On Saturday, the Jon Faddis Orchestra (descended from the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band) paid tribute to Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie. On Sunday, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (without Wynton Marsalis, who was reported ill) did Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Louis Armstrong. Each line-up was loaded with special guests. For good measure, the always raucous Mingus Big Band rocked the house on Sunday, its namesake, a one-time "Newport rebel," being a strong enough single dedicatee.

The emphasis was always on history, remembering it and making it. Between acts, interviews with Wein, Dave Brubeck (now 83), and others served as voiceovers for Jumbotron film clips at the JVC main stage. Every repeat performer at the festival was introduced by the year of his or her Newport debut (Brubeck went back to 1955, with more total Newport shows than anybody, and Percy Heath and Lee Konitz played the first year). There were also Newport 2004 debuts, like those of guitarist/vocalist Doug Wamble and Brit singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum.

Highlights Saturday included Chico Hamilton’s 15-minute solo drum clinic on the main stage, in which the 82-year-old (a star of the 1959 film Jazz on Summer’s Day) reminded us that wire brushes were developed so drummers could imitate (and accompany) tap dancers. In the Faddis band, guests Jackie McLean and Phil Woods played a genial alto battle on Parker’s "Confirmation," and clarinettist Ken Peplowski re-created Goodman’s "Sing, Sing, Sing" with control, swing, and the requisite flag-waving high notes. But the climax of the set was the appearance by Clark Terry, 83 and beset by health problems, who, dapper in blue blazer and white cap, had to be helped to a seat on the stage. Terry announced, "The Golden Years suck," then played the shit out his flügelhorn solo on a blues and cracked up the audience with his "mumbles" scatting routine, in which his nonsense syllables made more than sense.

Saturday closed with a majestic set by an all-star "John Coltrane Remembered" ensemble, with Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner, 65, and drummer Roy Haynes, 79, who filled in for Elvin Jones at the Coltrane Quartet’s 1963 Newport debut. Michael Brecker played his typically flawless Coltrane tenor impersonation, matching his speed and articulation with big, slashing phrases and ululating note clusters. Tyner demonstrated his phenomenal touch and massive, full-voiced sound — as indebted to Art Tatum as to Bud Powell — and Coltrane’s son Ravi contributed a beautifully coherent soprano solo, as logically developed as it was impassioned, on "The Promise."

Another standout in the Coltrane group was bassist Christian McBride, who as a bandleader gets mixed results but here reminded us once again why he’s a superior bassist. Every musician struggles with outdoor performances, but bassists especially can come across as muddy or, worse, overamplified. Every note McBride played Saturday night (the band went on after 7 p.m.) was clear and true, and his lines flowed with horn-like lyricism. He was really something, especially when he traded fours with the ageless Haynes, who was resplendent in an open crimson jacket.