Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Great News for Jazz Lovers


Today's New York Times featured an article about a new and totally unexpected addition to Wolfgang's Vault, a streaming and download music service that contains much of the soundboard history of the Bill Graham's concert promoting legacy and a great deal of the King Biscuit Flour Hour broadcasts of the seventies and eighties. Somehow, they have purchased a large cache of stereo tapes from the Newport Jazz festival with somewhat indeterminate origin. A bunch of these are going to be released on November 17.

In the meantime, they put up three shows from the 1959 festival. All give one the aural allusion of practically laying on the stage during a set of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers featuring a very young Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, and Hank Mobley. This is one of the most killer groups in the history of jazz and to hear them in this setting is a wonderful treat. They also released a Count Basie set from this fifty year old Fourth of July Weekend. I'm not sure if the Count's performance is considered to have been part of the Atomic Basie period, but it certainly was explosive. The tape reveals how Basie shows of that era were big reviews with other acts like Lambert Hendricks and Ross were encapsulated within their sets.

The third act in the initial release was Dakota Staton. I had heard her name, but I knew nothing about this artist prior to encountering the Newport set. This jazz singer from Philly may not have been revolutionary the same way that Ella and Sarah Vaughn were with their flamboyant chops. What I like about Dakota is that she simply delivers the songs. I found myself not really focusing on performer but instead on the words of tunes like Who's Got the Last Laugh Now and The Party's Over. I love her siren of the fifties sound. She is the kind of performer you would see featured in a movie that had a scene in the club where she would do a song and two lines with the leading character.

But what a wonderful democratic thing to be available on your computer!!! Of course, a funky little thing called copyright and performance rights was not figured out so I plan to be hanging out a Wolfgang's. The last line of the NY Times was "Enjoy it while you can." I consider myself warn.
posted by well-executed buffet at 4:52 PM
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