AH! The Newport Jazz Festival! Just when I start getting burned out listening to navel gazing on ECM records, I get a shot of adrenalin like these reissued (and new) recordings from various Newport shows from people who know how to swing it like a gate!
Duke Ellington had his career rejuvenated at Newport when he let 
Paul Gonsalves blow 27 famous choruses during “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” at the 1956 Newport Jazz fest. That album is reissued here, but the one you really want is the remastered version, also available. Why? Well, it was discovered that the poorly mic’d tenor sax of Gonsalves’ 
excursion was due to the fact he was playing in front of the wrong pickup. The pair of microphones have been put together for a full sounding stereo show which adds color to the previously black and white show. Also, all the “live” music is here, as much of the original album was actually recorded in the studio. So, you get warts and all, like Johnny Hodges’ fluff of “I Got It Bad” but also his wonderful lilt on “Jeeps Blues.” Ray Nance almost steals the show with singing, mugging and horn playing, while the classic reed team of Gonsalves, Hodges, Hamilton and Procope make silk sheets of sound.
The 1958 Newport fest had Ellington riding high. He brings Mahalia Jackson up stage for a ‘drop to your knees’ version of “Come Sunday,” while the congregation gets rolling down the aisles as Cat Anderson impersonates Gabriel on “El Gato.” Fun and rare stuff like “Prima Bara Dubla” and “Hi Fi Fo Fum” are the reasons that people would love to see Duke in these settings, but material like “Juniflip” and “Mr Gentle and Mr Cool” still sounds hip and is it were written yesterday. Who is as exciting as this band nowadays?
Speaking of Newport 1958, Dave Brubeck’s “classic” quartet of Paul Desmond/as, Gene Wright/b and Joe Morello/dr deliver a tasty tribute to Duke Ellington during the that Jazz Fest. Morello shows his wares on what is essentially a drum solo version of “C Jam Blues,” and Brubeck goes for the proverbial “it” on a stretched out “Perdido.” Brubeck’s own “The Duke” fits right in here, and Desmond floats like a butterfly on “Flamingo” and as down and dirty as the dapper man can get on a cooking “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.” A real treat, since Brubeck grew up on most of these songs, and you can feel the sounds come through his pulse.
Lionel Hampton, if nothing else, knows how to work up a crowd. The only member of the famed Benny Goodman Quartet to change with the times, he held his own against the likes of Rich, Tatum and Mingus throughout his wonderful career. Here, he does what he does best-BOOGIE! With a band boasting the likes of Snooky Young, Joe Newman, Al Grey, Frank Foster, Jerome Richardson and George Duvivier, you get music with the subtlety of the Enola Gay. Rousing barn burners like “Flying Home” and “ Hey Baba Rebop” will get the juices jumping. With electric guitarist Billy Mackel, Hampton tears through “Greasy Greems” like Crisco, but also shows he can be as sensitive as a baby’s bottom on a luscious display on “Tenderly.” Music for all eternity!
Ella in 1973 had lost a tad in her vocal strength, but made up for it with more emotion and feeling. She’s found here in a setting with Tommy Flanagan’s band and in a piano duet scene as well as closing the set with a big band that wails with her on a Kansas City laden “Any Old Blues”. The duets with Ellis Larkins are agonizingly intimate, with “You Turned the Tables on Me” a wowser, and her pop tunes with Flanagan include “I Gotta Be Me.” The intro by Carmen McRae is an extra delight. Not absolutely essential, but a joy nevertheless.