Friday Night Jazz: Newport Jazz Live

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This is truly a Friday Night Jazz: Via the NYT, we learn that Wolfgang’s Vault has a substantial collection of pristine audio recording from the Newport Jazz Festival.

Some of the recordings will blow you away — I suggest the Count Basie concert, but all 3 are excellent (free registration required).

There is also Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1959) and Dakota Staton (1959).

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Thank me after you’ve listened to some of these gems . . . more stuff after the jump

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Source:
Historic Sounds of Newport, Newly Online
BEN RATLIFF
NYT, November 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/arts/music/11vault.html

Featured Artists

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  Count Basie & His Orchestra 07.02.1959
  One of the most important figures to come out of the Swing Era, Count Basie presided with regal authority for 50 years over a dynamic big band that defined the art of group swing. This 1950s edition of the Count Basie Orchestra, sometimes known as the “new testament” band, was running smoothly on all cylinders in this dynamic show. The uncanny tightness in the horn section provides maximum punch, and vocal performances by Joe Williams and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross complement the band beautifully. This was easily one of the most invigorating and memorable sets of the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival.
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  Dakota Staton 07.03.1959
  A wonderful interpreter of ballads as well as an inveterate swinger, Miss Dakota Staton is one of those singers from the 50s who seems to have fallen through the cracks of time. And while she may not be as widely regarded today as jazz vocal legends like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, the sheer expressive power of her voice is undeniable and her dramatic delivery as compelling as her tough, sassy stage presence. Staton’s scintillating performance at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival was one of the highlights of that Saturday evening.
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  The Jazz Messengers 07.04.1959
  A dynamic presence and charismatic personality who led his hard-swinging ensembles from the drum set, Art Blakey was a widely respected figure in jazz for nearly 50 years. A super talent scout as a well as an exciting player on the bandstand, he recruited scores of emerging talents into the ranks of The Jazz Messengers over the years. The lineup that Blakey brought to the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival on July 4th included the stellar young trumpet sensation Lee Morgan (just six days shy of his 21st birthday at the time of this gig), bassist Jymie Merritt, pianist Bobby Timmons and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley.

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click thru to Vault, then click PLAY for streaming concert

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