#2
John Coltrane
Complete 1961 Village Vanguard

#3
Miles Davis
Live at The Plugged Nickel

#4
Charles Mingus
Live At Antibes

#5
Duke Ellington
Live at Newport

#6
Sonny Rollins
At The Village Vanguard

#7
John Coltrane
Live at Birdland

#8
Wes Montgomery & Wynton Kelly
Smokin' at the Half Note

#9
Erroll Garner
Concert By The Sea

#10
Gillespie, Parker, Powell, Mingus and Roach
The Quintet-Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume 1

In the mid-1950s, Duke Ellington and his well-established big band had hit a career lull. At the end of an unsuccessful stint with Capitol Records between 1953 and '56 and following several key defections from his band, Ellington and his group were in need of revival, a comeback. Critically speaking, Ellington had already established himself as America's most important composer of any type of music in the 1930s and '40s. But, in the mid-'50s the near-death knell of Jazz was percolating in the guise of Rock & Roll. Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, and a host of other artists were waiting in the historic wings for their fifteen minutes to change the universal face of music. No Jazz musicians were immune to the popular threat posed by Rock, not even the titan Ellington. Additionally, other Jazz styles were beginning to gain prominence. Be Bop was reaching its twilight in the middle to late '50s, after the death of Charles Parker and was still very popular. Hot on Be Bop's heels, Hard Bop was beginning its incubation in the small combos of Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. West Coast Cool was also having its genesis in San Francisco and Los Angeles clubs. Big Band Music and Swing were in danger of losing relevance as well as notoriety.

In spite of the introduction of Rock music and the changes in Jazz, Ellington would prevail. On the night of July 7, 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival, after a series of thunderstorms had dampened the collective spirits of the Eastern Seaboard patrons, The Duke Ellington Orchestra took the stage. There the band performed the National Anthem and reestablished itself and Ellington as the foundation upon which Jazz was built- Urbane genius and sophisticated improvisation.

Captured on tape, Ellington at Newport 1956 was to become Ellington's biggest selling recording. It is interesting to note that only about 40% of the original recording was actually live, the remainder being recorded in the studio to provide "patches" and filler for the less than perfect live portions. Kind of crazy by today's completist standards, but nevertheless a common recording practice right through the 1970s. Ellington at Newport 1956 (Complete) provides the original concert as a historic document along side the studio recordings. The comparison is startling.

Every article ever written about this recording froths over the 27 choruses. Ellington included his 1938 medium-tempo twin blues "Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue." These two twenty-year-old musical clauses were separated by an "interlude" by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. Modestly talented, Mr. Gonsalves electrified the crowd with an R&B workout before R&B was R&B. This has long been considered the highpoint of the show. Today I certainly challenge that supposition, "Jeep's Blues" defines big band blues and its appearance here is certainly the most perfect big band blues on record.

"Jeep's Blues" was an Ellington vehicle for his premiere alto saxophonist whom the composer lovingly called "Rabbit." Johnny Hodges was one of Duke Ellington's most faithful band members and was rewarded with several compositions written specifically for him. Over the simple and familiar theme of the song, Hodges played the most embarrassingly sensual solos ever recorded. In addition, particularly in the final chorus, he perfected big band blues playing on the alto saxophone. The present recording offers what I consider is the greatest endorsement of live-recorded music. The live "Jeep's Blues" is loud and virile. With a testosterone-fueled swagger, this song builds a dense and perfectly balanced momentum. The studio version of this song is down right bashful by comparison as are Hodges' timid soloing. "Jeep's Blues" was the highlight- that in the face of fifty years of writing.

The overt and the covert. The chosen and the discarded. The right place and the right time. Newport, Rhode Island was the right place and July 7, 1956 was the right time.

Writer's Note: Having recently completed a survey of the Top Ten Best Live Rock Albums, I have learned a couple of valuable things. One is a list of this sort should be presented in descending order starting with number 10 and descending to number 1. Second, it is better to poll a group for their opinions and develop the list from an analytical (or pseudoanalytical) evaluation of the results. This is how the Top Ten Best Live Jazz Recordings were selected. I polled the writership of All About Jazz, combined the results and ranked the recordings. For recordings that tied in number of votes, I arbitrarily selected the order (I had to exert editorial control somewhere!).

Live Jazz is perhaps the most natural creative state in music. Performing jazz means a musician must create a work of art on the spot, composition in real time. In this series, I hope to highlight historic events where this invention has not been merely successful, but transcendent.