[Today: The Duke takes Newport...]
Some birthdays are divine, and my father-in-law Ed happens to have one of those. You see, my in-laws (wonderful people) live in Newport, RI, and the week of Ed’s birthday coincides every year with the Newport Jazz Festival. I married well.
Before I met Ed and Judy I was warned that Ed liked to quiz his guests about Jazz trivia and the P advised me to brush up on – in particular – my familiarity with Ellington At Newport. This album was recorded at the Duke’s legendary 1956 festival performance – during which Paul Gonsalves sax solo’d through 27 straight choruses of ‘Dimenuendo and Crescendo in Blue’. It seems these facts (song and soloist) were stumper favorites of Ed’s. Thusly tipped off, I spent plenty of time reading up on and listening to the show and getting my facts squared away.
Fast forward to my first evening in Newport, sitting around the dinner table with P’s whole family. Armed with every conceivable angle on the Gonsalves/Dimenuendo thing, I’m laying in wait for Ed to start firing some trivia at me. We enjoyed a lovely salmon dinner with plenty of lively chatter of all sorts, including talk about the Festival and Jazz in general. But as luck would have it, Ed never threw his famous query my way.
The P and I head out today for another Jazz Festival (happy birthday Ed!), and another round of nice dinners on the porch with plenty of wine and good conversation. The obligatory jazz record (Ben Webster or possibly Chet Baker) will no doubt come cascading through the front screens, and the humidity will be unbearable (it always is while I’m there). But I wouldn’t trade those evenings for all the breezes off Hanalei Bay. And who knows, maybe this is the year that Ed will finally ask me who played that famous solo at the 1956 Festival…
Listen: Take The “A” Train
Tags: Duke Ellington, Ellington At Newport, Jazz, Newport RI, Paul Gonsalves
8 August 2007 at 9:52 am |
gonsalves’ solo on this recording makes this one of the first 10 jazz cds anyone discovering jazz should buy. i remember the first time i heard it on KCSM — a station that makes their broadcasts available on the internet, by the way. i was driving into the City on 280 from the peninsula. i called their morning dj — the charming and brilliant alissa clancy — and she hooked me up with the knowledge necessary to make an impromptu stop at the tower on columbus later that same day.
this is simply one of the most important recordings ever captured at newport. dk, your ability to share music with the world through the filter that is your life never ceases to amaze. enjoy your trip to RI with the P.