This record is not in itself one of Ellington's best. It merits a place in this list for its historical importance: it documents the first extended live saxophone solo. There is a broad consensus now that it was unplanned. Indeed, it seems that the climax of the evening had been reserved for Johnny Hodges on "Jeep's Blues".Paul Gonsalves was then Duke's principal tenor, though as a saxophone voice, Johnny Hodges' alto was far more distinctive and admired. The circumstances appear to have led to Gonsalves' protagonism on this occasion. He played a full 27 choruses as if he were reading from a score. Some claim that a woman dancing on stage propelled him and the band to do this, others that the veteran drummer Jo Jones was in the wings egging him on. Either way, this raucous frenzy was entirely unexpected, and became the highlight of that year's Newport Festival, thus paving the way for the exuberant live saxophone solos of the 1960s and 70s. (It seems that Charlie Christian was known to solo for long stretches in the 30s, even with Benny Goodman, but no single solo like this one had ever, until that day, received so much attention). Strangely, the record itself documents only some of that evening's music, and in the wrong order. For years the material was only available in this form, and now there is another volume circulating containing the rest of the music, but it's nowhere near as interesting. The solo is on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue". |
