By Bernie Brink

This month marks the 70th anniversary of one of the nation’s most-esteemed and longest-running jazz events, the Newport Jazz Festival.  Though it has operated in different locations and under different guises throughout its storied history, it has presented top-flight jazz every summer since 1954.  Its reputation for premiere jazz performances also makes it one of the most-recorded festivals in the world.

Perhaps one of the most famous examples of these is Ellington at Newport which documents (at least partially) the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.  At a time when the popularity of Swing-era big bands had seriously waned, even a band with Duke Ellington’s name on it struggled to make ends meet and it appeared the sun was setting on Ellington’s illustrious career.  Even as the Ellington band closed out the festival, their performance that final evening initially failed to inspire, beginning their set with a Billy Strayhorn suite that was hastily assembled and poorly rehearsed.  But a revival of two Ellington compositions was a turning point in the event, “Diminuendo in Blue” and “Crescendo in Blue.”  Connected by a 6-minute, 27-chorus blues solo by saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, it was not only a defining moment of the evening, but a defining moment in Ellington’s career.  On the recording, you can hear the audience cheering uproariously by Gonsalves’ 10^th chorus, unceasing for the remainder of the song’s 14 ½ minute performance.  That concert (and a more refined studio recording of the Strayhorn suite) was released later that year on Columbia Records, leading to Ellington’s appearance on the cover of TIME magazine shortly thereafter and effectively revitalizing his image and career for the rest of his life.  Ellington was later quoted as saying, “I was born in 1956 at the Newport Festival.”

The following year was riddled with similar capstone moments.  Ellington’s historic set was followed in kind by the Basie band, heard on Count Basie at Newport and featuring iconic soloists Lester Young and Jimmy Rushing.  Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday – arguably the fountainheads of modern song interpretation – were both captured live at Newport in 1957, released on Verve’s Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport.  It saw the return of famed pianist/composer/arranger Mary Lou Williams to the stage after a 5-year hiatus from performing.  Newport was the setting for the first secular performance by gospel icon Mahalia Jackson that year, who returned in 1958, the latter of which is on record.

Stories like these abound from the Newport Jazz Festival throughout its history.  In 1991, it brought together a short-lived group dubbed “The Jazz Futures” featuring Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Tim Warfield, Mark Whitfield, Benny Green, and more.  The electrifying set they put to record set the tone for their burgeoning careers; today, those artists are considered the defining figures of their generation.  In the 21^st century, Newport continues to present not only those established greats like McCoy Tyner, Dinah Washington, Christian McBride, and Terri Lyne Carrington, but also today’s leading artists.  This year’s lineup includes Kamasi Washington, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Samara Joy, and many, many others.

After 70 years of definitive jazz performances and recordings, we tip our cap to the venerated Newport Jazz Festival.  You can celebrate by hearing live jazz in idyllic outdoor settings throughout the summer across the Pikes Peak region, and you can hear many of these definitive Newport recordings and this year’s featured artists every day on Jazz 93.5.