Esperanza Spalding will appear in two sets at the 2008 JVC Jazz Festival in Newport. Interview on Page 8.

AP/ Alison Redlich

Soul queen Aretha Franklin and pop-jazz trumpeter Chris Botti may be among the headliners at this weekend’s JVC Jazz Festival-Newport, but Festival co-founder George Wein says the bill is “basically straight jazz.”

And, with exceptions that include the world-music twist of Ledisi and the jam-band influences of Lettuce, he’s pretty much right.

Jazz legends such as Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock rule the weekend.

And while Franklin is soul royalty, you can count her in the Newport jazz camp with good reason. Her first Newport appearance was in 1962, and at her last Newport appearance, the 1998 edition of the now-defunct Rhythm and Blues Festival, she announced that “It all began here.”

Inside, on Page 8, there are interviews with upright bass and acoustic bass guitar player Esperanza Spalding, who is equally at home in jazz, Latin jazz, pop and soul settings (did someone say prodigy?); and jazz great Sonny Rollins, who made his recording debut in 1949 and who has played with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach. The festival schedule is on Page 9.

Things get started with a show tomorrow night headlined by Chris Botti at the International Tennis Hall of Fame and continue over the weekend at Fort Adams with performances on three stages.