Friday, June 17, 2016

MP3 DOWNLOAD: JOHN COLTRANE QUINTET -
NEWPORT 1961




JOHN COLTRANE QUINTET
07-01-61
Newport RI
01 Introductions
02 Impressions
03 Naima
04 My Favorite Things
John Coltrane - tenor and soprano sax
McCoy Tyner - piano
Art Davis - bass
Reggie Workman - bass
Elvin Jones - drums
Recording source unknown, good to rather good. Mono.
As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Music fan Stu Hanson commented: “For the sake of accuracy though, there was no 1961 Newport Jazz Festival. Seriously. This Coltrane recording is from Music At Newport, an entirely different one-off event that happened in Newport that summer. Here’s a basic synopsis of what happened (from the Newport Jazz Festival wiki). You can also read about it in depth in George Wein’s highly recommended autobiography”:

In 1960 boisterous spectators created a major disturbance, and the National Guard was called to the scene. Word that the disturbances had meant the end of the festival, following the Sunday afternoon blues presentation headlined by Muddy Waters, reached poet Langston Hughes, who was in a meeting on the festival grounds. Hughes wrote an impromptu lyric, “Goodbye Newport Blues,” that he brought to the Muddy Waters band onstage, announcing their likewise impromptu musical performance of the piece himself, before pianist Otis Spann led the band and sang the Hughes poem. Presentation of the proper Newport Jazz Festival was disallowed in 1961 due to the difficulty of the previous year’s festival. In its place, another festival billed as Music at Newport was produced by Sid Bernstein in cooperation with a group of Newport businessmen. That festival included a number of jazz musicians but was financially unsuccessful. Bernstein announced that he would not seek to return to Newport in 1962. The Newport Jazz Festival resumed at Freebody Park in 1962.

Read more about the 1960 riots at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival here.

For a limited time you can download a mp3 file set from this concert here.

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