The latest version of Jazz Fest in Pittsburgh is coming in September, back downtown in front of the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
August 28, 1960 Ad
A while ago - we turned back The Pittsburgh Calendar to June, 1964 - and the first Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, produced by Pittsburgh’s Mary Lou Williams and legendary impresario George Wein (Newport Jazz Festival), September 19-20, 1964. Sponsored by the Catholic Youth Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, it made a tiny profit and led to another festival the next year. We did a program all about it a few months back.
A couple of our listeners reached out - suggesting that there was an even earlier festival than the 1964 event at the “new” Civic Arena - and they were correct! And that story is a fascinating one we are digging deeper into.
The 1960 event was the “Pittsburgh Modern Music Festival, held at the Melody Tent - the tent used by Pittsburgh CLO and others before the Civic Arena was built. The Sponsor was a new non-profit called “Jazz Horizons Unlimited,” an organization which included several folks involved with radio station WKPA, New Kensington, which back then broadcast about 25 hours of jazz a week. Noted radio hosts included Phil Brooks, Jim Gray and Nelson Goldberg.
The lineup over September 2, 3 and 4, 1960 included:
The Horace Silver Quintet
The Woody Herman Orchestra
The. Dizzy Gillespie Quintet
The Oscar Peterson Trio
Art Farmer, Benny Golson and the Jazztet
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Charles Bell Trio
Walt Harper
Harold Betters
Joe Negri
Nina Simone
Carol Sloane
And more
Unfortunately, the three nights of music at the Melody Tent over that Labor Day weekend did not draw more than about 1,500 people (per night? we are still finding information). The Modern Music Festival lost about $20,000.
Jazz Horizons Unlimited continued presenting live music, but switching to subscription concerts, held at hotel ballrooms and sometimes the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland over the next couple of years, but we’ve not found much beyond 1961.
The single shows included:
Kai Winding and the John LaSalle Quartet - February 1960
Dave Brubeck Quartet - November 27, 1960
Quincy Jones Orchestra - December 1960
Cal Tjader Quintet and vocalist Sandy Staley - March 1961
George Shearing Quintet with Nancy Wilson - April 1961
Mel Torme, the Ramsey Lewis Trio and Walt Harper - May 1961
There’s more to the story - including one WZUM listener who told us she became a member of Jazz Horizons as a teen, and lived in Latrobe at the time and didn’t know her way around Pittsburgh. She and a friend in her car waved down a traffic cop for help - who not only agreed to help them find the Melody Tent, but got in the back seat of the car to direct them there! She fell in love with Pittsburgh and moved here as soon as she could.
It appears New Horizons Unlimited stopped putting on concerts after 1961, local and touring national jazz performers continued to pour into Pittsburgh in the years ahead.
For Pittsburgh today, the local and global jazz market has changed a lot. The live performance venues have changed dramatically. The music recording industry went through a few boom and bust cycles and now, much smaller than 30 years ago, is selling more vinyl than CDs.
Media has changed in hard to decipher ways, too, but we now have a jazz radio station, round the clock in WZUM. Keeping it going is, like the Jazz Horizons Unlimited adventure, going to need the support of the lovers of the music and the community.
Things coming up in Pittsburg in our modern day -
the celebration of the 5th Anniversary of the club and restaurant Con Alma continues - with notable music 5 days a week.
Roger Humphries and the RH Factor return with the annual River Boat Ride for scholarships with special guests Anita Levels and Hugo Cruz and Caminos.
Sweet Jazz finishes up this month for Sweetwater Center for the Arts with Etta Cox
The Inside Outside series at The Pittsburgh Playhouse returns - including Tuck and Patti and bandleader Bill O’Connell’s Latin Jazz Band
The Steeltown Horns with Big Jus at the Thunderbird Cafe on Saturday
Matthew Whitaker at Hartwood Acres in August
and much, much more at the Jazz Central Calendar!
Pittsburgh Press August 18, 1960
Pittsburgh Press, November 27, 1960