VA - Jazz At The Philharmonic - Seattle 1956 (2011)

The long-running series of “Jazz At The Philharmonic” concerts began in 1944 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. Promoted by legendary jazz impresario Norman Granz, they captured the essence of post-war modern jazz, bringing together some of the great and emerging artists of the era in star-studded bills, with the concerts always featuring agglomerations of artists jamming together. This previously unreleased recording comes to Acrobat from the Ackerman Tapes archive, which houses many unreleased jazz gems, and is a classic example of the JATP concerts. It features some of the great names of the genre, including Ella Fitzgerald, The Oscar Peterson Trio, Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Jo Jones & The Gene Krupa Quartet. The various groups and artists are featured both in their normal line-ups and as part of ensembles which were put together informally for successive JATP concerts during the national and European tours. The Swing Septet comprises the Oscar Peterson Trio (Including Ray Brown and Herb Ellis) with Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips and Jo Jones, and the Modern jazz Quartet are augmented on several tracks by Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Sonny Stitt. There is one jazz curio on the album – the finale in Ella’s set features an unnamed harmonica player, and Norman Granz’s intro is truncated so we don’t hear the announcement. However, we know that earlier that year Ella had borrowed Oscar Peterson’ s harmonica and played it at one or two of the European JATP concerts, so are fairly sure this is a rare recorded example of Ella Fitzgerald playing harmonica (not brilliantly, it has to be said!). Quite apart from that, we are sure this will be a must for collectors and enthusiasts of that era of jazz, not least as these are unique previously unheard performances, which are rare opportunities indeed these days, especially where artists of this stature are concerned.