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The 50th Anniversary edition of “Dizzy Gillespie at Newport” is another one of those CD re-issues that adds enough new material to make it a significant improvement over the original. The original version of “At Newport” did not include the songs that Gillespie’s band performed with Mary Lou Williams that day, those songs instead showed up on a split EP with Count Basie. This 50th Anniversary edition brings all the songs together and you can now hear the entire show, although the songs are not in the right order as they happened that day.
This CD opens up with the six tunes that comprised the original LP and contain some of the hottest playing you will ever hear from Dizzy and his band, or anyone else for that matter. Unlike the swing based bands of Ellington, Basie and others, Dizzy’s band was the be-bop big band; their tempos were fast, their unison lines a blur of speed and their solos displayed a new formidable modern technique. The opening tune “Dizzy’s Blues” busts out of the gate with Dizzy leading the charge with an incredible fiery hot solo relentlessly pushing the beat forward. Wynton Kelly’s jagged piano backup adds to the beautiful chaos. Dizzy tended to gear his shows towards the general public, not just die hard jazz fans, so there is always an upbeat easy going crowd pleasing nature to his shows, along with a good dose of humor. Whether or not Gillespie’s humor gets to be too silly or over done sometimes is a matter of taste.
The rest of the five tunes from the original LP are all good with “School Days” being a sure crowd pleaser with Dizzy doing silly school boy raps over a jump blues/rock-n-roll beat. “Manteca” is intense Latin jazz and “Cool Breeze” brings back the fast energy of the opener. The following tunes on this CD feature the cuts with Mary Lou Williams that were originally released as a separate EP back in the 50s. Apparently these were actually the opening tunes at the concert and present a totally different side of the band. William’s set opens with her ambitious three part “Zodiac Suite” which has the band digging into difficult and exotic 3rd stream type arrangements. This era of early big band experimentation produced some very interesting, almost naïve at times, creations and William’s odd “Suite” is no exception. The rest of this CD is made up of two more well known Latin flavored numbers.
What a great idea to bring the two original separate records of this concert together onto one CD. You get some excellent variety on here with the high brow and ambitious “Zodiac Suite” contrasting with the good times rockin energy of the other cuts. Besides Dizzy, some other great soloists on here include Al Grey on trombone, Pee Wee Moore and Benny Golson on sax, and Lee Morgan on trumpet.
On an interesting side note, Gillespie's 57 appearance at Newport came one year after Ellington’s big band smash success at the festival in 1956. No doubt Ellington’s success was an influence on Gillespie’s presentation as there are some interesting similarities including a three part suite followed by some crowd pleasing bluesy early rock-n-roll back beat.