Old guard to avant-garde

What's often overlooked, though, is that Newport usually draws a decent number of avant-garde jazz artists. This year's bill is particularly potent in that regard, with groups that include the Vandermark 5, Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, and By Any Means, which is the trio of drummer Rashied Ali, saxophonist Charles Gayle, and bassist William Parker.

That the lineup seems heavier than usual on jazz outsiders is no accident. George Wein, who created the Newport festival in 1954 and is running it again, says the roster reflects his own tastes and a deliberate attempt to make the event appealing to more types of jazz aficionados.

"I'm looking for people who know who Vandermark is," Wein, 83, says on the phone from his home in New York. "I'm trying to get them coming to the festival, because they have not been coming. This will broaden the jazz audience [at the festival]. It won't broaden the general audience. The general audience doesn't know these people."

Wein, a Boston native, is back in charge of the festival after a year on the sidelines. In 2007 he sold the event, then known as the JVC Jazz Festival, and his company, Festival Productions. The buyer, Festival Network, put on last year's event but was late paying bills, and the state canceled its contract to rent Fort Adams in 2009. When that happened, jazz fans - and Wein - worried that there would be no Newport jazz festival this year, so he stepped back in and created George Wein's Jazz Festival 55 (the name refers to the festival's 55th anniversary).

For all intents and purposes, it is the same festival, on the same weekend, the second one in August. The opening night features Etta James and the Roots Band at the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Aug. 7, followed by more than two dozen acts performing over the next two days at Fort Adams.

Even more so than in recent years, there is an emphasis on cutting-edge music.

"I have only two artists that may be considered commercial artists - Mos Def and Tony Bennett - and I'm happy I have both of them," Wein says. "But if we can't make it with jazz, then we can't make it. We have to have faith in the music itself - faith in the music and faith in the musicians who play it."

It was easier back in the '50s and '60s to draw big crowds simply by putting jazz celebrities on the schedule. "There are no big stars in jazz today," Wein says. "Years ago I could draw 20,000 people with Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald and Erroll Garner and Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk." Even today's most popular jazz musicians - Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis - are hardly household names, he says.

Wein, a pianist who often plays a set at Newport (but says he won't this year), says he is always listening for what's new in jazz. One of his new favorites is Fly, the trio of saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Jeff Ballard. He tried to get them for Newport, but they were unavailable that weekend.

"My own ears change as years go on," he says. "The more I live, the more I'm involved with my environment. My environment is what I live with, not the past."

George Wein's Jazz Festival 55 runs Aug. 7-9 at Fort Adams State Park. For tickets and a performance schedule, go to www.jazzfestival55.com.

Steve Greenlee can be reached at greenlee@globe.com.