Tribute To Duke - The Newport All Stars

 

Day Dream

Tribute To Duke

The Newport All Stars

Recored Live in Basel, Switzerland

Recording Director: Willi Fruth

Engineer: Rolf Donner

Recorded October 29th, 1969 in concert at Stadt-Casino Basel, Switzerland

Liner Photos: J. Becker, H. Harzheim, F. Hügel & S. Werkmeister

Cover Photography and Graphic Work: Heinz Bahr

BASF MPS STEREO 20717

1972

The Newport All Stars "Tribute To Duke" was conceived for Berlin Jazz Festival 69 which, in its entirety, was dedicated to Duke and therefore subtitled  "Duke 70". However, for technical reasons, it was recorded on week ahead of the festival in Basel, Switzerland at a concert which was co-produced by Germany's Suedwestfunk (Southwestern German Radio and TV Network Baden-Baden) and Switzerland's Radio Basel and Organized by Géard Lull.

From the inside cover: The really constant factor in the 10-year history of the Newport All Stars is the fact that they have pledged themselves to jazz as a swinging music – and not a particular jazz style. That's why musicians of so many divergent directions can play together as the Newport All Stars and make up a truly compatible unit. It is a pleurae and an hour for us to be album to pay tribute to the Duke in this, his seventieth year. – George Wein

Ruby Braff

Around the middle of the fifties my record collection was complete as far as trumpeters were concerned, and I was beginning to ask myself whether the great trumpet men like Armstrong, Eldridge, Clayton, Davison, Hackett, Shavers, etc. would continue to play forever, since, among the younger generation, there was not a single new trumpeter I liked. Then we heard the name Ruby Braff.

Finally came the first "Vanguard" LP's. Well, how was this possible? In a time when only hard bop or revival jazz were in demand, in a time when Roy Eldridge wasn't allowed to sit in at jam sessions, a young trumpeter had taken all the great ones in this field as his model and shaped himself a swing style of his own.

This was of course financial suicide. Ruby Braff didn't make much money. Ruby Braff made no concessions.

Ruby Braff does not play what is fashionable. Ruby Braff hates pop. Ruby Braff doesn't play loud. All disadvantages, these! But there are also advantages for Ruby: the "grand old man" of swing and Chicago jazz adept this "weirdo" with open arms, and many beautiful records are made by him and Pee Wee Russel, Bud Freeman, Freddie Green, Buck Clayton, Vick Dickenson, Jo Jones, Nat Pierce, Jack Teagarden, Lucky Thompson, Buddy Tate and... the Newport All Stars – Oscar Klein

Joe (Giuseppe) Venuti

Even today the violin is a rare instrument in jazz, more soften just tolerated than loved. And yet the violin was frequently found particularly in the earliest jazz bands – although it usually had the task of playing the less jazz-oriented tunes. With the appearance of the "sweet string sounds" of the larger orchestras the violin ultimately became the incarnation of an instrument unsuitable for jazz. The only shred of truth in this is that it takes such longer and is much harder for a violinist to achieve a jazz-like quality in his playing than for a horn man. On the other hand it is the violinists who had infused jazz in the early years with stylistic elegance and chamber-music-like finesse.

Joe Venuti was the first outstanding violinist in the history of jazz. He became famous in the years 1925 to 1933 through his close association with the guitarist Eddie Lang. Venuti and Lang played jazz of a chamber-music-like intimacy one before this trend became fashionable. Nevertheless they didn't lose a certain healthy vitality – a vitality, by the way, which still makes Venuti play like a young man at an age where others retire.

The comb-back of Joe Venuit is one of the most pleasant occurrences in jazz in recent years. Wherever the Newport All Stars appeared in Europe – particularly at the Berlin Jazz Days which followed this concert at Basel by a few days – Vent's playing provided the climax. – Bruno Spoerri

Red Norvo

Rex Stewart: "We always brought up Norco's name whenever somebody said ofays couldn't swing."

In those years – 1930 to 1934 – the fist xylophone/marimbaphonist in the history of jazz jeopardized the schmaltzy dance music of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra with his cocky manipulation of the beat. His transparent, springy playing incorporated the essence of the heady atmosphere of Chicago's South Side and Harlem – places which little Kenneth Orville, born 1908 in Beardstown, Illinois , couldn't have imagined. Grown up with small-town square dances, under the watchful eyes of a violin-playing father, at the bosom of a doting mother, Red is the living proof that swing is a social, a cultural phenomenon – not an inherited characteristic. Norco's career touted many bases and is a reflection of the musically motivated instability and restlessness which gripped many musicians after the old improvisatory polyphony had been replaced by arranged section work and the emancipation of the soloist. Red has been lading numerous small groups, played with the elite of swing, with Goodman, later with Woody Herman, with Tony Scott. His open, supple spirit manifests itself perhaps most impressively in his trios with Cal Barlow and Charlie Mingus, and later with Jimmy Rainey and Red Mitchell. – Urs Ramseyer

Barney Kessel 

Barney Kissel is 46 years old now. For thirty of them he has been playing guitar. Cal Barlow even claims that he takes it to bed with him. At ay rate Cal likes to relate how he was visiting Barney one night and how Barney was waving at hime with his left hand. In his right he was holding the guitar.

At age twenty Barney was "in". That was in 1944, when Norman Granz has asked him to participate in the movie "Jamie' the Blues".

Barney was the only white man on the scene. Things could have gone differently, though. But Charlie Christian didn't make it any more. He had died in 1942, hardly 26. His legacy was enormous. To this day, Barney Kissel probably is the most important representative of this style. Not many have kept their roots to this degree. No doubt Barney belongs among the most popular jazz guitarists. Proof: Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Artis Shaw, etc. were working with I'm. Even the South American Baden Powell calls barney his first inspiration.

Eight year  ago Barry started to write a book. It is available now. Under the modest tile "The Guitar" it presents the experiences of a virtuoso. – Sammy Nuesch.

Kenny Burrell

The Basel concert of the Newport All Stars holds a special attraction because of the participation of a second guitarist – Kent Burrell. Born in 1931, he hails from Detroit a defrost came to the public's attention through hi work with Dizzy Gillespie at the beginning of the 50's. Like Barney Kissel he, too, belonged to the Oscar Peterson Trio, even if only for a short time. Burrell's unaccompanied solo treatment of Duke Ellington's "Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin' " is a master -piece. Are jazz musicians can swing so intensively as Burrell does on this piece – on the other hand it demonstrates that Kenny has studied classical guitar. – J. E. B.

George Wein

Already in his formative years (he was born on October 3, 1925 in Boston, Mss.). George Wein was strongly interested in jazz, and soon after leaving school he was playing piano with well-known Dixieland groups. His name, however, became a household work through is managing and organizing all the great jazz festivals of international note. There are Newport (since 1954), Ohio Valley (since 1962), Pittsburgh Catholic Youth Organization Festival (since 1964) or the Longhorn Jazz Festival in Austin, Texas, which took place for the first time in april 1966. George Wein also is the founder of the Newport Folk Festival, which has been taking place annually since 1963,

But outside the United States he hs also promoted many remarkable jazz events, for instance the various Thelonius Monk tours, or the participation in many European jazz festivals, or even the "World Jazz Festival 1964", which brought together in Japan musicians from all ofver the world.

The fact that George Wein – in spite of all his activities as impresario – still finds time to play the piano with this group, shows how close his ties to jazz have remained. The "jazz business" would be in better shape if there were more impresarios and managers who could feel like a musical. – Gerard Lull

Larry Ridley

Larry Ridley was born on September 3, 1937 at Indianapolis. At Indiana University he studied violin with Michael Krasnopolsky, but soon acquired a reputation as an outstanding swing bassist. His first jobs were with Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding and its Wes Montgomery. Between 1960 and 1965 he took part in extensive ours with Slide Hampton, Philly Joe Jones, Lou Donaldson, Randy Weston, Barry Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Sonny Rollins and particularly Horace Silver – K. T. Geier

Don Lamond

The "dot over the i" in every well organized "swing-in" is Don Lamond on drums. Who doesn't know him, Donald Douglas Lamond, born August 18, 1921 in Oklahoma, a drummer who counts himself among the young – now as ever, a drummer much in demand, who really knows how to swing a jazz group without using himself in the foreground. It would be superfluous to enumerate all the great soloists whom he has accompanied in the course of his extraordanrly active career – be it in concerts, on records or on tour. Watch this exceptional musical, I waosuld say, and you will know what I mean wthe I say: a jazz group is only as good as its drummer. – Pierre Favre

It was the idea of the liner notes that all the main people of Basel's Jazz-Scene should participate in them – each one in the field he nows get. So trumpet player Oscar Kien writs on Ruby Braff, bassist G.T. Geier on Larry Ridley, drummer Pierre Favre on Don Lamond.... etc. – and even impresario Gérd Lull on his famous colleague George Wein.

From Billboard - October 14, 1972: Recorded live in Basel, Switzerland, the All Stars pay a rousing tribute to Duke Ellington. All Stars they are, with the likes of Kenny Burrell, Red Norvo, Barry Kessel and Larry Ridley. Kessel's solo of Ellington's "Day Dream" is an outstanding performance, as are renditions of "Sitting And A'Rockin'" and "Sweet Georgia Brown." A welcome addition to any jazz collector's shelf.

Sweet Georgia Brown

Undecided

Sophisticated Lady

Day Dream

I've Got It Bad And That Ain't Good

Sitting And A'Rockin'

Deed I Do

If I Could Be With You

Things Ain't What The Used To Be

Rose Room