Back in July 1972, at age 16, I caught what was touted at the time as The Giants of Jazz at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York. Sounds like a bland term today—like world's best pizza" or trial of the century." But these guys actually were jazz giants, and together they brought me as close as possible (minus a time machine) to what jazz must have been like in the mid-'40s.
The sextet of giants featured Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Sonny Stitt (alto saxopone), Kai Winding (trombone), Thelonious Monk (piano), Al McKibbon (bass) and Art Blakey (drums).
Now you can hear and see what I saw so many years ago—in Copenhagen in 1971. Dig how Stitt introduces the Danish-born Winding at 20:00...
The sextet of giants featured Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Sonny Stitt (alto saxopone), Kai Winding (trombone), Thelonious Monk (piano), Al McKibbon (bass) and Art Blakey (drums).
Now you can hear and see what I saw so many years ago—in Copenhagen in 1971. Dig how Stitt introduces the Danish-born Winding at 20:00...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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