Are We In or Out?

n the context of jazz, the question posed above has a special significance. But that wasn’t what I was thinking of as I asked it to myself while scanning the crowd at Fort Adams during this year’s Newport Jazz Festival (which you can read more about on pg. 6 and, in). What I was thinking of was the requirement that all festival attendees had to meet before being allowed through the gates: either proof of vaccination for COVID-19 or a negative test taken within the last 72 hours. I had followed this new rule—I’ve been fully vaccinated since April—and so, presumably, had every one of the thousands of people gathered at the fort. Here was living proof that it could be done, that enough music fans were willing to opt in so they could experience live jazz once again after a long, sad absence.