Variety (July 1958)

56 MUSIC • f Newport Jazz Festival ; Continued from page 53 ! of “Bill Bailey” in the non-Elling¬ ton vein. Sandwiched among the Ellirig- tonia, however, were a number of other performances that were fine/ but could have used different show¬ casing. The styles of the Marian McPartland trio and the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which is light in texture, tended to be overwhelmed by big band jazz Gerry Mulligan blew some swinging baritone with the McPartland trio and later ap¬ peared with' Harry Carney, but barely got started before he had to put his horn away for the night. The Miles Davis Quintet, flared intensely just before the intermis¬ sion. At the close of the evening pop vocalist Frankie Lame, whose singing has always retained a jazz feeling, introduced the. great gos¬ pel singer Mahalia Jackson, whose large, lustrous voice cast a hush over the crowd of 9,000 (the record for. an opening night at Newport ) as she sang “Come Sun¬ day” from Ellington's “Black, Brown-and Beige” Suite. Friday* afternoon (4), though. tured were pianist Randy Weston, the Don . Butterfield sextet, and . Willy (The Lion) Smith. . Critic George Frazier introduced Beulah Bryant, who was subbing for Julia. Lee, with a .’speech in Latin. “Dizzy Gillespie, J delenda est.” intoned Frazier, who an¬ nounced that as a “moldy fygge” he was addressing the audience in his native tongue. All Newport, he said, is divided into “partes tres.” Beulah Bryant, looked a little startled ‘ but presented a torrid group of blued songs. The. other choices of the after¬ noon were also of high* quality, in¬ cluding Bernard Peiffer. the pian¬ ist, Lem Winchester, a Delaware cop who plays a Hampton-like vibraharp; and the Herb Pomeroy band from Boston, a/ band spring¬ ing from the Lnnceford and Ken* ton tradition; In contrast to the afternoon, which touched a level of artistry, the evening again developed snags. Billed as a. “Bides. in the Night” performance, and presenting such Stars as Pete Johnson, piano, Joe Turner, the Ray Charles sextet. Big Maybelle, the Mulligan Quar¬ tet. Chuck Berry, the Maynard Ferguson orchestra, Dakota Staton proved that the afternoon sessions : and Peewee RusSell, it drew a fine would bring out some of the most j line between the rock 'n’ roll beat. Interesting offbeat material of the (rhythm & blues and traditional Festival. This one was highlighted‘ jazz. by the appearance of the NewportThe acoustics of the park: were International Band, a group re- ( well suited, to the -fortissimo brass cruited by producer George Weinj of the Maynard Ferguson group; and director Marshall Brown from | b ut rain marred, the appearance of both sides of the Iron Curtain, i Russell, Teagarden. Buck Clayton, With but two weeks of rehearsal ij 0 Jones and Lester Young in a and a language barrier to .contend : Dijcie iand set, and by the. time with, the European eats attained .-Mahalia Jackson reappeared for an enviable results. Impressive was . hour of gospel singing at midnight,; the work of trumpeter Roger Gue- > the crowd had thinned out rionsid- rm of France, the baritone sax of ; era t, lv The official attendance was England's Ronnie Ross and the ‘ 15,090 and in the rear of the sta- drummer. Gilberto Cuppini of It- ; d i um . near the concession stands; aly, but the band as a whole con- j v j r tuai bedlam reigned where half tains first-class sidemeri, and is a college population of the cqun- powerful argument for the inter- ; trv see med on a toot, national significance of jazz. i v ;• Earlier in the day the John La ; Crowd Stays On Porta Quartet and the Jimmy ; The fundamental seriqusness of Giuffre trio explored some of the the crowd, however, was illustrated new polyphonic directions of chain- by the fact that two or three thou- ber jazz, and rounded off an en- sand endured the drizzle, which gaging afternoon. i turned to a downpour, as Miss BG Hod^enodp-f -Jackson continued. Her voice shone J*** Hodgepodge like a light thrpugh the storm, and. The Benny Goodman evening its note of passionate sincerity W’hrch followed was something : of. ; catne through to knots of specta- a hodgepodge. And paradoxically ; tora huddled under raincoats and enough it was due to the lengthy [ she ltdred in the lee of floodlamps. estra is hardly in the same class t'?••»*.v^-lSlK. with his bands ot the ’30’s, and too i <i lar . lnetlst many ghosts o£ yesteryear were I a cal ooraman whose eq p- stalking the performance. A com- " lent "f oumS Plete evening of tho band had be 1 near the stage. The. public nostalgic noints r“Sing c; n pr Qi nf *» display was not an endearing one and some of the other standards) ; as far . as , th ® f p £ t<: SS.w not but after awhile monotony set in. concerned, but his playrng . Jimmy Rushing with a superlative treatment of the bluesy and voca- \ v ^ e f" T €d ^ ' ^rrow _cidentally, was. part of a film cre\y list Martha Tilton, who sounds as fresh as she did in the halcyon Goodman period, relieved it con¬ siderably. The best of the Festival, and probably its most concrete con¬ tribution to the art of jazz, took place at 10.a.m. on Saturday morn¬ ing under the guise of a lecture on the jazz dance by critic Marshall Steams. Assisted by Leon Jamies and Albert Minns, former ‘‘kings” of the Savoy Ballroom who pre¬ sented the dance illustrations mag¬ nificently, Stearns covered the whole obscure history of American jazz dancing, from the cakewalk and the shakedown dow. to The Stroll and The Fish, popular with today's rock ’n rollers. It was anything but a longhair lecture, and had it been presented under publicized auspices- would have wowed the Festival on ente.Tr fainment value alone. The modern dances of the Presley set were con¬ nected to a seemingly remote time when plantation slaves danced for a cake; and suddenly the. entire saga of American dancing was plain as a folk dance. As Steams pointed out, “it has yet tr be. used. -Broadway musicals have always looked to Europe for their choreog- cidentally, was . part of a film crew making a documentary on the Fes¬ tival, and several of the perform¬ ers obviously showed ayersiori for the idea* turning their back to tlie lens in gentler suggestions that they, didn’t want to. get into the act. The cameras were banned for the Goodman appearance on Fri¬ day-night. . .The Jazz Modes topped the Sun¬ day program, with a : muted set of cool jazz arid were succeeded by Anita-O’Day, who presented, a styl¬ ized songalog. The Lee Konitz group presented spine of the more advanced. jazz styles; and the Billy Taylor ; Trio, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver Quintet, Sonny Stitt,. J. J. Johnson and Sal Salvador were scheduled to round off the program. Sunday night, Louie . Armstrong joined forces with the international band on “The SUriny Side of the Street," and Chris Connor, Max Roach, Don Elliott arid Dinah Washington were among the stars who rang down the curtain. ■The 1958 Festival in many-ways has been a distinguished one, But in other ways it is apparent that the package is becoming glossier than the contents. The cleavage be¬ tween the afternoon and evening raphy, and right here is our own ; concerts — one commercial, the back yard, we've got a wealth of j other non-commercial— was obvi- material that’s never been discov- I ous, arid in other ways the town ered.” The. performance of Minns f 0 f .Newport is stixssirig.jazz as Big and James was so infectious that it had the small audience yelling for mere, Saturday afternoon was/a “crit¬ ic’s choice” concert that took place Business.; It is expressed in the night clubs (the Viking bar stays open until five in the morning), in the Chamber of Commerce jazz pitch on signs all over the city, in before some 5,000 humid fans. Fria- (the crowds themselves which have Wednesday, July 9, 1958 French Disk Bestsellers Paris, June 24. - (Colonel Bogey March. /Miller : (Philips). Le Gondolier .,... . . iDalida (Barclay) Marjolaine ........Lemarque (Philips); La Foule .............; . Piaf (Pathe) ' Histoire D!tJn Amour.Dalida . (Barclay) Bnenas Noches .v.. .Daldia % (Barclay) Only Yon . . . . . . .-. Platters (Barclay). Diana ;....... . Arika / (Vega) .... Julie La Rousse ... Lafforgue . (Pathe) Lai Pluie Viendra .... . Becaud . .(Pathe). grown from a few aficionados into ah apdierice drawn here by the massive concentration of press that has spread the word about the Fes¬ tival far arid wide. There is a lun¬ atic fringe to the attendance (in the afternoons one character seems _ to be trying to outdo an¬ other in weird costumes, 1 beards and lingo) but generally it. is a non-jazz audience; which is an en¬ couraging sign for the Festival’s future. ; Whether or not it is; realizing its ideal is questionable. The Festival serves to promote jazz rather than to lead it; arid under the high- pressure auspices of the perform¬ ance it is doubtful if much of a creative nature can be attempted. That some is attempted and suc¬ ceeds is a sign of the event’s basic health. The- World Series of jazz is here to stay. Mike Daniels has been named manager of the. Salt Lake: City branch for Decca Records. He was a former salesman in Seattle for the company. AFM Gets Solons’ Aid Continued from, page 53 ssssssss. ■Thompson (D., who called for a probe of the effect on Amer¬ ican artists and musicians of im¬ portation of both sound record¬ ings and exposed or developed mo¬ tion picture film “in order to take advantage of beneficial tax conse¬ quences,” as well as what changes in the law should be made to pro¬ tect American performing artists and musicians and to alleviate any problems of uriemploymerit caused by such importations. The Thompson resolution would take in a probe of the practice of American producers of feature films for theatrical distribution. of filming abroad, as well as investi¬ gating tv film and sound-track pro¬ duction abroad. . Thompson told Congress “I am convinced that the time has come for the Congress to take a long, hard look at this pervasive threat to the future of American music, the American’ musician and, in¬ deed, to the future of all our liv¬ ing arts/’ He assailed, “a wide¬ ly labelled American-made prod¬ uct which, in fact, bypasses the American musician and denies him the job opportunities he needs so desperately.” Kenin held a special press con¬ ference following his quick talks with Congressmen and Senators about the problem, and expressed his gratification at the “sympa¬ thetic” reception accorded him in his presentation of the problem. He raised a point at the press conference about “labelling” the foreign music for tv audiences. He contended that in an American film about an American cowboy filmed in the American west, the public naturally assumes the music is also American, and this amounts to mis¬ labelling. Kenin touched on other matters.- He expressed confidence that AFM would win its collective bargaining election in Hollywood against the Musicians Guild and “will recon¬ firm its; time-honored status as spokesman for musicians in the major Hollywood motion picture studios/’ He said after the vic¬ tory is won, AFH will immediately reripen strike settlement; talks with major Hollywood producers and “soon, I am convinced, many thou¬ sands more, musicians will Be mak¬ ing music^-and playing in har¬ mony.” .'V Kenin told the press conference that “these very current and sig¬ nificant developments on the Wash¬ ington scene, coupled with what we have been able to do in HoHv- wood in the last two weeks with respect to creating several.million dollars, in payrolls for musicians gives us much encouragement at the very commencement of what will he a determined and continu¬ ing ‘back-to-work’ drive on -behalf of the unemployed musicians.” Snyder Heads Cabot Joe E. Snyder has taken over as prexy of the indie Cq^ot Records label? He replaces Paul J. Wexler who moved river to the newly formed Colpix Records as. director of operations. Colpix is a division of Columbia Pictures. Jonie Taps is the overall boss. Tlie hew Cabot prez was former¬ ly in record distribution in Phila¬ delphia and more recently with Columbia Records. . ■ f^RIETY Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue j NOTE: The current eomparative sales strength of the Artists and Tunes listed hereunder ts arrived at under a statistical system, comprising each of the three major sales outlets enu¬ merated. above.. These findings are correlated ibith data front wider sources, which are exclusive with VARiiiTY; The positions resulting from these findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de¬ veloped from the ratio .of points scored, two ways in the case of talent (coin machines, retail disks.) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks arid retail sheet music). IT'Zl talent Week Week ARTIST AND LABEL - • 1 SHEB WOOLEY (MGM)- 2 2 COASTERS (Atco) , r . 3 6 PEREZ PRADO (Victor) ....... / 4 J 8 ELYIS PRESLEY (Victor) .. . .. ...; 5 • ’ RICKY NELSON (Imperial) ......,. 6 BOBBY DARIN (Atco) 7 5 JIMMIEr* RODGERS (Roulette) 8 3 EVERLYBROS. (Cadence) .. ? ..... . - 9 KALIN TWINS (Decca) . .V:. 10 : ;4. ' DEAN MARTIN (Capitol) ... ....... TUNE ... Purple People Eaterf v... >, Yakety Yakf . ...... Patriciaf v (Hard Headed Woman* ••••••{Don’t Ask Me Why* . . .. Poor Little Foolf : Splish Splashf Secretly* ... .. . All I Have To Do Is Dreamt When*-' ....... Return To Me* PUBLISHER f-- ....... Cordial ..... Planetary ......... Tiger ,.. i Acuff-Roisa Peer Int. . . . .. Southern ....... Gladys ......... Eric ,..... Portrait .... Beechwood