Wolfgang’s Vault: Streaming Back to Life

As Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Stan Kenton, Oscar Peterson and many other iconic artists performed at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival, it’s a safe bet they never dreamed that the music they were making that Fourth of July weekend would be easily accessible a half-century later. But thanks to an arrangement between San Francisco-based Wolfgang’s Vault and Festival Network-the company that bought the rights to all things related to the Newport jazz and folk festivals in 2007, then went belly up the following year-some 27 sets from the ’59 fest are now streaming 24/7, for free, at wolfgangsvault.com.

And that’s only the beginning: By the time they’ve completed their work, Wolfgang’s Vault, which last year acquired the entire recorded archives of both Newport fests, plans to post a sizable percentage of the music heard on the Newport stages throughout those venerable festivals’ history.