George Wein, Jazz Impresario and Newport Jazz Festival founder dies at 95
“He truly wanted African American studies at BU to grow and flourish and to do so with as much independence as possible,” says Louis Chude-Sokei, director of the African American Studies Program, holder of the George and Joyce Wein Chair in African American Studies, and a CAS professor of English.
“George Wein changed the way popular music is presented around the world by founding the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and the Newport Folk Festival five years later. His love of jazz and his long interracial marriage to Joyce Alexander led to their $1 million donation to establish the George and Joyce Wein Chair in African American Studies at Boston University in 2002.” Writes Joel Brown, in Bostonia, Boston University’s Alumni Magazine
To read the full article from Bostonia, click here.