Ellington at Newport

This is definitely the way more accessible type of jazz. I'm much more into the big band stuff, and for the most part this is a thoroughly nice listen. I like the really, really strange sound they get out of the trumpet at times. Like the musician is being strangled, hah.

3.5 rounded up.

Based on the original recording not the “complete” version .

“culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant”

Pretty wild to discover that duke Ellington is in fact not just a horrible caricature from that awful Big Mouth show

But at the end of the day this is still jazz, and I’m still not loving it

2

Tissemandsjazz

Tænker, at der er en grund til, at jazz er blevet spillet på barer, hvor der også er blevet serveret champagne i spandevis og så mange baner, som din næsevæg kan klare. Det føles prætentiøst og noget, der kræver, at du er bedøvet for at kunne holde det ud eller i hvert fald at nyde det.

1.8

El jazz no es lo mío

I imagine this would have been even better had it been recorded at a studio, but it's still great.

I think I like trios, quartets better. This was also amazing. The energy must’ve been crazy live. Lower 4

It’s technically very good, but just feels a bit trad jazz and straight laced to be exciting.
The live recording was annoying andI just found it a bit dull

I do not care it has been raining for the last two days in Newport in July 1956, Father Norman O'Connor! At the point the introduction to this album felt like it would continue for eternity, I bailed on the "Complete" version and jumped to the "Original" version, because I was going to throw something if I had to listen to 2 hours 7 minutes of this. 1 hour 6 minutes (which Amazon claims in the original, despite Wikipedia telling me it was originally 43 minutes) felt more doable. And presumably cut out some of the priest ramblings. I don't like jazz. I do generally like big band/swing, so this at least gave it a chance.

I might have said this before, but I think I could possibly see me liking this sort of thing if I was sat in a club having a drink, watching the world go by. I don't like it when I'm doing the washing up. Jazz feels like music for a specific place to me.

This was just about ok. Clearly very talented musicians who play off each other very well, but it's just not something I want to listen to. And I'm saying that after listening to the short version!

2/5

*I prefer quartet/quintet style jazz of eras a little later than this, but this live performance is about as good as big band can get.

So it turns out there are 2 completely different version of this! Just listening to the original 1956 version that's mostly a studio recording. Regardless, this is a ripping session, pretty much everything you could want from late-era swing(?) big band. Will definitely be investigating the full live performance.

Great to get a jazz record thrown up, as this whole 1001 thing seems overly rock-heavy.

Strong start! Probably the best jazz album I’ve received so far. It is however unbearably long and there is no reason to include the announcements as well. A high 3

Since there are relatively few albums from the 1950s in this project, it’s clear that they were all, to a greater or lesser extent, groundbreaking and of high quality. While “Live at Newport” certainly meets the standard of excellence, this recording was perhaps more important to Duke Ellington himself than it was to music history.
Many of the songs are timeless classics—“Take the A-Train” is currently one of my favorites again—and the arrangements are polished to perfection. In my view, however, an S-tier / 5-star rating requires either
- truly outstanding soloists/vocalists,
- catchy original compositions,
- some other groundbreaking creative achievement,
- or exceptional significance for a cultural shift.
While some of these elements may be faintly discernible, Ellington’s recording ultimately reminds me too much of my own early attempts at big band jazz and the very limited creative scope inherent in that genre. And, of course, jazz standards were already part of mainstream culture by the mid-20th century. Ultimately, it’s just very well-crafted elevator music.

Diminuendo in Blue is outrageous!

The Original Album is available on Spotify but it's not linked from here, it's half the length with less of the comperes.

I generally prefer later jazz but Duke Ellington is one of the true greats and this live album carries the energy through

This seems like it'd be good, but it's actually (a) live (b) jazz, so it seems it's got a personal ceiling of 3. But it's cool that people were so Moved to Dance at the actual performance, and that DukeE was born in the 1800s. That's a while ago now!

Didn't know what to expect from this
"Festival Junction" starts out with a clarinet (?) that is a great tune and goes on for quite a while; then into a very swinging tune. This goes on for a good 10 minutes and is wonderful.
There are a couple of slower pieces, but they're nice bluesy stuff that's a pleasure to listen to, still with a beat. And the end - Diminuendo and Crescendo - are frenetic and great
This isn't the kind of music I usually listen to, but the whole thing was great - hey that's why people talk about Duke Ellington. Proud to be from DC, Ellington's city!

Jazz is for coffee shops and background music while doing your taxes. I guess this fits the bill.

So, I think this project has officially converted me to jazz. I listened to all of this and enjoyed it - if it had been an expanded two-hour live album by (to pick an artist whose live album I really didn't enjoy) the Grateful Dead, you'd better believe I would have just listened to the tracks from the original release.

This album is phenomenal. I couldn't sit still in my chair. I felt like I was transported back to the 1950s. Sometimes live albums aren't the best, but the fact that this one is live adds to the atmosphere and energy of the whole album. The cheering of the crowd made me wish there was "more" too.