[Dixielandjazz] Great Moments in Jazz

[Stephen G Barbone]

Growing up in New York City, there were many great moments in jazz  
that I witnessed. Though I didn't know it at the time, the greatest  
was seeing Ellington at The Newport Jazz Festival in 1956.

His career was slowing down, most other big bands had faded away. And  
he, Woody Herman and Count Basie were now having a tough time  
surviving. The came "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue".

After a few choruses, Tenor Sax player Paul Gonsalves soloed for 27  
straight choruses. As he was building the tension, a blonde gal in a  
tight black dress started gyrating in one of the box seats upfront,  
near where I was sitting.. Then the rest of the audience got up and  
started cheering and stomping. It got louder and louder as more then  
5000 people couldn't help themselves as the band rocked on behind  
Gonsalves. And they were listening to the music, not just watching  
Gonsalves and the blond. Many more gals started dancing.

You could see the security guards getting edgy as they thought the  
crowd might get out of control. And George Wein was looking nervous  
too. BUT, this was quite an orderly crowd, even though they surged to  
the stage, they did so without becoming crazy.

Drummer Jo Jones, who was listening in the audience, was hidden from  
most of the audience, but visible to the band and he was egging the  
beat on by banging a rolled up newspaper on edge of the stage, in  
perfect time. You could see the band, energized by him, shouting back  
at him through their horns as he beat that paper, and shouted  
encouragement at them.

Wein at the edge of the stage, shouted to Ellington to stop before a  
riot ensued, but Ellington merely smiled, wagged his finger at Wein  
and said something tongue in cheek like"Don't be rude the the artists,  
George." and kept playing.

When Gonsalves was done, Ellington released the tension with a few  
soft piano bars of release and then the band took off swinging once  
again. Finally, Cat Anderson hit some stratospheric notes as it ended.  
He was a little flat, but by then, who cared. Almost 60 choruses of  
the two part tune had been played and the total effect on the audience  
has never been equalled in any other jazz performance I've ever seen  
or heard about.

Ellington, ever smart, went overtime and played a few slower numbers  
to calm the crowd, rather than stopping completely as Wein first  
requested. That did the trick and the crowd came back down to earth.

The subsequent success of the album, "Ellington At Newport", (sales of  
several hundred thousand plus a 6 year contract with Columbia )  
reinvigorated Duke's career at precisely the right time. And he and  
Strayhorn then went on to write and record about 20 LPs worth of music  
for Columbia in those 6 years. Working musicians, both.

All of us should be so lucky as to ignite an audience like he did that  
magical evening in 1956. Closest I've ever come to that was with Bob  
Romans, Buddy Apfel, John Wilder, Paul Grant, Tom Wiggins et al with  
The Ambassadors of New Orleans, a Wiggin's led band, at the Red Sea  
Jazz Festival in Eilat Israel 2006. We had a great crowd or about  
4000, dancing, cheering and rushing the stage etc. As as the guys will  
attest it was something else, especially for OKOM. But let me tell  
you, Ellington at Newport was really special and even much more  
energetic.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband