Ellington At Newport

Recorded at the 3rd annual Newport Jazz Festival, on July 7, 1956, Ellington at Newport - both the performance itself and the subsequent LP release - singlehandedly revitalized the career of the greatest big band leader in the history of Jazz. By the mid-1950s Duke Ellington was one of the few leaders still touring with a big band which proved to be, for the most part, an unsuccessful endeavor; He was often forced to pay the band out of his own pocket just to keep it going. Ellington at Newport changed all that as the group was the absolute hit of the festival; a performance that culminated in a stunning, 27 bar solo from tenor man, Paul Gonsalves, during "Diminuendo in Blue And Crescendo in Blue" which had the crowd whooping and dancing in the aisles. This double LP on Doxy brings back into print one of the most important live performances of the Duke's storied career. Dig in.