JATP @ Newcastle 1958 - 1962

I was weaned on Norman Granz's jazz circus - Jazz At The Philharmonic - JATP. It was a while before I discovered what the initials stood for! I knew the records before I'd even heard them. I'd read about then in Dave Carey and Albert J. McCarthy's Jazz Directory (Volume 5. J - Kirk) and drooled over the titles and the personnel.

Perdido, Mordido, Endido. The Drum Battle, The Trumpet Battle and so many more enigmatic titles spread over several sides of 78rpm discs that, although not readily available in this country, stoked my unrequited desire to hear them. However, the American Forces Network (AFN) frequently played them and I wallowed in the excitement generated by Illinois Jacquet and Flip Phillips slugging it out on tenor, Charlie Shavers and Howard McGhee reaching for the moon on trumpet, Nat Cole and Les Paul doing some amazing things with a Blues, long before they became pop superstars, this was what many, with the benefit of hindsight, saw as one of the precursors to rock & roll.

The ongoing dispute between the British and American unions prevented jazz fans in the UK getting in on the action although, in 1953, JATP did play a couple of charity concerts at the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn, London. I lived on Tyneside so there was no way a schoolboy was going to be allowed to go unchaperoned to London for a jazz concert. A trip to Sunderland to see Durham play the West Indies was considered to be fraught with danger! Although, unlike the Durham cricketers, I won that one!

Fast forward to 1955. Newcastle City Hall. Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson. This was the best concert I'd ever attended up to then and, all these years later, it remains pretty high on the list. But, it still wasn't JATP even though Norman Granz was the promoter. That came about 3 years later in May 1958.

Apart from Ella and Oscar, on paper it had the look of a championship fight night at Madison Square Gardens!

Trumpets: Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge. Saxes: Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt. This was going to be a battle royal wasn't it just?

No, it wasn't. The horns played separate sets with the rhythm section. All great stuff but not the JATP I'd expected.

The following year it was Gene Krupa with Eddie Wasserman on tenor (who? I hear you ask), Sonny Stitt and Roy Eldridge stayed on as, of course did Ella and Oscar who, by now, were Granz's pet poodles.

In 1960, Oscar was replaced by Paul Smith but, of course, Ella was still there. I note from my programme notes that she sang Mack the Knife and didn't forget the words but sang it not unlike her famous 1963 recording where she, supposedly, did forget the words. The Jimmy Giuffre Trio, with Jim Hall on guitar and Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone were there, as was Eldridge but, for me, the highlight was   Shelly Manne and his Men which included Joe Gordon on trumpet and Richie Kamuca on tenor.

1961 and there was no interaction at all just the quintets of John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie which I have referred to in previous posts.

1962 was, I think, their final visit to Newcastle as JATP. Hawkins and Eldridge with the Tommy Flanagan Trio, and the Paul Smith Trio backing Ella.

The touring continued in Europe off and on until 1983.

There had been some great moments and some dire moments but, sadly none of the pier six brawls that characterised the early concerts.

Lance

1958:

• The Dill Jones Trio w. Dave Shepherd.
• Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Sonny Stitt, Lou Levy, Herb Ellis, Max Bennett, Gus Johnson.
• Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Levy, Ray Brown, Johnson.
• Oscar Peterson Trio w. Brown, Ellis.
• Ella Fitzgerald.

1959

• Oscar Peterson Trio w. Brown, Ed Thigpen.
• Sonny Stitt w. Levy, Brown, Thigpen.
• Gene Krupa Quartet w. Eddie Wasserman, Ronnie Ball, Jim Gannon.
• Ella Fitzgerald w. Levy, Ellis, Wilfred Middlebrooks, Johnson, Eldridge.

1960

• Jimmy Giuffre Trio w. Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Hall.
• Roy Eldridge w. Paul Smith Quartet.
• Paul Smith Quartet w. Middlebrooks, Ellis, Johnson.
• Ella Fitzgerald w. Paul Smith Quartet.
• Shelly Manne & his Men w. Richie Kamuc
• a, Joe Gordon, Russ Freeman, Middlebrooks.

1961

• John Coltrane Quintet w. Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, Elvin Jones.
• Dizzy Gillespie Quintet w. Leo Wright, Lalo Schifrin, Robert Cunningham, Mel Lewis.

1962

• Coleman Hawkins-Roy Eldridge w. Tommy Flanagan, Major Holley, Edward Locke.
• Paul Smith Trio w. Middlebrooks, Stan Levey.
• Ella Fitzgerald w. Paul Smith Trio.