Dizzy Gillespie + Hans Koller New Jazz Stars: 1953

NDR recollects its historical jazz radio archives
1953 Dizzy Gillespie Quintet - Hans Koller New Jazz Stars double concert
Hans Koert

Let’s not beat about the bush – let’s call a spade a spade ……. The sales figures for cd’s have decreased dramatically, like the proportional rise in the ageing population of jazz fans …..  Jazz music is no longer part of the daily shot of music, offered by commercial radio stations, we hear unintentionally …..   Most lp’s, recorded during the 1950s, have been re-issued and record companies and radio station are searching for new, obscure recordings more then 50 years old. In Holland the Dutch Jazz Archive releases its Jazz at the Concertgebouw, a series of historical concerts; the popular Dutch Sesjun Radio Shows, released during the 1970s and 1980s are available again in the Out of the Blue Twofers and North Sea Jazz recently started its series of Legendary concerts ….. In
Germany the NDR started a promising series of radio programs in its series NDR 60 Years Jazz Editon.   

Moosicus Records N-1301 (photo courtesy: Moosicus Records)

I was so lucky to hear its first three albums, that were released: nr. 01: Dizzy Gillespie Quintet / Hans Koller New Jazz Stars ( 1953) – nr. 02: Dave Brubeck Quartet (1958) and  nr. 03: Stéphane Grappelli Ensemble (1957). Later this year releases of radio programs by the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson have been scheduled.

(photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Its first album, Dizzy Gillespie Quintet / Hans Koller New Jazz Stars marks the start of the legendary jazz NDR programs - Although it wasn’t in fact its very first broadcast, it is the first program which has survived on tape …  a double concert, which started with the US trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie. In the  spring of 1953 Dizzy set off to Europe once more, Alyn Shipton tells in Groovin’ High – The Life of Dizzy Gillespie,  …. hoping to build on his success the previous year …  In the spring 1952 he had successfully visited Europe and performed in Italy (Teatro Nuovo (Milan) - Holland ( at the Kurhaus (Scheveningen) and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and in Paris ( at the Theatre de Champs-
Elysée and the Scola Cantorum.  



photo courtesy
Hans Koert

In February 1953 Dizzy performed at the Salle Pleyel, a historical concert which was recorded for Vogue. The audience liked it, but …. few jazz writers found much good to say about the concert (Alyn Shipton). And Max Harrison even stated …..  and I realized how undistinguished the sidemen were …. It is
incontrovertible evidence of just how bad this band actually was. Most crititcs had problems with, what was labeled as, the crowd-pleasing – Dizzy, like
Satchmo, loved to play with the audience – joked and made the audience laugh and crazy …..  European critics didn’t understood that …. In Hamburg, where Dizzy performed in Studio 10, was no audience at all and, although he wear a silly decorative Tyrolean hat  … like the popular singing comedian and ex-GI Billy Mo ( liner notes by Michael Laages), the audience at the radio speaker didn't know …..

 (photo courtesy Hans Koert)

More interesting was the second part of the concert, featuring the Hans Koller New Jazz Stars. This group was … probably the most important modern quintet in the German-speaking world … Hans Koller, an Austrian tenor saxophone player, debuted on record in 1947 with Peter Kreuder Und Sein Wiener Filmorchester. Hans Koller real debut was on an early 1942 acetate with the Jeff Palme Group) and had moved to Germany in 1950, where he founded his
New Jazz Stars wich included a young Albert Mangelsdorff at trombone and the great Jutta Hipp, the legendary piano player, who regarded as the greatest piano talent of her time.


photo courtesy:
Hans Koert

She hasn’t  been recorded very frequently between her debut at the 1952 Hans Koller Quartet recording session and her final 1956 Blue Note Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims album, so it is great to have this unique March 1953 recording session available …. After she moved to the US and recorded three albums for Blue Note, she lost her businesss advisor (Leonard Feather) and that was, in a combination of stage fright and alcohol abuse, the end of her career.  She would never play the piano in public after 1958. (source: Bob Blumenthal)

A great start of a promising series of albums, released by the NDR-archives in its series NDR 60 Years Jazz Edition.

MY WEBLINKS: NDR 60 Years Jazz Edition

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl
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Recently the first albums in the NDR 60 Years Jazz Edition have been released by Moosicus. The NDR started its live radio jazz programs in 1952, edited by Hans Gertberg and its first surviving tape featured a double concert by the US bebop icon at the trumpet Dizzy Gillespie and the German New Jazz Stars, directed by Hans Koller, featuring Albert Mangelsdorff and Jutta Hipp.  A great series of albums to watch out for ......

 Retrospect
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