[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 25 (Monday, June 28, 1993)]
[Pages 1117-1118]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival

 June 18, 1993

    Thank you very much. I can say this, that when she's listening to my 
jazz she wishes I would practice more. [Laughter] I am delighted to have 
all of you here at this, our first televised concert from the White 
House. Both Hillary and I are very excited and pleased to welcome you 
here. It's especially appropriate that we should be together here at 
America's house to celebrate that most American of all forms of musical 
expression, jazz.
    One of the greatest things that ever happened to jazz was a simple 
2-day event that took place in Newport, Rhode Island, way back in 1954. 
The Newport Jazz Festival was an immediate hit, and it grew and grew. It 
captured the imagination of young musicians all across the country and 
eventually across the world. No event has done more to nurture the 
careers of jazz artists; none has done more to thrill and delight jazz 
fans. The festival's influence has been truly profound, inspiring more 
than 2,000 other jazz festivals every year all around the world. Indeed, 
the French Government recently recognized that impact when it awarded 
the festival's producer the Legion of Honor.
    Tonight we're having our own White House jazz festival as a special 
tribute to the 40th year of Newport Jazz and, of course, to its founder 
and its fine producer, George Wein. George, stand up. Where are you? 
There he is.
    You know, jazz is really America's classical music. Like our country 
itself and especially like the people who created it, jazz is a music 
born of struggle, but played in celebration. This unique musical and 
cultural art form is now more than a century old. It's paused 
periodically in its evolution to give us ragtime and boogie-woogie and 
swing and bebop and cool and free jazz and fusion, only then to continue 
its restless rebirth into forms that have yet to be named or even 
imagined. Original and enduring, adapting and growing, jazz is simply 
one of our Nation's greatest creations.
    Many good people swing to the sound of jazz and rally to its cause. 
And one of them is our host tonight, the son of a jazz legend. In his 
father's name, he's established an institute which introduces young 
people to the beauty of jazz and encourages up-and-com- 

[[Page 1118]]

ing jazz musicians. And he is a brilliant musician in his own right and 
a good friend of the President and the First Lady. Ladies and gentlemen, 
please welcome Thelonious Monk, Jr.

[At this point, Mr. Monk hosted the musical program.]

    We want to say a wonderful, heartfelt, happy thank-you to all the 
performers; thank you to Thelonious Monk, Jr., the Thelonious Monk 
Institute of Jazz, and its executive director, Tom Carter; and a very, 
very special thank-you to George Wein, the producer of the Newport Jazz 
Festival. Thank you for the wonderful tradition that you have created.
    You know, if you look at the different ages and backgrounds of all 
the gifted performers assembled on this stage, we're reminded once again 
that jazz is a true reflection of the American people: a music of 
inclusion, a music of democracy, a music that embraces tradition and the 
freedom to innovate. That's a good thought to end on.
    Thank you all for coming, and good night; bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:45 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. He was introduced by Hillary Clinton. This item was not received 
in time for publication in the appropriate issue.