Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport

Ellington at Newport is the album born from the 1956 night Duke Ellington and his Orchestra brought the Newport Jazz Festival crowd to its feet, here on limited 180-gram vinyl.

By the mid-fifties, big bands had fallen out of fashion and Ellington's star had dimmed. Then came Newport, and everything changed. The performance became the talk of the jazz world, Ellington soon landed on the cover of Time magazine, and the renewed popularity lasted for the rest of his life.

The centerpiece is Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, where tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves launched into a now-famous 27-chorus solo that had the audience dancing in the aisles, with Ellington shouting encouragement from the piano. Jeep's Blues spotlights Johnny Hodges' silken alto, while Festival Junction opens the Newport Jazz Festival Suite that Ellington and Billy Strayhorn wrote for the occasion.

Parts of the suite were touched up in the studio afterward, but the heat of that night still drives the record. Sam Woodyard's drums push relentlessly and the band swings with ferocious drive, building until the music is almost bursting out of the grooves.

For any jazz collection, this is a cornerstone: the record that proved the Duke was anything but a relic, and a thrilling snapshot of a great band at full roar.