Ellington at Newport

Occupation

Ellington at Newport is a jazz album by Duke Ellington, which was added to the night of 7 to 8 July 1956, the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport (Rhode Iceland ) and during a subsequent studio session on July 9 and at Columbia Records was published. Published in 1999 an expanded and revised edition of the live recording on the basis of rediscovered tapes of the live recording of Voice of America.

  • 2.1 Edition of the album
  • 2.2 impact and the reception of the recordings
  • 3.1 Title of the original album
  • 3.2 Title of the complete CD Edition of 1999

The concert

History of the Newport appearance

After the Duke Ellington Orchestra had lost in the early 1950s by the rise of bebop and cool jazz considerable popularity, it celebrated at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1956, triumphant, stormy celebrated comeback; [ Polillo 1] a few weeks after his appearance was an issue of TIME magazine, his picture on the front page. The Time article, a special honor for Ellington was planned long ago, but received by the success of Ellington at Newport has become more topical, he sat Ellington but also before the concert under pressure. Duke Ellington had - while other major big bands had to give up in the 1950s - his orchestra can continue to keep it alive. This was possible for him mainly by the income from the copyright of his many compositions.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra was in the early 1950s on some European tours, but experienced otherwise a period of artistic stagnation. [ Collier 1 ] However, it had some important additions to musicians, so the drummer Sam Woodyard and saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, the role and partly also further pursued the style of Ben Webster; [ Polillo 2] was also recently returned Johnny Hodges in Ellington's orchestra. The Ellington biographer James Lincoln Collier sees Gonsalves the man who eventually " with a blow tossed them about everything." [ Collier 2]

The Newport appearance of the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1956

In 1956 George Wein invited him to perform at the two years before the newly established Newport Jazz Festival, at the Ellington in 1955 acted as Master of Ceremonies. Duke Ellington played previously in smaller ensembles with his orchestra, some preliminary numbers, "Black and Tan Fantasy" and the jazz standard " Tea for Two ". To the great occupation were missing in the band, the fan Jimmy Hamilton, Ray Nance, Clark Terry and bassist Jimmy Woode, stepped in for the Al Lucas.

After the performances of several other artists such as Bud Shank, Jimmy Giuffre and the had traveled from Vienna Friedrich Gulda played long the Chico Hamilton Orchestra. The more intellectual game entertainment ( cool jazz ) of these groups caused the audience no enthusiasm. [ Collier 3] The second appearance of the Ellington band was scheduled for 22:30 clock on him to Ellington and Billy Strayhorn had prepared with a specially written Suite. The previous concerts but it could be later and later. From the long wait, the mood of his musicians was irritated; Ellington himself also reacted angrily: "Who are we actually - the animal number, the acrobats? " [ Collier 4].

Thus, the Ellington orchestra came only at 23:45 clock full cast on stage. Duke Ellington led the performance with " Take the 'A' Train," a; it was followed by a new composition by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, which created for the festival three-piece Newport Jazz Festival Suite, which was heavily influenced by the blues. [Dance 1] She was commissioned by producer George Avakian 's Columbia. The first part, called " Festival Junction " was initiated with a slow clarinet solo by Jimmy Hamilton, before the ensemble began, followed by solos by Willie Cook, Paul Gonsalves, Britt Woodman, Harry Carney, Quentin Jackson, Russell Procope; . Trumpeter Cat Anderson with his short, rising to the highest register solo marked the end of [Dance 2] The second part had the name " Blues to Be There " and was introduced by Duke Ellington ( in trio ); it was followed by slow - worn ensemble playing with solos by Procope and Ray Nance. With the third and final part of " Newport Up" put on the pace; it played as soloists Hamilton, Gonsalves (who played warm) and Clark Terry. It was the only point at which the Ellington orchestra differed from the blues scheme. [Dance 3] The Bop - colored end came from Clark Terry. Ellington's suite was intended as a prelude, but the enthusiasm of the audience was limited; there was " solid, if not overwhelming applause ." [ Collier 5]

After the Newport Suite Ellington, Harry Carney were occasions for a Baritone Saxophone solo on " Sophisticated Lady "; then the orchestra played "Day In, Day Out ". Now Duke Ellington said that the authorities will an old piece from the 1930s, "some of our 1938 vintage", the blues entitled " diminuendo in Blue" and " Crescendo in Blue" play, and announced Paul Gonsalves as soloists.

Ellington had worked some years earlier in an association of the pieces ( " diminuendo and crescendo in Blue"), so in his Carnegie Hall concerts ( " Transbluecency " ) in the mid 1940s. For the Newport appearance he had Paul Gonsalves selected as protagonists; . however this did not know what he was supposed to do [ Collier 6] Collier cites Ellington ironic statement on his saxophone: " ' It's just a blues in B' (in reality, Des ), Ellington said, ' I'll take you in and get you out again. That's all you have to do. Go ' just get out and blow ' Get the hell out of them. You've done it before yes. '" [ Collier 7] Ellington thus spoke to previous interpretations of the piece in a guest performance at New York's Birdland in 1951, and even then tore the audience out Gonsalves

It was intended Gonsalves accompanied arranged between the two parts of the play, only by the rhythm section of Jimmy Woode, Sam Woodyard and Ellington to flex his solo. JL Collier mentioned that out of sight of the audience, but near the stage where the band could see him, the Basie drummer Jo Jones sat and beat time with a rolled up newspaper. Ellington played at the end of the first part, a piano solo, so that Gonsalves had the opportunity to come forward. Paul Gonsalves began to blow and the audience reaction to movement showed. The band members were firing at him with cries of "Come on, Paul ... Hau rein, leg off!" " In the sixth chorus, there were shouts and clapping of hands, after a few more of the noise of the crowd had grown into a continuous roar, and large parts of the audience had stood. "[ Collier 8]

"About the seventh chorus suddenly ripped the tension that had built up both on stage and in the audience, since Duke took the piece. A platinum blonde girl in a black dress began to dance in one of the lodges, and a moment later someone started in another part of the audience also to dance "

" Here and there in the reduced, but still many-headed crowd stood on a pair and began to dance jitterbug. Within minutes turned the whole Freebody Park when he was struck by a thunderbolt. Photographers snap like crazy on the scene, where spectators clenched together, while Gonsalves, Ellington and the whole band, inspired by the reaction they had caused, gave everything what blazes the work. They thought it through twenty-seven Choruse. Hundreds of spectators climbed on their chairs to see the action. The band built the great arrangement of a never-ending climax, and the amount then sat limp, exhausted, wondering what the now could still follow "

Organizer George Wein had a certain point of the concert, the fear, the crowd gone wild could rampage, trying to Ellington act to end the event, but " once on board the triumphal march, with the crowd behind him, Ellington did not stop ", then wrote downbeat in his concert review. [ Collier 11] his answer to wine was only Do not be rude to the artists ( Do not be rude to the artists )

Gonsalvez came his solo subjectively not so long ago: The length is really determined by the play of the rhythm section and how to build up everything. The climax may come after five or ten choruses, but if you go beyond it, you destroy everything .. Later he was annoyed to be measured continuously in this solo - the audience demanded a repetition of similar length as on the Newport - plate, what it always was harder. In an interview he even claimed to have never heard the recording itself, and never to have possessed.

As the solo ended and Gonsalves which was completely exhausted, Ellington himself took over two choruses with a piano solo, before then the whole orchestra for a part of " Crescendo in Blue" returned; it ended with a high- note playing of trumpeter Cat Anderson.

To limit the amount bring down somewhat, Duke Ellington said now two quieter pieces on, connected with the sentence: ". If you've heard of the saxophone, then you've heard of Johnny Hodges ," Ellington's alto saxophonist known then played two of his best-known numbers, "I Got It Bad ( and That Is not Good ) ", followed by " Jeep 's Blues ". But the public wanted more; said Ray Nance brought his special song and dance number " Tulip or Turnip" after wine Ellington had once asked to stop.

He did not, and raised to the fast number " Skin Deep ", which was a composition by drummer Louie Bellson; Duke Ellington then goodbye to his audience with " Mood Indigo " and thanked the crowd with " ... wonderful way in Which you've inspired us this evening" and " You are very beautiful, very lovely and we do love you madly. " This was after ninety minutes the concert to an end. [ Collier 12]

The album

Edition of the album

The appearance in Newport brought Duke Ellington an enormous reputation and financial success for the rest of his life. [ Collier 13] Ellington at Newport was the best-selling disc of the band leader. [ Cook / Morton 1] The Duke Ellington Orchestra returned to Newport in 1958 and 1959 back; Columbia Records brought the concert recording out soon as a single album.

Only in 1996 was recognized after previously a tape recording of the Voice of America radio program had appeared in the Library of Congress that Columbia album of 1956 both with some live recordings as well as studio material (supplemented with artificially generated applause ) from this period had mixed. The reason given was that Ellington was not happy when it is blended with the live recorded through version of the Newport Festival Suite, because she had not rehearsed enough and the recording did not meet his quality standards; so he wanted a better version of the suite ( which had been taken directly after the festival ) to see published on the Columbia album, which producer George Avakian then did. [ Collier 14]

Avakian mixed then into the studio version parts of the live version, the applause was taken from the original, to cover the fact that Gonsalves by using the wrong microphone - he blew by mistake into the microphone of the radio station Voice of America [ Cook / Morton 2 ] - was often hard to hear. Therefore, the two mono recordings of the Voice of America and Columbia were reassembled with the help of digital technology in order to obtain a realistic stereophonic recording of this most famous Ellington appearance at the new edition of 1999. Now Gonsalves ' solo is easier to hear, and this also with the onset of the noise by the audience at the seventh or eighth chorus of the solo. [ Schaap 1]

While the original LP contained only three titles, the " Newport Jazz Festival Suite ", " Jeep 's Blues " and just Gonsalves ' 14 -minute " diminuendo And Crescendo in Blue", the new edition ten additional pieces such as " Sophisticated Lady ", " Black And Tan Fantasy, "" skin Deep "and" Mood Indigo "; after the concert recording follow the full, incurred by the next day studio -takes - a total of over an hour previously unreleased material [ Hyde 1].

Impact and the reception of the recordings

Given the fact that his career had changed so abruptly, Ellington later said: ". I was born at the Newport Jazz Festival " Columbia's release of the concert, Ellington At Newport, was by the critics as one of the greatest live recordings in jazz considered; but this was always held in the belief that in the present tracks if it were the actual recordings of the Newport concert, wrote the critic Gene Hyde 1999 Weekly Wire. [ Hyde 1]

The album sold by the biographer of Ellington, John Edward Hasse, with conditions in the hundreds of thousands that had not previously occurred at a jazz album, and remained Ellington's best-selling album. Columbia, whose producer Irving Townsend at the Newport Festival before appearing tied his first contacts with Ellington ( he later worked closely with Ellington together), offered Ellington, who had in 1955 left his record company Capitol, yet at the festival a very favorable record contract. He also received great artistic liberties with Columbia, which produced his records from that point on in the then new stereo technology, starting with the Newport album, which was reissued in simulated stereo.

Richard Cook and Brian Morton draw the Newport recording in their Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD with the highest rating of four stars out of ( "absolute essential Ellington "). They raised particular attention to the pioneering efforts of Paul Gonsalves, who exercised his solo strong influence on later saxophonist John Coltrane to David Murray. The authors also gave Gonsalves ' own interpretation for the concert event again: Contrary to existing theories of the influence of Jo Jones ( the rolled-up newspaper ) or the beautiful dancing blond in the audience who will have the saxophonist driven to ecstasy, Paul Gonsalves, its contribution overvalued and are as fundamental to its playful motivation to the strong cohesion of the band as well as the extraordinary achievements of Johnny Hodges in the previous "Jeep 's Blues ". [ Cook / Morton 3]

Also Hasse Hodges holds in Jeeps Blues for the actual climax of "musical zenith of the festival"

James Lincoln Collier recognizes in particular the performance of Paul Gonsalves ', his solo was certainly not a masterpiece of improvisation have been, "it was a solid jazz, piping hot, and it said something important about music, which - after a long night full of reflections of the modernists, after the elaborate design of Ellington Suite - encouraging eighth with four men and six minutes played the blues, ( and ) the store simply swept away. "[ Collier 15] also, the Ellington biographer Hans Ruland praises the legendary concert recording, " which - even if listeners are perhaps a little disappointed by today for purely musical reasons, - ( not only) a turning point in Ellington's history holds, but also one of the most exciting live recordings of jazz history ( is ), comparable only with Benny Goodman's also legendary Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, when Jess Stacy in " Sing, Sing, Sing", also unexpectedly, swung to a longer solo. Gonsalves like Stacy that you want to with the greatest respect rather belong to the second member, as had their finest hour ". [ Ruland 1]

"This is one of the exclusion of most recordings ," wrote the critic Gene Hyde to the complete edition of the concert, " a stunning, exuberant piece of history that reveals all its glory. " Only now we are in a position to "all the original concert so to hear how it had happened, filled with all the fun, the energy and brilliance of Ellington's band on this memorable evening. " The importance of this album to rise up " far beyond the wildest hopes of the ergebendsten Ellington fans. If it ever come to the inevitable canonization of Ellington, this concert will certainly regarded as one of his miracles evidence. "The author comes to the conclusion Ellington At Newport 1956 ( Complete) was" in any reasonable jazz collection indispensable. "[ Hyde 1]

The music magazine Jazzwise recorded the album in the list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World; Keith Shadwick wrote:

The title

Title of the original album

A-side

B-side

Title of complete CD Edition 1999

  • Black and Tan Fantasy ( Ellington / Mills )
  • Tea for Two ( Caesar / Youmans )
  • Take the ' A' Train ( Strayhorn )
  • Newport Festival Suite ( Ellington / Strayhorn )
  • Sophisticated Lady ( Ellington / Mills / Parish )
  • Day In Day Out ( Bloom / Mercer )
  • Diminuendo and crescendo in Blue ( Ellington )
  • I Got it Bad and That Is not Good ( Ellington / Webster )
  • Jeep 's Blues ( Ellington / Hodges )
  • Tulip or Turnip ( Ellington / George )
  • Skin Deep ( Bellson )
  • Mood Indigo ( Ellington )
  • Studio recordings (9 July 1956): I Got it Bad and That Is not Good ( Ellington / Webster )
  • Newport Festival Suite ( Ellington / Strayhorn )
  • Jeep 's Blues ( Ellington / Hodges )

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Comments

Footnotes / Sources

  • James L. Collier: Duke Ellington. Genius of Jazz. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-548-35839- X
  • Richard Cook / Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Sixth edition, Penguin, London, 2002
  • Arrigo Polillo: Jazz. History and personalities of African- American music. Beltz, Weinheim 2005, ISBN 3-407-77756-6
  • Hans Ruland Duke Ellington, Oreos Verlag 1983
Record label Genre Newport (Rhode Island) Black and Tan (film) Al Lucas (musician) Register (music) Birdland (jazz club) Leonard Feather Down Beat Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) David Murray (saxophonist) Johnny Mercer Coleman Hawkins J. J. Johnson Dick Katz Benny Moten Gus Johnson (jazz musician) Comédie en vaudeville
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