Golden set showcases
jazz classics
For jazz lovers worldwide, summertime is festival time, with roughly a thousand events from the Azores to Estonia and from Montreal to Monterey, Calif. Here in the islands, the Hawaii International Jazz Festival will mark its 11th year from July 30 to Aug. 7.
However, it was in the summer of 1954 that the seaside town of Newport, R.I., became the unlikely setting for the world's first annual jazz fest.
Various artists (Columbia/Legacy)
Only a few hundred lucky souls came to Freebody Park that year, but the Newport Jazz Festival's success has continued to this day. Credit goes to organizer George Wein, a modestly talented pianist who ran a Boston nightclub then and now oversees a small entertainment empire.
To commemorate Newport's 50th anniversary, Wein has delved into the archives of several recording companies to compile a terrific three-CD set of classic performances covering 1955-76, a time when a multitude of jazz immortals walked the earth and related styles such as blues and gospel -- represented here by Muddy Waters and Mahalia Jackson -- were barely appreciated outside their small circles of devotees.
A HALLMARK of Wein's productions, as of jazz, is spontaneity, and he likes to bring together novel combinations of performers. Sometimes it works -- a combo with trumpeter Roy Eldridge, trombonist Al Grey, saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and guitarist Joe Pass strikes sparks and burns -- and sometimes it doesn't -- two paragons of eccentric artistry, pianist Thelonious Monk and clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, do not connect at all.
(In 1958, rock 'n' roll giant Chuck Berry was presented in front of a Dixieland band, with disastrous results; the advance copy of this set included a track, but it has thankfully been omitted from the issued version.)
Festivals mean fun, and Louis Armstrong can't be beat in that department. He leads off this collection with two strong performances from 1956, including a spirited "Mack the Knife"; Hawaii's Trummy Young, the great trombonist, is among Armstrong's All-Stars. The party continues with the wisecracking traditionalist Eddie Condon, who brought along the exuberant Wild Bill Davison on cornet, and the stride piano master Willie "the Lion" Smith.
Armstrong then returns with a bootin' big band joining him "On the Sunny Side of the Street."
Louis Armstrong leads off the collection with two strong performances from 1956, including a spirited "Mack the Knife."
TWO PERFORMANCES in this collection capture history in the making. In 1955, Miles Davis had yet to lead a working combo, his reputation shot after a heroin addiction he had since kicked. At Newport, though, he participated in an on-stage jam session and on Monk's "'Round Midnight" played so well that Columbia Records' George Avakian offered him a contract right then and there, sending his career into the highest gear. Previously unreleased (legitimately, anyway), that performance is here, as is Davis' 1958 sextet with saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, who also leads his quartet on his hit, "My Favorite Things."
In 1956, Duke Ellington had been famous for more than a quarter-century, but his record sales and performance fees were far from ideal, his band scraping by with money from his songwriting royalties.
However, at Newport a rocking tenor saxophone solo by Paul Gonsalves inspired an attractive woman in the crowd to dance, and the whole audience got into it, cheering and stomping up a storm while Gonsalves wailed through 27 endlessly inventive blues choruses and the rhythm section grooved unmercifully. The publicity engendered from that one number revitalized Ellington's career, and he made top dollar ever after. That performance, "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," is here as well -- from a stereo source with better sound than the original issue, though the audience's presence is less palpable.
BILLIE HOLIDAY'S VOICE and health were in pretty bad shape by 1957, but her rendition here of "Lover, Come Back to Me" is among her better late recordings. That same year, her musical soul mate, tenor saxophone genius Lester Young, was reunited with former boss Count Basie and his band; "One O'Clock Jump," heard here, also includes trumpeter Roy Eldridge and crackles with energy.
From a Carnegie Hall event come two by vocalist Ella Fitzgerald: "Good Morning Heartache," in tribute to Holiday, and a gorgeous duet rendition of "I've Got a Crush on You" with one of the all-time greatest accompanists, pianist Ellis Larkins. Together they make taffy of the tempo yet swing gently and convey the utmost tenderness -- pure artistry. Back at Newport, Sarah Vaughan drowns her sorrows in "Black Coffee," and the powerful "Queen of the Blues," Dinah Washington, sings Bessie Smith's "Back Water Blues," showing how the more hysterical stylists have missed the boat.
A version of "Just You, Just Me" by the '63 fest's house band with cornetist Ruby Braff and tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman -- two underrated masters of improvisation -- is powered by the electrifying drumming of Roy Haynes.
Performances like this show how irrelevant categories can be, as bebop legend Haynes and the mainstream-style horn men speak one language, an enthusiastic Esperanto.
Haynes drums up more excitement with his solo on "Undecided," which also has great playing from quick-witted trumpeter Clark Terry and the man who virtually invented jazz saxophone, Coleman Hawkins. Another rousing display of percussive dexterity is given by Freddie Waits on "Avalon."
At the other end of the dynamic spectrum is the eloquent lyricism of big-toned tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, who purrs his way across Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" with the composer at the piano. More heartfelt balladry comes courtesy of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, who plays "I Remember Clifford" in tribute to his then-recently departed musical son Clifford Brown.
Pianist Dave Brubeck's quartet, with the clever Paul Desmond on alto sax, romps through Ellington's "Jump for Joy." Brubeck has played Newport more often than any other artist, and his happy sound here shows why. On the set's most recent recording, Herbie Hancock leads an all-star quintet on his "Maiden Voyage," with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and drummer Tony Williams making waves.
Its diversity and quality make "Happy Birthday Newport" as fine and fun a jazz compilation as there has ever been. It truly captures the spirit of jazz, its celebration of community and creative expression.
(The 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival at this year's JVC Jazz Festival happens Aug. 14 and 15 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, R.I. Go to festivalproductions.net for more info. -- Ed.)
Click for online
calendars and events.
