The last time George Wein visited Michigan, he was in a car driving 95 mph in the Upper Peninsula.

"I was in the Newport All Stars, and we were doing a show in Houghton," he said. "We flew to Detroit and sped for seven hours to the Upper Peninsula. We were going about 95 around the lake."

This time around, the 78-year-old founder of the Newport Jazz Festival will be comfortably seated in the Wharton Center's Great Hall.

Wein, a New York native, created the jazz festival in 1954 because he felt the northeastern United States was in dire need of a celebration of America's music. So Wein set one up in Rhode Island.

"Some people from Newport came to my club in Boston. They wanted to do something exciting in Newport for the summer and they wanted to do something with jazz, so I came up with a festival," he said.

The Newport Jazz Festival concert rolls into town Friday night and will feature seven well-known jazz artists for the 50th anniversary celebration of the festival.

"We have some of the greatest musicians in the world right there," Wein said. "Each one of them is an individual star, but they all belong to what I call the family of jazz.

"There's a certain communication that is natural to these musicians - they don't have to play the same concert every night. They just call it out and they know what to do and how to reach out to the audience."

Wein said all forms of jazz music will be represented at the concert, including swing bebop.

"They're not copying anyone, they're all playing their own styles, but it reflects the history of the jazz we played at Newport," he said.

The musicians performing Friday night include Cedar Walton, Howard Alden, James Carter, James Moody, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington and Randy Brecker.

"We get so wrapped up in the commercialism of rock 'n' roll and hip-hop that people's lives are devoid of the best things in life," Wein said. "These artists, they're part of the real culture of America, not the pop culture."

Wein said it's important to expose college students to jazz music because it's an art form rather than a trend, which he said is what most popular music today is.

"Jazz is a music that, once you get the message, it stays with you all your life," he said. "It's not here today and gone tomorrow, that's why it has meaning. College students in particular, they're the informative years of their lives - they should be open to everything."

Unfortunately, Wein said, there are very few leaders left in the world of jazz.

"The main face that's changing is that most of the great figures are gone," he said, referring to the deaths of Charles Parker and Miles Davis.

"We have more young musicians, there's a plethora of young musicians that play good jazz, but we need leaders that influence the entire the industry. We don't have any particular leaders."

Wein has been playing the piano since he was a kid, he said, but he's always been more focused on organizing and producing music events rather than performing.

"I'm an OK piano player, but I never thought I'd be great, so I figured I had a head for organizing and producing things," he said. "I play when I want to - I have the best of both worlds."

Wein is the producer of the Essence Music Festival and the Jazz & Heritage Festival, both popular events in New Orleans that draw crowds from all over the world.

The actual 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival will be held in Newport, R.I. on August 11-15.

The Newport Jazz Festival will be held Friday at 8 p.m. inside the Wharton Center's Great Hall. Tickets range from $22 to $34 and can be purchased at the Wharton Center Box Office or by calling 1-800-WHARTON. For more information on the festival and the performers, visit www.festivalproductions.net