Hans Koert
George Wein invited Marshall Brown, bandleader, who impressed at the 1957 Newport Festival with his Farmingdale High School Band, to select young talented European jazz musicians for an International Youth Band to perform at the Newport Festival editon 1958. One of the musicians selected was Ruud Jacobs, Dutch bass player, who remembered this event in a series of blogs .... Today the supreme moment - the concerts at the Newport Festival.
All Newport '58 International Youth Band contributions, as remembered by Dutch bass player Ruud Jacobs at my link site.
Newport ‘58 – One of the major jazz festivals in the US in the 1950s and 1960s. It had started in 1954 and developed into one of the most important jazz festivals from that period. The 1958 edition, recorded in the great documentary
- Bert Stern, a noted photographer, made a great 80 minutes documentary on film, entitled Jazz On A Summer’s Day – one of the most important document in jazz history: Louis Armstrong, Anita O’Day, Thelonious Monk, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Stitt, Sal Salvador, Dinah Wasington, Mahalia Jackson, Jimmy Giuffre, Gerry Mulligan and George Shearing: They all are part on this film. Others are not, but were playing at the festival too: Marian McPartland, Lee Konitz, Horace Silver, Miles Davis and ………….. the International Youth Band.
The International Youth Band was scheduled at Newport Jazz Festival at the Freebody Park in Newton (Ri) for two concerts - one Friday afternoon and a second one at the Sunday evening program, the 6th of July 1958 ..... This concert was recorded and released on lp, although Michael Fitzgerald gives in his discography the 4th of July as the recording date.
Seven tunes were recorded: Don’t Wait For Henry - Don’t Blame Me - Jazz Concerto for Alto Sax – Too Marvelous For words – Swinging The Blues – Imagination and The Newport Suite, Opus 24, which contained two parts: Blues and A Dance. The tunes were arranged by Marshall Brown, John LaPorta, Arif Mardin and Bill Russo.
The International Youth Band: Christian Kellens on trombone - Marshall Brown director. ( source: Lp: The Newport Jazz Festival 1958 - The International Youth Band (Philips 840 046))
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| Andy Marsala (source: music-room.net) |
His teachers were ….. Marshall Brown and John LaPorta. He became a member of the Farmingdale High School Band and was the major sensation at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival where Marshall Brown’s Farmingdale High School Band was invited. It was this event that made George Wein decide to invite Marshall Brown to select his European musicians for the International Youth Band to join the 1958 festival. This makes clear why Andy Marsala, labeled as the sensation of the year before and seen as an up-and-coming young jazz talent, joined that band as Marshall’s apple of his eye. Enjoy a film fragment by the International Youth Band, performing two years later (1960, 30th of June), recorded as a radio broadcast, where Julian Cannonball Adderley joins the final tune Party Line played bij the 1960 Internatinal Youth Band at Newport. Although the quality of the tape is rather worse, it gives a unique impression of the band directed by Marshall Brown with Cannonball and Andy Marsala in the spotlights.
At the final concert, Louis Armstrong, who would continue with his band after the concert by the International Youth Band, entitled On The Sunny Side Of The Street.
Bix jr., a pseudonym I guess, journalist of the Dutch Dagblad van het Noorden wrote in het Rhythmisch Klankboek that the concerts in Newport were a great success …… Ondanks een voorbereidingsperiode van slechts drie weken, presteerden de heren het, veruit de beste prestatie te leveren. ( = Although the period to prepare was rather short, they did a very good job …. They were almost the best). (Dagblad van het Noorden – 2nd of Aug. 1958)
Anton Kop jr. wrote in the article Newport 1958 that the US critics for the International Band, (... met onze eigen Ruud Jacobs ( = ... with our own Ruud Jacobs)) were not all that good – The soloists were not that good, but the sound and the swing of the ensemble were great. Best soloist was Roger Guérin from France. ( Rhytme Newport 1958 nº 108 15th of September 1958 p. 8). Ruud remembered that he had the opportunity to meet dozens of US jazz musicians - He pampers a photo with Max Roach, who played at Newport with his Max Roach + 4 group (featuring Booker Little, George Coleman, Ray Draper (whow on tuba) and Art Davis) and also accompanied Dinah Washington and was part of the Terry Gibbs sextet with special guest Gerry Mulligan. Due to the fact that Ruud has the Dutch flag on his jacket, seems to be the proof that this photo was taken at the festival.
During the four weeks US trips Ruud remembers to have joined some great concerts by musicians like Teddy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan and Benny Goodman - When we came into a club, we were invite to play along and Gerry Mulligan even wanted to take over the complete orchestra, as told in the previous blog. Ik heb veel met Gerry Mulligan in zijn nieuwe kwartet gespeeld, waar ook Art Farmer in zit ( met verder Bill Crow op bas en Dave Bailey slagwerk). (= I played a lot with the new Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which featured Art Farmer ( and Bill Crow on bass and Dave Bailey on drums). Ruud told me that he met the great Oscar Pettiford, who was one of his heroes on the bass in those days and that he heard Miles Davis in concert at many occasions.
Ruud was surprised to learn that even those famous US musicians he met, had to take each gig to earn a living .... After the Newport concerts, the complete band moved to Europe, without guitarist Gabor Szabo, original a Hungarian, who had left his country in 1956 due to the political situation in his homeland. In Europe the band had some one-nighters before it was broken. ( to be continued)
All Newport '58 International Youth Band contributions, as remembered by Dutch bass player Ruud Jacobs at my link site.
Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl
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George Wein invited Marshall Brown, bandleader, who impressed at the 1957 Newport Festival with his Farmingdale High School Band, to select young talented European jazz musicians for an International Youth Band to perform at the Newport Festival editon 1958. One of the musicians selected was Ruud Jacobs, Dutch bass player. who remembered this event in a series of blogs .... Today the supreme moment - the concerts at the Newport Festival.
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