User:Jcooper1/The Jazz Scene

 The Jazz Scene  is an album of 78 RPM records produced by Norman Granz in 1949 in an effort to document what the current music and jazz artists of the time sounded like; only 5000 were pressed as a limited issue under Granz's Clef Records label. Granz was the developer and producer of the Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) shows that toured the country, The Jazz Scene was in part a direct product of these shows. The set included music from what have become some of most historic and influential names in American jazz music: Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Machito, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and others. The later Verve Records CD re-issue includes un-issued material from the sessions and tracks contained on other Norman Granz JATP affiliated recordings. The Jazz Scene is among a set of JATP recordings that are #9 on the list of important American sound recordings in the United States National Archives Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Background
There are very few American music impresarios, aficianados, promoters, historians, and documenters who served such a unique purpose as Norman Granz did in the 1940's and beyond. While there was very good work being done by John Hammond in discovering important American artists and interviews being conducted by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, Granz was promoting and recording what he clearly recognized as the most important and vibrant music in the world at that time: jazz. The Jazz Scene is an important set of recordings Granz set out to make during the time of his first, now legendary Jazz at the Philharmonic sets of concerts.

The original The Jazz Scene set of 78 rpms were groundbreaking in a certain sense because of three of the tracks, others fell by the wayside because of the limited release of only 5000 sets being pressed. There have been several re-incarnations of The Jazz Scene and now gratefully the entire original set plus other recorded material from that era of Granz recordings is on the 2 CD set.

Unlike his first Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings, which were much more of a jam session setting, Granz wanted this to be drastically different set of recordings that would best refect the contemporaty jazz scene. The artists were given complete control of what they would play, how they would play it, and ulitmately how it was recorded. Norman Granz had even intended to make this a yearly affair of recordings but the artists that Granz wanted and record company contractual oblitgations started to become restrictive as the music became more popular in the early 1950s.

The Duke Ellington/Harry Carney tracks "Sono" and "Frustration" are composed by Ellington himself for this project. These are unique in that Carney was the one who was appraoched by Granz and then Carney enlisted Ellington to create the backdrop for the musical paining Carney would sit inside. Ellington writes the works for strings, this is unique for Ellington and one of the rare times Ellington unitlizes a string section for his color pallet.

Neal Hefti's contribution to the Granz project comprises two sides that are Afro-Latin centric. Hefti had become well known for his work with Woody Herman and in 1942 he worked in Cuba becoming more familiar with the idiom of Afro-Cuban rhumba music during that time. Hefti had established a name for himself and Granz was interested in making sure the young composer and arranger was well documented. "Rhumbacito" and "Repetition" both use a big band with strings, this was a trend which was starting to happen during the late 1940s after the poplarity of Glenn Miller and the Modernaires. "Rhumbacito" is a work that stands on it's own two feet but is closer to a movie soundtrack scores of the time; the real diamond is "Repetition" which features alto saxophonist Charlie Parker as a soloist. There are two historic settings with strings which contain Parker's improvised solos: "Just Friends" (from Charlie Parker with Strings) and the aformentioned "Repetition." This is one of the truly magical moments in the history of American jazz that Granz was able to capture; the stars aligned to bring about some of the finest music ever written by Hefti and improvised by Parker.

Track listing, Disc I and II

 * Music written by Duke Ellington, Neal Hefti, Ralph Burns, George Handy, Charlie Parker, Mario Bauza, Billy Strayhorn, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Flip Phillips

Recording Sessions

 * September 21-22, at the Riverside Plaza Hotel, New York City

Musicians

 * Conductor – )
 * Alto saxophone –
 * Tenor saxophone –
 * Baritone saxophone –
 * Trumpet –
 * Trombone –
 * Bass Trombone –
 * Bass –
 * Drums –
 * Bongos -

Production

 * Producer (78s): Norman Granz
 * Recording (CD):
 * Remixing and remastering (CD):
 * Liner notes: (CD)

Reception
Reviews

WILLIAM GRIM, All About Jazz.com