Slate music columnist Fred Kaplan has just written the most thoroughly intriguing and persuasive treatise as to why Miles Davis’ 1959 masterpiece Kind of Blue is so universally praised over time. Highly recommended reading. Very scholarly and well thought out with tons of great examples (including sound files from individual tracks of that album and others) to support his argument. Kaplan is also the author of the recently published book, “1959: The Year Everything Changed” (Wiley). In this well-researched tome, he cites several examples, including Davis’ Kind of Blue, along with the unveiling of Frank Lloyd Wright’s radically designed Guggenheim Museum and the publication of William Burroughs’ revolutionary novel “Naked Lunch,” as reasons for making his case for 1959. That year also saw the release of such recording landmarks as Dave Brubeck’s TIme Out and John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Maybe Kaplan is really onto something here.
It made us go back into archives to see just what George Wein had booked at the Newport Jazz Festival in that pivotal year (his sixth clambake in Rhode Island). Thursday night opened with the Newport Jazz All-Stars led by saxophonists Buck Clayton and Bud Greeman and featuring trumpeter Ruby Braff, clarinetist Peewee Russell, trombonist Vic Dickenson, pianist Ray Bryant, drummer Buzzy Drootin and Jimmy Rushing on vocals. That’s some ensemble. That day also saw sets by The Four Freshmen (?), George Shearing premiering his new 15-piece orchestra, the Gene Krupa Quartet and culminating with an energzied set from Count Basie and His Orchestra featuring trumpets Snooky Young, Joe Newman and Thad Jones, saxophonists Frank Foster and Frank Wess, trombonists Bennie Powell and Al Grey, guitarist Freddie Green and drummer Sonny Payne. All that music in just one day!
Friday’s festivities included sets by the Kenny Burrell Trio, The Mastersounds (a quartet led by the Montgomery brothers, Buddy and Monk), the Thelonious Monk Quartet (with Arthur Taylor on drums and Sam Jones on bass with Charlie Rouse on tenor sax), the Oscar Peterson Trio, the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. Saturday’s highlights included the Jimmy Smith Trio, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio, Herbie Mann Quintet, Erroll Garner Trio and the Duke Ellington Orchestra with special guest Jimmy Rushing. And Sunday features Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Kingston Trio (?), and trombonist Jack Teagarden with cornetist Bobby Hackett. Wow! It certainly was a very good year.
