Duke Ellington At Newport 1956

Ellington At Newport is a famous live album by Duke Ellington and his band. It was recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956 and was released later the same year.

In 1999, a CD was released that brought us the complete recordings spread over two CDs together with some bonus songs.

By the 1950s, big bands had gone out of fashion and Duke Ellington no longer had a recording contract. This re-energised his career and is one of the most famous “live” jazz albums.

The most famous part of the album is the 27 bar saxophone solo in Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue by Paul Gonsales and that was recorded into the wrong microphone, going out to Voice of America listeners but not properly captured on the Columbia recording. It obviously needed to be fixed.

It turns out that the original At Newport album was not as we thought. It’s said that only about 40% of the album came from the live performance with the remainder recreated in the studio to correct playing and recording problems and with crowd noise mixed back in to create the live atmosphere.

Modern recording techniques finally meant that the performance could be recreated from the original tapes of both of the recordings made for Columbia Records and the Voice Of America radio show and that’s what happened in 1999 when the CD emerged.

Duke Ellington At Newport

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Songs On Ellington At Newport

Side A

Festival Junction – 10:08
Blues to Be There – 8:04
Newport Up – 5:33

Side B

Jeep’s Blues – 5:12
Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue – 14:56

Songs On Ellington Complete At Newport

Disc: 1

1. Star Spangled Banner
2. Father Norman O’conner Introduces
3. Black And Tan Fantasy
4. Duke Introduce Cook & Tune
5. Tea For Two
6. Talk About The Festival
7. Take The A Train
8. Duke Announces Strayborn’s A Train & Nance/Duke Introducess
9. Part I -Festival Junction
10. Duke Announces Nance & Procope
11. Part Ii-Blues To Be There
12. Duke Announces Nance & Procope
13. Part Iii-Newport Up
14. Duke Announces Hamilton,Gonsalves & Terry/Duke Introduce Car
15. Sophisticated Lady
16. Duke Announces Grisson & Tune
17. Day In,Day Out
18. Duke Troduce Tune(S) And Paul Gonstaves Interludes
19. Diminuendo In Blue And Crescendo In Blue
20. Announcements,Pandemonium
21. Pause Track

Disc: 2

1. Duke Introduce Johnny Hodges
2. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
3. Jeep’s Blues
4. Duke Calms Crowd,Introduces Nace & Tune
5. Tulip Or Turnip
6. Riot Prevention
7. Skin Deep
8. Mood Indigo
9. Studio Concert
10. Father Norman O’connor Introduces Duke Eillington To
11. Part I- Festival Juncion
12. Duke Announces Soloists:Introduxe Part Ii
13. Part Ii-Blues To Be There
14. Duke Announces Nance & Procope,Introduces Part Iii
15. Part Iii-Newport Up
16. Duke Announces Hamilton,Gonsalves & Terry/Pause/Duke Introd
17. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
18. Jeep’s Blues
19. Pause Track

For more details see Wikipedia.

What Other People Say

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Buying Ellington At Newport

It is available from Amazon.comAmazon.co.ukiTuneseBay

The mp3 of the original album is available at a bargain price from Amazon (at the time of writing) and the extended version is also available as an mp3 but it’s not well linked to the CDs. I think the extended version is the one to get.

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