Playlist for Tuesday, May 1, 2007

• Duke Ellington - Ellington At Newport (1956)
  Diminuendo In Blue And Crescendo In Blue (14:20)
  
  Just before midnight with half the audience on the way out the door, the depressed and frustrated band took the stage. The band did their thing for a few minutes, essentially setting the stage for the tenor sax solo. When he started, it was just a solo, but when he continued into the sixth and then the seventh chorus, the audience started to pay attention.
  
  It was the Newport 1956 performance that made the headlines. Staying tightly on the beat, repeating certain theme lines he improvised along the way without overdoing them, and accompanied only by Ellington at the piano, bassist Jimmy Woode, and drummer Sam Woodyard, Gonsalves by the seventh chorus had kicked the audience into a slowly swelling round of noisy applause and cheering that didn't let up for the remainder of the piece. Even more mayhem erupted when a platinum blonde jumped out of her seat and started dancing frantically to Paul's solo.
  
  So loud and excited had the crowd become that Ellington -- against the wishes of festival organisers, but knowing that stopping then might have caused a genuine riot -- shifted to some less rhythmically vigorous material to bring them back down. The performance became the centerpiece of a live Ellington album from the festival; it resurrected Ellington as a major attraction and gave him (and, for time enough, Columbia Records's jazz catalog) the best-selling recording (Ellington at Newport) of his long and distinguished career.


• Beverly Kenney - Like Yesterday (1959)
  Undecided (2:15)


• Blossom Dearie - For Cafe Apres-Midi
  Guys And Dolls (2:48)


• Diana Krall - From This Moment On (2006)
  Isn't This A Lovely Day (6:07)


• Kate Schutt - No Love Lost (2007)
  Peter Please


• Kate Schutt - No Love Lost (2007)
  Wrecking Ball


• Kate Schutt - No Love Lost (2007)
  Mary


• Holly Cole - Holly Cole (2007)
  The House Is Haunted By the Sound of your Last Goodbye


• Michael Occhipinti - And Creation Dream (2007)
  Blackout Blues


• Mel Tormé - Swingin' On The Moon (1993)
  Blues In The Night (3:36)


• Shirley Horn - You're My Thrill
  I Got Lost in His Arms (4:51)