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The Duke Ellington Orchestra
Ellington at Newport Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was one of the twentieth century’s foremost composers and among the handful of most important figures in the history of jazz. It goes almost without saying then that any collection of jazz recordings that does not include a Duke Ellington album is woefully incomplete. With me so far? Then let’s consider the recording of the 1956 concert that jazz impresario George Wein has deemed “the greatest performance of [Ellington’s] career.” That would be the album Ellington at Newport, one of the most famous in jazz history. To put the concert and recording in context, by 1956, the big band era was over, and the few such bands that carried on the tradition scuffled for gigs, most of which paid the individual musicians poorly. The trend, partly driven by economics and partly by evolving musical taste, was to smaller groups, introducing bebop, hard bop and other new jazz idioms. The illustrious Duke Ellington Orchestra found itself performing at ice-skating rinks and other unlikely venues just to stay busy. Even at that, Duke was also having to reach into his own pocket, using the royalties his compositions earned to keep the band together. When they played the Newport Jazz Festival, there was no recording contract. That came later. Famously, the centerpiece of that 1956 concert at Newport was a 27-chorus solo by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves on the Ellington composition “Diminuendo and Crescendo,” accompanied only by the rhythm section of bassist Jimmy Woode, drummer Sam Woodyard, and of course Duke himself on piano. The performance (enhanced, admittedly, by the presence of a gorgeous blonde woman in the audience, up and dancing to the music) brought the house down. In fact, it produced sheer pandemonium, even having the effect of jump-starting the Duke Ellington Orchestra for another generation. Duke concluded that show in his trademark way: “You are very beautiful, very sweet and we do love you madly.” History had been made that day, and soon after that, Duke’s picture was on the cover of Time magazine, and his newly revived popularity was to last for the rest of his life. About the recording: Yes, it was recorded live, of course. However, there were some issues—most notably Gonsalves’s mistake of playing into the wrong microphone! The result was that the audience response to what they were hearing was loud and clear, but what they wasn’t what made it to the tape. The solution was to re-record the music in a studio, to mix that studio-recorded music with as much of the live performance as was felt acceptable, along with the enthusiastic sounds of the live audience. The album that Columbia released soon after the concert was about 40% live, the bulk of it studio-recorded. Fast-forward to 1996, when it was discovered that the microphone Gonsalves mistakenly had played into on that day belonged to the international broadcaster Voice of America, and in fact, what was played into that mic was recorded by VOA. So some 40 years later, the Columbia tapes were painstakingly mixed with the VOA recordings—and now, all these years later, in stereo. And in 1999, a quarter century after Duke’s death, the new, improved—and really far less contrived—version of Ellington at Newport was released. Are you lacking an Ellington recording in your collection? This wouldn’t be a bad way to correct the situation. —Terry MacDonald Disc: 1 1. The Star Spangled Banner 2. Father Norman O'Connor Introduces Duke & The Orchestra / Duke Introduces the Tune and Anderson, Jackson, and Procope 3. Black and Tan Fantasy 4. Duke Introduces Cook and the Tune 5. Tea for Two 6. Duke & Band Leave Stage / Father Norman O'Connor Talks About the Festival 7. Take the "A" Train 8. Duke Announces Strayhorn's A Train and Nance / Duke Introduces Festival Suite, Pt. I and Hamilton 9. Pt. I-Festival Junction 10. Duke Announces Soloists / Introduces Pt. 2 11. Pt. 2-Blues to Be There 12. Duke Announces Nance and Procope / Introduces Pt. 3 13. Pt. 3-Newport Up 14. Duke Announces Hamilton, Gonsalves, and Terry / Duke Introduces Carney and the Tune 15. Sophisticated Lady 16. Duke Announces Grissom and the Tune 17. Day In, Day Out 18. Duke Introduce the Tune(s) and Paul Gonsalves Interludes 19. Diminuendo In Blue 20. Announcements, Pandemonium 21. Pause Track - Miles Davis Disc: 2 1. Duke Introduces Johnny Hodges 2. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 3. Jeep's Blues 4. Duke Calms Crowd, Introduces Nance and the Tune 5. Tulip or Turnip 6. Riot Prevention 7. Skin Deep 8. Mood Indigo 9. Studio Concert 10. Father Norman O'Connor Introduces Duke Ellington / Duke Introduces New Work, Pt. I, and Hamilton 11. Pt. I-Festival Junction 12. Duke Announces Soloists / Introduces Pt. 2 13. Pt. 2-Blues to Be There 14. Duke Announces Nance & Procope / Introduces Pt. 3 15. Pt. 3-Newport Up 16. Duke Announces Hamilton, Gonsalves, and Terry / Duke Introduces Johnny Hodges 17. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 18. Jeep's Blues 19. Pause Track Personnel Harry Carney - Baritone sax John Willie Cook - Trumpet Duke Ellington - Piano Paul Gonsalves - Tenor sax Jimmy Grissom - Voice Jimmy Hamilton - Clarinet Johnny Hodges - Alto sax Quentin Jackson - Trombone William "Cat" Anderson - Trumpet Ray Nance - Voice, trumpet Russell Procope - Alto sax John Sanders - Trombone Clark Terry - Trumpet James Woode - Bass Britt Woodman - Trombone Sam Woodyard - Drums Product Details Audio CD (May 11, 1999) Original Release Date: May 11, 1999 Number of Discs: 2 Format: Original recording remastered, Live Label: Sony Legacy Run Time: 129 minutes ASIN: B00000IMYA Source: Wikipedia |
