Search - Duke Ellington :: Newport 1958

Fantastic remaster FINALLY done properly.

Comic Online | Washington, DC United States | 06/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally, the wonderful music from the original Ellington at Newport 1958 have been restored properly. Due to less than ideal conditions at the actual Newport concert, very little of the actual concert was deemed acceptable for release. Instead, Ellington recorded a bunch of tracks a few days later in the studio. They were over-dubbed with fake applause, and released as a "live" concert. Most people found the music itself fantastic, but the fake applause annoying, because it was...well, fake.



Until now, that was the only way to hear this wonderful concert. But now, Sony/BMG has gone back to the original masters, removed the fake applause, and released them (through Mosaic Records) in their original crisp, vibrant glory. (43 minutes)



In addition to the studio cuts, there are also some wonderful cuts from the actual Newport Concert. Not all the cuts recorded live were deemed unusable, and these are the best of the ones with great sonics. (32 minutes)



With all the studio cuts AND the live cuts thrown in, this CD maxes out the running time of the compact disc at a full 79.5 minutes. It's a truly incredible sonic experience with some of the liveliest recordings ever made by Duke Ellington.



ORIGINAL MOSAIC/SONY PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

When Duke Ellington set out to make a live album at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, he set his sights high, targeting new material that had been played by the band only infrequently in the months leading up to the concert. After the performance, Ellington and producer Irving Townsend decided to re-cut eight pieces under more ideal studio conditions and dub in applause to recreate the Newport event. The subsequent Newport 1958 album contained the eight studio tracks with doctored audience and only two real Newport performances ("Just Scratchin' The Surface" and "Prima Bara Dubla" with guest soloist Gerry Mulligan).

A 2-CD Live At Newport 1958 of all the real Ellington performances from the festival only served to prove that the original assessment by Ellington to re-cut a lot of the material was correct. That reissue also sentenced the musically-superior studio material to obscurity. So for the Mosaic edition of Newport 1958, we have restored the masters of the studio material without the annoying dubbed-in audience, and added six more tracks from the concert, including a version "Feet Bone" which was not remade in the studio."