Jack DeJohnette

Three new shows from the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco are being released today on Concert Vault. Download all three and enjoy!

• Jack DeJohnette (10/10/75)
• Stephane Grappelli (3/19/76, 1st set)
• Carnival with Larry Blackshere & Bernard Primeau (10/10/75)

The very definition of a ‘multi-directional’ musician (a term he once coined to avoid being put into a stylistic box), drummer Jack DeJohnette showcases his openness and willingness to go in all directions on his October 10, 1975 appearance at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Leading an uncommonly flexible quartet (guitarist John Abercrombie, bassist Mike Richmond, saxophonist Alex Foster) capable of delving into the hot fires of fusion, then turning on a dime and heading into a swinging, straightahead scenario or a spacey free jazz setting, DeJohnette and his crew deliver a staggering, dynamic performance at the GAMH. And DeJohnette stretches artistically like never before, alternating between drums — the instrument he was so closely associated with during his potent tenures as a sideman with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis before branching out as a leader in his own right – as well as piano and even tenor saxophone on one song. Having been nurtured on Lloyd’s brand of so-called hippie jazz on such breakthrough albums as 1967’s Love-In and 1968’s best selling Forest Flower (in a quartet that also featured a new young pianist on the scene by the name of Keith Jarrett), DeJohnette conveys some of that jazz-meets-rock quality himself, performing material from his recent release at the time, the amazingly eclectic and remarkably powerful Cosmic Chicken on the Prestige labe. In lieu of this overlooked gem ever being reissued (to date it hasn’t even been made available on CD), check out the exhilarating live performance of this potent material at www.wolfgangsvault.com.

Fans of wah-wah and flange-fueled abandon (even on Richmond’s upright bass) will dig this daring set of exploratory music that captures a moment in time when jazz was white-hot, distortion-laced and Hendrix-inspired. Saxophonist Foster, a longtime regular in the Saturday Night Live band, delivers some blistering performances on tenor and alto while guitarist Abercrombie, whose fusion landmark Timeless (with DeJohnette and Jan Hammer) had just been released a few months earlier on the ECM label, turns in some ferocious six-string work that rivals John McLaughlin’s turbulent proto-punk onslaught on Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson or Tony Williams Lifetime’s Emergency! Highlights include the minimalist and meditative opener, “One for Devadip and the Professor,” written for guitarist Carlos Santana and DeJohnette’s former mentor, saxophonist Charles Lloyd, along with the throbbing 36-minute “Cosmic Chicken,” the folkish “The Vikings Are Coming,” which has DeJohnette shadowing Foster on tenor sax, the contemplative solo piano piece “Memories” and the boppish closer “Eiderdown,” an extended jam that gives everybody in the ensemble a chance to stretch out to the max.
– Bill Milkowski

[Drummer DeJohnette Branches Out at GAMH is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

• Freddie Hubbard Quintet – recorded at the peak of his powers, the trumpeter blew so forcefully through the upper registers here that this performance foreshadows the lip problems he would incur later in his career. The phenomenal drumming of Jack DeJohnette is another highlight of the set.
• The Wild Magnolias – in anticipation of next week’s celebrations, enjoy a set from this Mardi Gras tribe as they chanted and played their way through some New Orleans funk.
• Eddie Condon/Ben Webster Tribute Band – essentially a jam session between old friends and colleagues, we turn to the esteemed jazz writer Bill Milkowski to introduce this fantastic performance:

The latest batch of concerts from the Newport Jazz Festival archives comes from 1974, the third year since impresario George Wein brought his Rhode Island summer bash to New York City. Included in this batch is a special Carnegie Hall concert marking the passing of two longstanding friends of the festival – banjoist/guitarist and jazz ambassador Eddie Condon, who died on August 4, 1973, and the great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, who passed away a month after Condon on September 20, 1973. Friends and colleagues of both jazz giants assembled to pay tribute in song.

Condon’s cronies included his tenor playing partner from his early Chicago days, Bud Freeman, Swing era pianist Jess Stacy and drummer Cliff Leeman, rowdy hot jazz trumpeter Wild Bill Davison and jazz violin pioneer Joe Venuti (famed for his duets through the ‘20s and ‘30s with guitarist Eddie Lang). They all gathered with such kindred spirits as trumpeters Yank Lawson and Bobby Hackett, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Milt Hinton and Bob Haggart, pianist Ralph Sutton and New Orleans clarinet great Barney Bigard for this spirited Carnegie Hall send-off.

Condon was a pioneer of the aggressively swinging Chicago style of jazz during the 1920s, playing alongside such formidable figures as Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden and Frank Teschemacher. After relocating to the Big Apple in 1928, he became a ubiquitous figure on the New York scene for the next four decades as both a player and popular club owner (his East Side nightclub, Condon’s, was a favorite hang for Swing era players from its opening in 1945 to its closing in 1967). Condon was also a staunch advocate for jazz who hosted a series of nationally broadcast radio shows from New York’s Town Hall from 1944 to 1945. Condon’s autobiography, We Called It Music, published in 1948, is full of entertaining anecdotes about what really happens, both on and off the bandstand, in the nomadic lives of jazz musicians. It’s required reading for anyone looking to get a greater understanding of the early jazz years.

Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster (a.k.a. “The Brute” or “Frog”), a hugely influential figure in the history of jazz, is feted by fellow tough tenor player Illinois Jacquet in a daring trio setting with organist Milt Buckner and legendary drummer Papa Jo Jones. Webster was noted for his robust tone and rowdy, bar-walking style on uptempo numbers, but he also brandished a remarkably tender, warm-toned, breathy approach on ballads (most famously exemplified by his gorgeous reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge” on a 1941 recording with the Duke Ellington Orchestra). An expatriate since 1964 (he lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he attained national hero status in his final years), Webster was a frequent visitor to Wein’s Newport Jazz Festival from its early days in the idyllic Rhode Island resort town.

Both Condon and Webster were giants of their time, and Wein paid fitting homage to their memory with this joint tribute concert at Carnegie Hall on July 5, 1974.

[A Spirited Send-Off at Carnegie Hall is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

1974 Midnight Jam at Radio City Music Hall

In 1972, impresario George Wein moved his famous summer festival from its original location (since 1954) in the sunny, idyllic resort town of Newport on the banks of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island to the concrete jungle of New York City. Little did Wein know that bankruptcy was looming in the Big Apple (a bleak scenario depicted on the front page of an October, 1975 New York Daily News in the famous headline “Ford To New York City: Drop Dead,” addressing the president’s intention to veto any federal bail-out to save the city).

And yet, Wein made the best of things in his inaugural NYC run in 1972 as well as his sophomore outing in 1973. While retaining the trademarked name, the Newport Jazz Festival had infact become an urban bash in its new home base, with concerts staged in four of the five boroughs of the sprawling metropolis (and even some bands playing on the Staten Island ferry in a nod to the fifth borough). Looking to recreate the free flowing fun of his famous all-star jams at Freebody Park in Newport, Rhode Island, Wein put together a Midnight Jam at Radio City Music Hall in 1974 following a gala performance by pop diva Diana Ross. On hand for this inaugural all-star jam at spacious Radio City Music Hall (6,000-seat capacity) was a remarkably diverse cast led by Charles Mingus on bass, Freddie Waits on drums, Roland Hanna on piano, bebopper Howard McGhee on trumpet, Polish violinist Michael Urbaniak and a phalanx of tenor saxophonists in Eddie Daniels, Joe Farrell and Dewey Redman.

Using such timeless jamming vehicles as “All the Things You Are,” and a ballad medley that includes such familiar themes a “I Can’t Get Started,” Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” the plaintive “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be),” “My One and Only Love” and Ellington’s “I’ve Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good,” these jazz virtuosos stretch out considerably, to the delight of the Radio City crowd. Following a rousing finale of “On The Sunny Side of the Street,” featuring some ebullient piano work by the great Hank Jones and a formidable bass solo by Mingus, these Newport Jazz Festival fans went home in the wee hours with smiles on their faces and the spirit of swing in their hearts.

– Bill Milkowski

[Newport Jams at Radio City is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

• Larry Coryell & Foreplay
• Gerry Mulligan’s Age of Steam
• Charles Lloyd Quintet
  

After the notorious gate-crashing incident of 1971 — in which hordes of young people (some estimated their numbers near 10,000) folded over a 35-foot-wide section of fence and bum-rushed Festival Field shouting, “Music should be free!” — George Wein’s annual summer clambake was essentially finished at the idyllic resort community of Newport. But the savvy impresario kept the Newport Jazz Festival alive by relocating it to New York City in 1972, staging concerts at venues throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx (Yankee Stadium) and Queens (Shea Stadium). He even had music going on the Staten Island Ferry to have all five boroughs represented.

By 1973, Wein experimented with the Wollman Ampitheater in Central Park as a venue for afternoon concerts. That open air space, which currently holds the Wollman Skating Rink during the winter and the Victorian Gardens Amusement Park during the summer, was the site for a series of memorable concerts that year. The series kicked off on Friday afternoon (June 29) with Gerry Mulligan’s 18-piece Age of Steam ensemble, featuring such star soloists as trumpeters Art Farmer, Jimmy Owens and Jon Faddis, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, tenor saxophonists Frank Wess and Tom Scott and pianist Hank Jones (on Fender Rhodes). On the same bill that Friday afternoon were the Charles Lloyd Quintet and Gato Barbieri’s Latin America Sextet.

Saturday afternoon (June 30) was an all-star extravaganza billed as “Guitar Explosion,” featuring such stellar six-stringers as George Benson, Pat Martino, Jim Hall and Tal Farlow (who played duets together), Tiny Grimes, George Barnes, Chuck Wayne, Joe Puma, Roy Buchanan and fusion star Larry Coryell with his band Foreplay. Skipping Sunday, the Wollman series resumed Monday afternoon (July 2) with the Charles Mingus Quintet, Don Cherry and the Organic Music Theater, Professor Longhair, Snooks Eaglin and Milt Buckner. Tuesday afternoon (July 3) saw the Mose Allison Trio, Stan Getz Quartet, Marian McPartland Trio and Modern Jazz Quartet while on Thursday afternoon (July 5) the Wollman Ampitheater hosted the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sam Rivers Trio, Ray Barretto Orchestra and Archie Shepp Tentet. Friday (July 6) had Two Generations of Brubeck (featuring the Dave Brubeck Trio and the Darius Brubeck Ensemble), the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, Hubert Laws Septet and Carmen McRae, and the series finished up on Saturday afternoon with a drum extravaganza featuring Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Max Roach’s M’Boom, Randy Weston’s 18-piece African Rhythms Orchestra and a drum battle featuring Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Freddie Waits, Mel Lewis and Papa Jo Jones.

Though the Wollman Ampitheater series looms large in the memories of jazz fans who attended those concerts nearly 38 years ago, that outdoor venue was not used again by George Wein. Three of the performances from that summer of ’73 series at Wollman – Gerry Mulligan’s Age of Steam, Larry Coryell’s Foreplay and the Charles Lloyd Quintet — were captured back then and are now available for perusal at www.wolfgangsvault.com.

[Newport at Central Park, 1973 is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

The undisputed heavyweight champion of the Hammond B-3 organ, Jimmy Smith revolutionized the unwieldy instrument by bridging the gap between bebop and blues with his earthy virtuosity. Though he wasn’t the first to play organ in a jazz context (Fats Waller, Milt Buckner and Wild Bill Davis had been there before), Smith took the B-3 to places that it had never been before. Smith’s July 4th appearance at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival on a Saturday afternoon was typically burning, marked by his virtuosic right-handed flurries on the keys, his grooving basslines on the hulking 300-pound instrument and an indelible soulful quality that successfully bridged bebop and the church into one scintillating package.

[$4 Download Deal: Jimmy Smith Trio is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Two beloved figures in jazz, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie – trumpet kings from different generations – combined to lift spirits on a rainy Friday evening, July 1st on day two of the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival. Armstrong was a month away from his 59th birthday at the time of this gig while Gillespie was 42 years old. And both had long since put aside their differences that surfaced when Gillespie first hit the scene as the revolutionary bebopper back in 1945 with his virtuosic innovations alongside partner and kindred spirit Charlie Parker (which Armstrong disparaged as incomprehensible). Indeed, Satchmo and Diz had played “Umbrella Man” together the year before on tv as part of the 1959 “Timex All-Star Jazz Show” hosted by Jackie Gleason. Gillespie was later quoted in Down Beat magazine, summing up the influence of the elder Armstrong in succinct terms: “If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t be any of us.”

Before Gillespie opened the evening’s festivities at Freebody Park with his working quintet at the time, emcee Willis Connover, the golden-toned radio host from Voice of America, kicked off the proceedings by explaining to the Friday night Newport crowd the difference between a jazz audience and a rock ‘n’ roll audience: “A jazz audience sits, even in the rain, quiet, appreciative, intelligent. And the rock ‘n’ roll fan finds that he has absolutely nothing to do but sit there cutting up his seat with his knife. And of course, there is some difference in the music too.” And to demonstrate the difference, they brought up the winner of the 1960 Down Beat Critics Poll for trumpet, the one and only John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie.

Diz begins with biting sarcasm — “We’d like to thank you ladies and gentlemen for that tumultuous ovation. We sincerely thank both of you” – before launching into a brand new tune entitled “Norm’s Norm.” A swinger with a boppish bent, this upbeat offering features Leo Wright on a bracing alto sax solo. Gillespie’s solo is more deliberate, merely flirting with the stratospheric register that he lived in during his tenure on 52nd Street during the late ‘40s with his musical partner and eminent constituent, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker. Dizzy does eventually build to a bristling peak, flaunting his high-note prowess before giving way to Junior Mance’s boppish ebullience on piano. Next up is “Lorraine,” Gillespie’s musical portrait of his wife Lorraine Willis-Gillespie, who for years had been a grounding influence on the clown prince of bebop. A kind of Latin flavored march, it features Dizzy on muted trumpet blending contrapuntally with Wright’s floating flute lines as Al Dreares underscores the lovely tune on brushes.

A take on Jesse Stone’s blues and gospel-tinged original “I’m Going Fishing” brings out the entertainer in Dizzy, who charms the crowd with his inimitable good-humored vocals. Art Davis then kicks off Dizzy’s anthemic “A Night in Tunisia” with his grooving bass intro. This exceptionally swinging rendition of perhaps Gillespie’s most famous tune is highlighted by assertive solos from Dizzy himself (including the stunning trumpet break) and Wright on alto sax.

Shifting back to entertainer mode, Dizzy delights the Newport crowd once again with his jivey beatnik ditty “Oop-Shoo-Bee-Doo-Bee” (originally recorded with Joe Carroll on vocals in 1952). Diz is as humorous here as his trumpet solo is dazzling. Wright steps forward to deliver some beautifully lyrical flute work on the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves” in combination with Mance’s piano and Davis’s bass before the piece develops into a blues-drenched midtempo toe-tapper powered by Dreares’ deft shuffle swing pulse on the kit with brushes.
The Gillespie composition “Wheatleigh Hall,” which he first recorded in 1957 with sax titan Sonny Rollins, is a showcase for the tragically under-recorded and under-recognized bop drummer Al Dreares, a childhood pal of trumpeter Fats Navarro whose scant discography includes sessions with pianists Mal Waldron and Randy Weston, saxophonists Freddie Redd and Frank Strozier and trombonist Bennie Green. Dreares, whose playing is powerful and swinging throughout this set with Gillespie, unleashes some slickly syncopated playing on the kit here with both sticks and brushes, lighting a fire under the band with his insistent ride cymbal work while ‘dropping bombs’ on the bass drum. Gillespie is featured on a scorching muted trumpet solo on this exhilarating romp and Wright follows with some heat of his own on alto sax. Mance also turns in a dazzling piano solo against the surging pulse of Davis’ urgent upright bass lines and Dreares’ supple brushwork. Dreares then puts an exclamation point on this runaway jam with a dynamic, unaccompanied drum solo at the tag.

The influence of Mother Africa is readily apparent on Dizzy’s “Kush,” the entrancing 12/8 set-closer which he premiered at this 1960 Newport Jazz Festival and would document the following year on 1961’s An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, recorded live for Verve at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on February 9, 1961. He would also later record the decidedly African flavored number on 1967’s Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac for Impulse! Wright’s dazzling alto sax playing on this number is enough to spark memories of Gillespie’s erstwhile frontline partner Bird (who died five years earlier on March 12, 1955, just four months before the very first Newport Jazz Festival).

The iconic Satchmo follows with a typically swinging set from the 1960 edition of his All-Stars, featuring fellow New Orleans native and longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard, trombonist Trummy Young, pianist Billy Kyle and drummer Danny Barcelona along with bassist Mort Herbert. They open with Armstrong’s sentimental theme song, “When It’s Sleepy Town Down South,” a tune that perfectly captures the Big Easy ambiance of his hometown New Orleans. From that laid back number they smoothly segue into a blazing uptempo rendition of “Back Home in Indiana,” which has Armstrong blowing in peak form, hitting those high notes with clarity and gusto. Pianist Kyle, clarinetist Bigard and trombonist Young also turn in heated solos of their own on this spirited rendition of the classic jazz jam vehicle, which was first recorded in 1917 by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Next up is a relaxed New Orleans style reading of “The Bucket’s Got a Hole in It,” which has drummer Barcelona simultaneously providing a midtempo swing feel on the ride cymbal and a N’awlins flavored second line groove on the bass drum. Bigard takes a wonderful clarinet solo on this traditional number that was a hit in 1949 for country star Hank Williams and covered in 1958 by budding pop star Ricky Nelson. Young also engages Armstrong on some vocal trade-offs before taking a raucous trombone solo.

Barcelona’s drum flurry kicks off a runaway romp through “Tiger Rag,” a classic Dixieland jam vehicle first recorded in 1922 by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. The ensemble then launches into “Now You Has Jazz,” the show-stopping number from the 1956 Bing Crosby-Grace Kelly-Frank Sinatra film High Society, which Louis appeared in as himself. Everybody in the band gets a taste here, and for the triumphant vocal climax, Armstrong engages in playful call-and-response with Trummy Young (or as Louis calls him, “Bing Crosby in Technicolor”). They follow with the title track from that popular movie, a calypso flavored “High Society.”

“Ole Miss” is a classic Dixieland jam that explodes with collective improvisation from Young, Bigard and Armstrong. Bassist Herbert alludes to the Modern Jazz Quartet’s tune “The Golden Striker” at the beginning of his bass solo before Bigard extrapolates on the familiar theme in his extended clarinet solo. Young follows with an expressive trombone solo before Armstrong lets loose with one of his patented high-note trumpet solos that rises above the collective fray. At the outset of the easy midtempo toe-tapper “Girl of My Dreams,” Armstrong addresses the crowd: “Thank you, folks. We’re trying to get you out of this rain, we’re gonna keep it rollin’. Here’s our piano man Billy Kyle.” And with that introduction they head into the engaging number from 1927, which is essentially a showcase for Kyle’s deft ivory-tickling.

Clarinetist Bigard is next featured on a popular tune he recorded in 1942 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, “C Jam Blues.” Armstrong then returns to exercise his plaintive pipes on “Blueberry Hill,” a tune written in 1940 and covered that year by the Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Gene Krupa big bands before Satchmo’s orchestral version in 1949. (The tune became an international hit in 1956 for another New Orleans icon, Fats Domino). Armstrong and his All-Stars follow with a blazing uptempo rendition of the 1938 Charlie Shavers tune “Undecided,” which features scorching solos from trombonist Young, Kyle and Armstrong, who generates some sparks here. Bigard steps forward to announce another Ellington composition, “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” which turns out to be an extended feature for bassist Herbert, who carries the familiar melody from the outset before launching into a lengthy solo. The horns follow with some relaxed Dixieland-styled interaction on the front line and Herbert wraps it up with more deep tones on his upright.

Armstrong saves the crowd-pleasers for last, beginning with “Mack the Knife,” the Kurt Weill tune (from the 1928 musical The Threepenny Opera) which Satchmo popularized in his 1956 version. A surprising take on “Stompin at the Savoy,” a Swing Era staple associated with both the Chick Webb and Benny Goodman big bands, features an extroverted solo showcase by drummer Barcelona. Vocalist Velma Middleton joins the group for a medley of “St. Louis Blues/Kokomo I Love You So.” Showman extraordinaire Armstrong engages his vocal foil in some playful double entendre on this spirited medley (which gets particularly risqué on the calypso flavored “Kokomo”). The band runs through a swinging medley of “After You’ve Gone,” a 1918 composition that became a Swing Era staple during the 1930s, and the New Orleans standard “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In.” Then Armstrong bids the crowd adieu: “We had a wonderful time, even in the rain.” But it doesn’t end there. The band follows with a strangely reverent take on “The Star Spangled Banner” and for a finale the whole Newport crowd serenades Louis with a joyful rendition of “Happy Birthday” to mark his 60th birthday. (Armstrong claimed he was born on July 4th, 1900 but biographers later discovered that his New Orleans birth certificate revealed August 4, 1901 to be this actual date of birth).

A George Wein favorite, Armstrong would return to Newport on several occasions, including his 70th birthday gala (which will be upcoming on Wolfgang’s Vault).

[Satchmo and Diz Reign at Newport ‘60 is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

While the evening concerts were headlined by such wildly popular acts as the Dave Brubeck Quartet,  Louis Armstrong All-Stars, Oscar Peterson Trio, Horace Silver Quintet and Ray Charles Orchestra, some real hidden gems of the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival occurred in the less-attended afternoon lecture-demonstration sessions. On Friday afternoon, July 1, author Rudi Blesh narrated an enlightening history of stride piano with such illustrious piano professors as Eubie Blake, Donald Lambert and Willie “The Lion” Smith before a small crowd.

Saturday afternoon, July 2, saw a surprisingly brilliant performance by the Marshall Brown’s Newport Youth Band, featuring such 15-year-old killers as bassist Eddie Gomez, baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber, altoist Andy Marsala, pianist Michael Abene and drummer Larry Rosen. But a real rare treat came on Sunday afternoon, July 3, when author Langston Hughes (poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s) convened a group of prominent blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Otis Spann and James Cotton, to discuss, dissect and otherwise disseminate stories about this quintessentially African-American folk music.

A devout jazz fan who had chronicled the development of the music in his poems, plays, magazine and newspaper articles, Hughes was also something of a blues scholar with personal, first-hand anecdotes about blues pioneer W.C. Handy and the father of Harlem stride piano, James P. Johnson. Before a small assemblage at Freebody Park, Hughes spoke eloquently about the history and evolution of the blues before turning the stage over to his illustrious guests to provide earthy examples.

To begin the program, Mississippi-born McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters) demonstrates his signature blend of country blues from the Mississippi Delta and urban blues from Chicago in a series of tunes he performs with his working band, which consists of pianist Otis Spann, guitarist Tal Harris, harmonica ace James Cotton, bassist Andrew Stevens and drummer Francis Clay. They open with Muddy’s gutbucket “Catfish Blues,” a electrified Delta tune alternately known as “Rollin’ Stone” (cited by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the tune they named their band after). Pianist Spann then demonstrates three different kinds of blues — boogie woogie style, a slow blues and a jump blues — accompanied by the members of Muddy’s band.

After reflecting on numerous blues composers who enriched the music with their contributions, Hughes then focuses the audience’s attention on blues pioneer W.C. Handy, whose 1920 composition “St. Louis Blues” jump-started a musical movement in America. Hughes’ personal anecdotes about Handy are particularly illuminating while Spann demonstrates Handy’s classic tune with his typical flair on piano, alluding to a slight tango influence in the head of the tune before opening up to the looser shuffle groove in the middle section.

Following a demonstration of ‘blues dancing’ by Al Mims and Leon James, Hughes introduces bluesman John Lee Hooker, described as “one of the last of the real country blues singers.” Hooker runs through a string of Delta flavored tunes including “It’s My Own Fault, “Molly I Miss You So,” “Tupelo” and “I Wish You Were Here.” Langston Hughes returns to introduce pianist Sammy Price and his trio. They open with the spirited boogie woogie number “The Price is Right” and then Price introduces guitarist Lafayette Thomas, who sing the deep blue anthem by Guitar Slim, “The Things That I Used To Do.” Gospel vocalist Betty Jeanette then come front and center on a smoldering rendition of “The Birth of the Blues” and a soulful version of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”

Folklorist Harry Oster then takes the stage to introduce fiddler Butch Cage and guitarist Willie Thomas, two musicians he had discovered playing at dances and church services in Zachary, Louisiana and documented on a 1959 Arhoolie Record. They turn in such traditional blues numbers as “The 44 Blues” and “The Hard Archin’ Blues” as well as emotionally-charged spiritual offerings like “Pick Up the Slack and Hew the Line,” “He’s Got the Whole in His Hand” and “Trying to Get the Children Out of Pharoah’s Hand.” For a grand finale, the entire cast of this blues afternoon assembles on stage for renditions of of the slow blues “Mean Mistreater” and a raucous rendition of “I May Be Wrong But I Won’t Be Wrong Always” with former Count Basie vocalist Jimmy Rushing taking the lead.

Willis Connover, Newport Jazz Festival emcee and radio host for Voice of America in Europe, then closes the Sunday afternoon proceedings on a somber note, announcing that the board of directions of the Newport Jazz Festival had voted to accept the decision of the city council of Newport to suspend activities of the Newport Jazz Festival, beginning with the evening concert on July 3. “In other words, there will be no concert tonight or…again,” he told the stunned audience. This decision was made following a clash with students and police the preceding night (Saturday) that by all reports escalated into a full-scale riot. And while this disturbance took place not at Freebody Park where the festival was held but on the main drag in the city of Newport, council members nonetheless met on Sunday morning and voted 4-3 in favor of revoking the entertainment license of the Newport Jazz Festival. As Connover explained to the surprised Sunday afternoon crowd: “The board of directors deeply regret that the true jazz lovers were denied the opportunity to hear their favorite jazz musicians, due entirely to non-ticket holding outside the park.” He added, “I think it’s a shame that the Newport Jazz Festival has to be killed because a bunch of pseudo beatniks and rock ‘n’ roll escapees who had no interest in jazz, had no intention of coming to the concerts and were not inside the park at all, decided to use the Newport Jazz Festival weekend and the City of Newport as an excuse for giving vent to their healthy animal instincts in such a fashion as to qualify them for admission to a zoo rather than a school.” Connover adds, “It does seem to me that in attempting to cure the disease that infected the Newport Jazz Festival activities, they decided to shoot the patient without clearing up the germs.”

In his autobiography, Wein addresses the Saturday night clash with police that led to the cancellation of the festival: “I wasn’t aware of the dangerous situation brewing in the town. What I do know about the events outside Freebody Park I gleaned mostly from eyewitness accounts. Apparently, the madness that had been brewing in the streets for hours finally came to a head shortly after 7 p.m. when the police, learning that the show was sold out, attempted to clear the crowd. Many of the kids were already drunk from private stashes of beer. Among the visitors were college kids looking for kicks, and despite [Newport chairman of the board] Louis Lorillard’s attempted negotiations with the city, no attempt was made to keep them under control. Bars and liquor stores, ignoring a mandate from the governor of Rhode Island, stayed open as long as the money kept coming in.

“A large mob of inebriated kids – estimates ran anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 – began charging the Newport police force, hurling full cans and bottles of beer at them like grenades. The conflict erupted into a full-scale riot on Middleton Avenue, behind Freebody Park. Some of the kids tried to storm the festival gate, but were repelled; others tried scaling the stone walls surrounding the park. Fireman vainly attempted to disperse the crowd with hoses. The violent throng moved onto Memorial Boulevard. The mob then curled around onto Bellevue Avenue, smashing store and car windows along the way. Governor Christopher Del Sesto, informed by phone of the situation, ordered the deployment of state troopers.”

And with that, the Newport Jazz Festival was dead. Sunday night concerts that year were cancelled. And there was no festival at all in 1961. After a year on the shelf, George Wein would convince the city council of Newport to reinstate the Newport Jazz Festival in 1962.

[Newport ‘60: Jazz, Blues …Riots is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Some of those great artists premiered that timeless material at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival. We at Wolfgang’s Vault are fortunate to have tapes of several concerts performed during that pivotal fifth year of George Wein’s annual bash at Freebody Park in Rhode Island, including thrilling sets turned in by the orchestras of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton. We have a fiery Fourth of July concert by hard bop icon Art Blakey with his classic Jazz Messengers lineup of Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass. We have George Shearing premiering a 15-piece orchestra as well as brilliant sets by the Horace Silver Quintet, Erroll Garner Trio, Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Ahmad Jamal Trio (riding high on the success of “Poinciana” from their hugely successful live album of the previous year, But Not for Me: Live at Pershing Lounge). We’ve also got a rare set by Monk with an unusual rhythm tandem of bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor, a scintillating concert by vocalese pioneers Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and another led by the charismatic Swing Era drumming legend Gene Krupa. And last but not least, there’s a smoking set by the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Hammond B-3 organ, Jimmy Smith. It’s all coming to you in mid November, available for streaming and downloads at www.wolfgangsvault.com.

[The Best Year Ever! is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

First, the tapes are retrieved from storage at Iron Mountain (in either the limestone caves in upstate New York or another holding facility in New Jersey) and brought to the Manhattan headquarters of Wolfgang’s Vault, where digital conversion and mastering takes place. In the case of the recent acquisition of the entire Newport Jazz Festival audio and video archives (spanning from 1954 to 1976), that means nearly 5,000 pieces shipped by truck on shrink-wrapped carts from New Jersey across the Hudson River to their new home at 7th Avenue and 29th Street. “They shrink wrap all the tapes to protect them for jostling on the trip and, more importantly, from humidity, which is the big enemy of magnetic tape,” says Peter Lockhart, who is overseeing the Newport Jazz Festival project at Wolfgang’s Vault.

The tapes are then placed on several shelves in a humidity-controlled room on the fifth floor where the temperature remains a constant 68 degrees. Generally, with archival projects like this one, tapes often have to be baked in expensive ovens at 125 degrees for 12 hours to preserve them. As Lockhart explains, “With older tapes, particularly those from the ‘70s and the ‘80s, the glue that binds the backing to the magnetic tape breaks down, which can cause the tape to stick to the heads on the machines so that they won’t play. But because so many of these older Newport tapes from the ‘50s and ‘60s are acetate, we didn’t have to bake them.”

The next task is assessing the treasure trove of tapes to see what is actually there and what obstacles might be encountered during the digital transfer process. The sizes of the tapes range from 1/4” mono or stereo recordings to 1/2” 3-track and 4-track to 1” 8-track, all of varying speeds. “We have so many different formats, each with a different set of parameters from an archival standpoint and a transferring standpoint,” says Lockhart. The digital conversion process is being done on Macintosh computers using Logic Pro and the analog recordings are being captured in 24 bit at 192K (a significant improvement in the quality of the digital conversion process from the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio archives, which was done two years ago at 24 bit at 96K). “The whole idea of it is to make as accurate a transfer as possible, to take those gorgeous analog recordings and transfer them to digital without losing the color and dynamics of the original,” says Lockhart.

Up on the ninth floor, a busy crew of eight audio engineers begin meticulously converting the reel-to-reel analog tapes to digital. At this point, very little may be known about what is actually on each tape. Some years of the Newport Jazz Festival have more detailed information on the tape boxes than others. Generally, the main artist is listed on the outside of the box. Occasionally, sidemen may be listed along with the headliner, and there may even be some incidental information about song titles. Each individual tape is its own unique mystery, presenting something of a puzzle to solve. With keen ears and a certain amount of sleuthing (including trips to the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center to look up old issues of Down Beat on the microfilm machines to read reviews of the Newport Jazz Festivals from yesteryear), the song titles and personnel are determined. At that point, the music is ready for mastering, one of the final steps in the process. Each individual artist is given a designated spot on the Wolfgang’s Vault website, and those performances at the Newport Jazz Festival are then duly annotated on the site by Bill Milkowski, a veteran jazz journalist and longtime contributor to Jazz Times magazine as well as the author of “Rockers, Jazzbos & Visionaries” (Billboard Books) and “JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius” (Backbeat Books).

“We’re going to transfer everything,” say Lockhart of the recent treasure trove of tapes to arrive at Wolfgang’s Vault. “Everything is going to get preserved and digitized. And as the process goes on, we’re learning more and more about exactly what we have in the archives. And some very interesting things are coming to light.”

Along with recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival, the archives also includes tapes from other George Wein’s enterprises such as the Longhorn Jazz Festival (a short-lived festival held in Austin during the mid ‘60s), the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (specifically from 1978), the Paris Jazz Festival (from 1960) and the Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France (from the early ‘60s).

Stay tuned. The first bits of music from the Newport Jazz Festival will be up this fall (beginning with 1955, George Wein’s second annual clambake in Rhode Island).

[Digging Deep in the Vault is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

It was the year that Charlie Parker, Albert Einstein, James Dean and Shemp Howard died. It was also the year that future musicians Eddie Van Halen, Steve Earle, Billy Idol, Yo-Yo Ma, Angus Young, Dee Snider and Rosanne Cash were born, along with future actors Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, Jane Kaczmarek (Lois on Malcolm in the Middle), Ray Liotta, Billy Bob Thornton, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Daniels, Bruce Willis and Gary Sinise. Future politicians Mike Huckabee and Nicolas Sarkozy were born in 1955, as were future world’s richest man Bill Gates and future assassin Mark David Chapman. Premiering on tv that year were The Honeymooners, Gunsmoke, Captain Kangaroo and The Mickey Mouse Club while the top grossing film of 1955 was Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. And the downtrodden Brooklyn Dodgers finally emerged victorious over the dreaded New York Yankees to be crowned champions of the 1955 World Series.

In the midst of all of those births and deaths and tail fins and Dodger wins, impressario George Wein threw his second annual clambake, this time in Freebody Park, a large municipal playground behind the Newport Casino. He invited a few of his friends to this three-day affair, many of whom had been playing at Wein’s Storyville Club in Boston since the club’s inception in 1950.  On Friday evening, there was the Erroll Garner Trio, a quintet fronted by trumpeter Roy Eldridge and tenor sax legend Coleman Hawkins along with vocalist and Wein protege Teddi King, the Woody Herman Orchestra and the great Louis Armstrong with his well-traveled All-Stars. Saturday night saw stellar performances from separate quartets led by Lee Konitz, Chet Baker and Dave Brubek and the amazing Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintets in one of their last public performances (shortly before Brown and pianist Richie Powell were killed in a car accident while riding home from a gig). Sunday kicked into high gear with the Modern Jazz Quartet, a Count Basie sextet featuring tenor sax great Lester Young, the Billy Taylor Trio with bassist Bill Reuther and the great drummer Papa Jo Jones, along with rousing performances by tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, trombonists J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding and a return to the stage by Basie with his full orchestra, featuring Joe Williams on vocals.

But the real buzz of the ‘55 festival was Miles Davis, who made a dramatic comeback to the scene after battling a terrible heroin addiction that had sidelined him for some time. In the midst of all of this incredible talent and these memorable performances, it was Miles’ dramatic reading of Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight” (in a sextet with Monk himself on piano, Zoot Sims on tenor sax, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax, Percy Heath on bass and Connie Kay on drums) that captivated both critics and fans alike. This heroic performance was one for the ages. As Wein wrote in his recent autobiography, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music (Da Capo):

“Because of his late addition to the festival, Davis’ name wasn’t event printed in our program book. But his presence was felt that night. The clarity of his sound pierced the air over Newport’s Freebody Park like nothing else we heard onstage that year. It was electrifying for the audience out on the grass, the musicians backstage and the critics — some of whom had opined that Miles’ career was already over. The fact that his comeback took place on the Newport stage helped to validate the festival among the jazz elite. In this way, it was a good night for both of us.”

[1955: It Was a Very Good Year is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]