The Sound of Jazz explained

Presenter:John Crosby
Starring:Count Basie
Billie Holiday
Thelonious Monk
Red Allen
Jimmy Giuffre
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Episodes:1
Executive Producer:Nat Hentoff
Whitney Balliett
Charles H. Schultz
Camera:Multi-camera
Runtime:54 minutes
Network:CBS

"The Sound of Jazz" is a 1957 edition of the CBS television series The Seven Lively Arts and was one of the first major programs featuring jazz to air on American network television.

Overview

The one-hour program aired on Sunday, December 8, 1957, live from CBS Studio 58, the Town Theater at 851 Ninth Avenue in New York City.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The show was hosted by New York Herald Tribune media critic John Crosby, directed by Jack Smight, and produced by Robert Herridge. Jazz writers Nat Hentoff and Whitney Balliett were consultants.

The Sound of Jazz features performances by musicians from the swing era, including Count Basie, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Jo Jones, and Coleman Hawkins; Chicago-style players of the same era, such as Henry "Red" Allen, Vic Dickenson, and Pee Wee Russell; and modern jazz musicians such as Gerry Mulligan, Thelonious Monk, and Jimmy Giuffre.[8] These players played separately but also joined to combine styles in one group, such as Red Allen's group and the group backing Billie Holiday on "Fine and Mellow". The show's performance of "Fine and Mellow" reunited Holiday with her friend Lester Young for the final time. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff recalled that during rehearsals Holiday and Young kept to opposite sides of the room. Young was very weak, and Hentoff told him to skip the big band section of the show and that he could sit while performing in the group with Holiday.

During the performance of "Fine and Mellow", Webster played the first solo. "Then", Hentoff remembered:

Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard, and [he and Holiday] were looking at each other, their eyes were sort of interlocked, and she was sort of nodding and half–smiling. It was as if they were both remembering what had been—whatever that was. And in the control room we were all crying. When the show was over, they went their separate ways.[9]
Within two years, both Young and Holiday had died.

Noting that the cameras were employed as "straight reportorial tools", Jack Gould observed in a review in The New York Times, "It was the art of video improvisation wedded to the art of musical improvisation; the effect was an hour of enormously creative and fresh TV."[10]

The album version of The Sound of Jazz telecast is derived from a rehearsal (recorded on December 4) that preceded the telecast held at Columbia's 30th Street studios) and is not the soundtrack. The album was released by Columbia in 1958. The recording does not include all of the performers present on the telecast (Mulligan refused to participate because no additional payment was involved) and includes several who were not on the show. Bassist Walter Page rehearsed and is featured on the album, but he collapsed on the way to the studio for the telecast.

Personnel

Songs

On VHS/DVD

Personnel and tracks listed on [11]

On the 1958 LP

The Sound of Jazz
Type:soundtrack
Artist:Various
Released:1958
Recorded:December 4, 1957
Genre:Jazz
Label:Columbia

Side 1

  1. "Wild Man Blues" (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton) – 4:46
  2. "Rosetta" (William Henri Woode, Earl Hines) – 4:56
  3. "Fine and Mellow" (Billie Holiday) – 6:19
  4. "Blues" (Jimmy Giuffre, Pee Wee Russell) – 6:52

Side 2

  1. "I Left my Baby" (Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie, Andy Gibson) – 4:27
  2. "The Train and the River" (Giuffre) – 4:42
  3. "Nervous" (Mal Waldron) – 3:43
  4. "Dickie's Dream" (Basie, Lester Young) – 5:52

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Dunlap . David W. . TV Industry Scrambles for Studio Space . 23 March 2022 . . 28 March 1993 . 1 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211201161809/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/28/realestate/tv-industry-scrambles-for-studio-space.html . live .
  2. Web site: Town Theatre in New York, NY . Cinema Treasures . 23 March 2022 . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202238/http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4128 . live .
  3. Web site: CBS News' THE MORNING SHOW set located in Studio 55 in New York City . . 23 March 2022 . New York, NY. . en-us . August 12, 1954 . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202238/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-the-morning-show-set-located-in-studio-55-in-new-york-news-photo/625765626 . live .
  4. Web site: Ellerbee . Bobby . History of CBS New York Television Studios: 1937-1965 . Eyes Of A Generation...Television's Living History . 23 March 2022 . 16 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220116161619/https://eyesofageneration.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-History-of-CBS-New-York-Television-Studios-1937-1965-1.pdf . live .
  5. Web site: Dutkowski . David . Television: Critique . Ray Manzarek of The Doors . 23 March 2022 . 26 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230126225815/https://raymanzarek.com/television-critique/ . live .
  6. Web site: CBS Television Studio 58 (previously as The Town Theater) 851 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY at the northwest corner of West 55th Street. Later becomes location of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. November 19, 1951. . . 23 March 2022 . en-us . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202237/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/television-studio-58-851-ninth-avenue-new-york-ny-at-the-news-photo/1159087997 . live .
  7. Web site: CBS Television Studio 58 (previously as The Town Theater) 851 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY at the northwest corner of West 55th Street. Later becomes location of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. . . 23 March 2022 . en-us . November 19, 1951 . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202236/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/television-studio-58-851-ninth-avenue-new-york-ny-at-the-news-photo/1159087976 . live .
  8. Web site: The Sound of Jazz (1957) . youtube . 23 March 2022 . en . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202226/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyykMHvDT88&gl=US&hl=en . live .
  9. Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Jazz: A History of America's Music (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000) p.405
  10. News: Gould . Jack . TV: Accent Was on Jazz; 'Seven Lively Arts' Comes Into Its Own With Exciting Modern Music Program . 55 . 23 March 2022 . . 9 December 1957 . 23 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220323202236/https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/09/archives/tv-accent-was-on-jazz-seven-lively-arts-comes-into-its-own-with.html . live .
  11. "The Greatest Jazz Films Ever", idem home video, IDVD 1059.

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