Soul Rebirth: Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue - Duke Ellington & his Orch., 1956 - Newport, R.I. 

RDDYĎĎDĎWE

This should have gone on those gold records we sent up with the Voyager deep-space probes.

You are absolutely correct.

You are absolutely correct!

Agreed

You have company and I do not cry easily.

Same here

I cry, too. There are few live performances where you hear an established legend resurrect his/her career, and bring a mildly polite audience to the heights of elatation. ALthough it sounds like Gonsalves forgot where the mic was a couple times, so the sound levels vary it's all part of the divine madness. So glad this was recorded.

Definitely a huge factor. Sounds like a combination of all things, not to under-state the lady dancer: dancers always help fire up a crowd. And then probably they were drinking -- something. Sounds like a wild, great time!

The backbeat Will talk to ya!

Yeah!--in 1956 I was 2 years out of high school and my sister and I jived to this at a live performance in a small town. In summer, the arena had a wooden floor which was great for dancing and the concert was sold out. Half way through Gonsalves solo I looked around and other dancers were stopping to watch us. Eventually, there were enough to form a circle around us. Brought my Ellington LP and had as many as I could sign the cover. Sigh--Bob

Who played Double Bass and Clarinet and Trombone in this historic performance?

Elaine?

Without question!

❤there’s no other piece of jazz like it. The Best Ever!!!!

sclogse1 I am shedding tears too my brotha....such joy!

@@michaelscott7462 Such ecstasy.

Yes! I know EXACTLY what you mean!

THIS Was My Daddy's Favorite Piece Of Jazz Music 🎵🎶 Of ALL Time!!! I Think Of Him When I Hear It. With Tears In My Eyes

Me too! Every time the tears start to fall.

Had the pleasure of traveling with Ellington the last 2 years of his life and then with Mercer directing for years after. Paul was truly amazing musician on tenor as was the whole band. What an experience. Were you at Carnegie for the Black Brown Beige 2nd concert?

@@jerehilton3282 wow!! What was it like to hang out with Duke Ellington?? He must have been a fascinating human being even outside of the spotlight! 🙌

I wondered if that's Louis Armstrong. I'm such a baby! 🔥

Paul wasn't even blowing into the correct mic! 😀

Totally agree! The Paul Gonsalves solo was a once-in-a-lifetime performance, but for me, the real thrill in this piece comes at roughly 13:30, when the band lets out all the stops and pandemoniously romps to the finish. How could you stay seated for that??

So true.

The 2 CD set has copious notes. It all boiled down to Paul G. using the VOA microphone INSTEAD of the Columbia Records microphone. The following Monday, this mistake made itself known in NYC. Duke and the band tried to fix it in the studio (pretending to be in Newport); the results were not the best. It was a stroke of genius to use digital editing to make two separate recordings into one, as the VOA and Columbia recordings were completely separate.

I've always said that, the way he stirred and pulsed and flat-out rode that groove, Sam Woodyard was *born* to play *this* way on *that* night at *that* place at *that* time. I guess the same could be said for Paul Gonsalves. If every last planet didn't align before Duke and the band took the stand, by God, he, Sam and Paul sure as heck lined 'em all up in the span of 27 choruses on July 7, 1956 that defy any worded description.

Indeed I was

No kidding, SwingMan! I was born in Newport...but it was a few summers after this show. I have heard a few people talk about this performance, though...that were actually there! One of those truly magical moments...very rare, very rare. Apparently, there was quite a beautiful young woman in crowd... I've heard her referred to as a gorgeous blonde Goddess, without the slightest hint of facetiousness in the storyteller's tone, who was swept up in the immediacy and the exuberance of the music, and truly danced as if no one was looking. She began first among the crowd, in the audience, then somehow, there she was, up on the stage! Sheer joy caught up in the ecstacy of Duke's music...and more precisely, Paul Gonsalves's rapturous solo - as the Duke called on him to keep hitting that groove...for 27 choruses! Wow! Too much, man - that is just incredible. And the crowd was alive, everyone was up n'dancin' now...you could see the groove ripple through the crowd like wind cutting the water - first slicing this way, then cuttin' that way. Duke blew his mind, man...he had the biggest #$%-eating grin on his face the band members had ever seen on the boss. Wow again! I wish I could have seen that! Now that I am thinking back to hearing the stories as a boy...in our kitchen, or over to my uncle's house down the block...or wherever...on the radio and tv, even, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone who was actually there call that performance anything less than magical.

Mr Coleman Hawkins , Ben Webster were also still alive ! Though Paul Gonsalves did make "his lifes solo" round thet midnight ..!

greatest!!

THAT, is fascinating as hell ( forgive the french ) You mention that you didn't really know who she was.. That's to bad, huh? Betcha would have enjoyed hearing her memories from that night 😉. Thx for sharing that, PfB~

Me too, it was the greatest bar none.

I saw a video of Dukes later band doing a funk tune or the tenor guy was soloing on a funk vamp. Duke was swaying and urging him on! Early rock &roll used Coltrane and Jacquet to honk and squeal. The Blues uses 3 chords but 12 or 16 bars. Parker, Rollins, Trane, Dizzy, Miles were consummate Blues players. Gonçalves interjects bop phrases which for the studied player are substitutions or addition of chords . Gonçalves was a very studied musician with a high harmonic sense. But this is pure entertainment not commercial armed with drenching blues basic to complex. Like you said he drew from his life experience which is the essence of [Art] music.

Ain't it the truth!

Nonsense! Paul had previously asked Duke if he could play the "Wailing Interval" back in 1950. Even he couldn't create that solo in an instant.

@@oleflogger6828 - it's a blues. He could have played 50 choruses long before he ever heard the tune. But discographies do list a couple of live performances he played on before this one, in 1951 and 1953.

Standard 12 bar blues progression, so def not the first time he jammed that progression. Phenomenal in the moment soloing.

BigSpiderback

The only person who i'd say had a better rhythm section was Count Basie, simply because they defined what it means to swing (literally). Whereas duke was more focused on what the horns could do with their sound.

It's fun to talk about the best, but dangerous to leave out so many heroes. But indeed Basie's American all Star rhythm section with freddie green, Jo 'papa' Jones and Walter 'Big Un' Page were extremly defining the 'new' sound of big bands late 30's But so many sections where so inspiring, hard swingin' and threw in their influences, think john kirby, jimmy blanton, ray brown, big sid, sonny greer, krupa, baby dods, chick webb or even Lester pushing rhythm sections...

Well maybe Basie’s

People have rightly praised Sam Woodyard. I would just put in a word for the bassist. No let up from him either!

Thank you so much for the kind words, Paul. :) Brother, do I ever hear ya on being born way too late. September, 1971 here and my main bag is authentic, hardcore big band swing - been collecting 78s since I was 14 years old and I never feel nearly at home as i do with good jazz & swing. When I answer folks who ask me about why I search out 78s, I just say "I'm an old swing head - gotta have it if I can get it." ;) Yeah, I wish I had better resources for the pictures. I snagged, online, every last picture I could find of Duke and the band and Elaine Anderson I could find to try to paint as accurate a picture as I could of this otherworldly 15 minutes of time from a hot summer night in 1956. Just about all that's missing is an image of Papa Jo Jones in the wings at stage left, behind Duke, batting out time with a rolled-up newspaper while Gonsalves was in the early stages of his solo - but how the heck could anyone who had a camera take their attention away from Paul's outpouring? The man **really** poured out everything in his soul here. And the rhythm section was the very Super Chief he needed. I've said it many times about this performance, but it's like Duke, Paul, drummer Sam Woodyard and the bass man (can't remember his name off-hand) were **born** to play **this way** at **this time** for *that long** . And because of it, more than 7,000 souls were re-born that night.....

@@SwingMan1938 "Kind words" you bet! Delv it out when it's due. The more guys that do what you do keep it all alive which is SO important and guys like me appreciate it. Didn't make it in '56 however used to stomp Providence every Monday night by going to Bovi's Tavern. Anyone in the area would stop in and jam for 2 sets. Then between those sets, we'd go across the street to the Weenie Establishment ( the name escapes me ) and fill every pocket we had with Hotdogs and get back just in time for the 2nd set. Ah well, I digress.. but perhaps someone out there remembers. Learning about Elaine Anderson was simply fascinating! And the guy down there that talks about meeting her years later, gotta revisit that comment. But!! people like us have it in our soul. I think how many times I try and get kids to just STOP and listen. Only then I always take to far by trying to explain to them, the first thing about Swing is understanding the primary beats are 2 & 4 as opposed to what they listen to, 1 & 3. Omg... See, is it any wonder they look at me like I'm a ghost from the '50s. But when we listen to it, we feel it before it gets there... And we just HAVE to share it with everyone. Catcha later, PfB~

YES! Absolutely is 🤪 ~

Possibly

Hands down one if the most iconic performances in jazz history

One of them best for sure, I was not a jazz fan until I started listening to swing. I was prejudiced, thinking that the jazz is boring and the people who love it thinked they are sophisticated until I listen to the groove kind of jazz. This swings as hard as they come, it's a top top drawer if you feel me

You mean FAMOUS jazz gigs of all time. INFAMOUS means bad, not good!!!

In later years, it's said that, when interviewers would ask Duke when he was born, he'd say "1956 - at Newport!". ;) Definitely a once in a lifetime performance.....

Craig Newhouse And, allegedly, Papa Jo Jones was sitting in the wings within earshot of Sam Woodyard, batting out time with a rolled-up newspaper, greasing the Super Chief. ;)

+Craig Newhouse So why did she do the dance, anyway?''Jo Jones was sitting on the steps, tapping a newspaper, trying to get the beat going,'' she said, referring to a drummer who had played with Count Basie, Teddy Wilson and Roy Eldridge. ''He said, 'We've got to get this going.' He kept saying, 'Go, girl.' I got up, having had one martini too many, and went mad. And the madder I went, the madder Paul Gonsalves went. My husband was so angry with me, may he rest in peace.'' (Paul Gonsalves was playing tenor sax.) NYTimes

...and Paul Gonsalves invented the sax bridge between the two pieces in the first place, despite being a relative newbie to the band. I suspected that Elaine Anderson might have been unleashed by an alcoholic beverage or two. A classic Dionysian Fired Muse!

It's about at 6:08 that I believe she starts to dance--you can hear the crowd start to make some noise! 😀

I have that issue.

ugh they would only fuck it up.

@@babiesmakinbabies you're absolutely right. They'd turn into a civil rights, feminist movie.

@@bronxkies Ellington and Gonzalves were black in America, if not female. Your point?

​@@TCizauskas clearly he's ignorant, if not downright an idiot. Duke having been a champion of civil rights would have no objection whatsoever with its being included.

Ah, the blonde's name was Elaine Anderson, who jumped out of her box seat to dance and be a muse for the band.

Did not know it was here. Just found it.

I call it a `Kansas City Stomp` regardless it cooks!