Customer Reviews

The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A wonderful live set by the Duke Ellington band, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, T-Bone Walker, et al. I own the original LP set and it has become fairly damaged due to numerous playings. Listening to Oscar fronting the Ellington band is a beautiful experience, as well as Oscar and Ella together. This set is a must have for anyone's jazz collection. I'm putting the MP3's on my Fathers' Day/Birthday list.

Certainly the greatest jazz concert from the perspective of Norman Granz, the ex-Verve and Jazz at the Philharmonic impresario who assembled and released these tracks in 1975 on his Pablo label based on two concerts from just after the mid-sixties. Johnny Hodges, who died in 1970, is in top form (Strayhorn's "Isfahan"), but the "father of the tenor saxophone," Coleman Hawkins, who passed in 1969, evidences the sad decline that some of us had to witness with no small amount of pain. Still, Oscar and Ella were at the top of their game, and it's a treat to hear the always-swinging tenor of Zoot Sims incorporated in the Ellington ensemble, mixing it up with Duke's all-star tenor, Paul Gonsalves. Overall, this music represents a refreshing, sane oasis during the hey-day of electric, fusion, and disco music--well worth your notice even if it doesn't represent what was actually going down with the public in 1975. As for Hawk, best overlook his playing here in favorite of a couple of recent reissues that are highly worthy of him: "The Hawk Relaxes" (an RVG remaster) and "Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins" (an overlooked masterpiece and first-time/last-time meeting of the two jazz icons from the Verve catalog).