Newport in NY '72 - The Jam Sessions 1 & 2

I recently picked up all six volumes in NM condition for $20! I confess I got lazy on the scans and used the ones that accompanied my old mp3 copies from the Cobblestone blog of a few years back.

Foolish and violent vandals nearly succeeded in putting an end to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1971. George Wein underestimated the draw of booking The Allman Brothers, 10's of thousands more people showed up than there were tickets or room on the grounds for and a mob of gate crashers boiled through the fences during Dione Warwick and rushed the stage, destroying everything in their path. The relationship with the city of Newport, always a rocky one, suffered such damage it would take nine years to recover from it.

As a result Wein moved his festival to New York City in 1972, using multiple venues like Yankee Stadium, Radio City Music Hall and Wollman skating rink in Central Park for the next 9 years. I went for the first two and saw some of these shows. Newport has always been the home of the Jam Session; for better or worse George has always loved putting diverse groups of musicians on a stage and letting the sparks fly. These two jams were at the old Radio City Music Hall I am pretty sure I did not see either of these (it has been a looong time).

Volume One: Radio City Music Hall, July 6, 1972 

side a: Jumpin at Woodside
side b: Lo-Slo Blues

Cat Anderson, Jimmy Owens - trumpet; Charles McPherson alto sax; Buddy Tate tenor sax; Milt Buckner organ; Roland Hanna piano; Charles Mingus bass; Alan Dawson drums

Volume Two: Radio City Music Hall, July 3, 1972

side a: Bag's Groove
side b: Night in Tunisia

Dizzy Gillespie trumpet; Stan Getz tenor sax; Benny Green trombone, Milt Jackson vibes; John Blair violin; Kenny Burrell guitar; Mary Lou Williams piano; Percy Heath bass; Max Roach drums; Big Black congas

Were I looking at the program and trying to decide where to spend my money (and I suppose I was back then, I just don't remember) I would have chosen the July 3 show over the July 6 show....and I would have been wrong! For whatever reason the Volume One jam gels much more than the Volume Two show, the second show has some powerful moments no doubt, Diz, Kenny and John Blair all have some great solo moments, but there is a lot of indecision and differences of opinion on tempo and such too.