Music: Trumpets Are for Extroverts

Everybody was there—Roy Eldridge and Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie and Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner and Ella Fitzgerald and a gaggle of other big-name jazz artists—as the fourth Newport (R.I.) Jazz Festival opened last week with the authority of an established institution. On opening night, there was a moist-eyed party in honor of Trumpeter Louis Armstrong's 57th birthday, which Louis ended on a sour note by blasting out The Star-Spangled Banner and stomping off stage when he found he could play only 13 numbers. Eartha Kitt undulated her way through a 15-minute dance history of jazz, to the music of Dizzy...