Buy It Online: Jazz At The Philharmonic - The 70th Anniversary Tribute Show CD

Jazz At The Philharmonic.  Newly available as a CD or download purchase, vintage jazz meets the modern age and isn't found wanting.  Producer and drummer Richard Pite talks us through the music:

All bar one track on the CD was recorded on a Sunday afternoon in September 2014 at London's Cadogan Hall. My Jazz Repertory Company has presented a dozen or so shows at this venue and I like it because of its intimacy (900 seats) and its fairly lively acoustic is perfect for our largely acoustic performances.

(Purchase the Album as a CD or download here)

Jazz At The Philharmonic 70th Anniversary Tribute Concert 

at Cadogan Hall, London.  Part I

We try to celebrate anniversaries at the Jazz Repertory Company (in the misguided belief that this will interest the media in running an article about what we do)  and 2014 marked the 70th anniversary of Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic.  The reason it’s so called was that he used The Philharmonic Hall in Los Angeles for the first concert in 1944 - on a Sunday afternoon when the symphony players and staff, who would have recoiled in horror at the noise emanating from the hallowed venue, were a safe distance away.

70th Anniversary JATP Concert At Cadogan Hall, London

The first concert was an instant hit and for the next forty years JATP toured the world bringing some of the greatest names in jazz to audiences whose delight and excitement are palpable in the many recordings of the live concerts that Granz's record labels Verve and Pablo released during and after the glory years. Granz managed the careers of Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald who were regulars on the JATP shows alongside greats such as Stan Getz, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Les Paul, Nat Cole, ClarkTerry, Ben Webster, Fats Navarro and many more.

Jazz At The Philharmonic 70th Anniversary Tribute Concert 

at Cadogan Hall, London.  Part II

The concerts mixed the stars of the swing era with the modernists and Granz was keen to get his musicians to play to the gallery and produce the kind of excitement that could be had when a couple of heavyweights would take each other on - louder, faster and higher!  I remember hearing, as a kid, the recording of Gene Krupa's drum battle with Buddy Rich (recorded in 1952 at Carnegie Hall) and thinking that the crowd was reacting as if they were watching Rocky Marciano slugging it out with Jersey Joe Walcott.   As Les Paul wrote about being on stage at the very first concert "I looked into the audience and I saw them standing on their seats. I said wow!... when it reached a climax I saw hats up in the air - they were screaming and shouting." In these days of more esoteric, cerebral modern jazz a response like that would be unthinkable!

Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich - Drum Battle

At Cadogan Hall the audience definitely were with Les Paul as you can hear.   However don't fret about the lack of audience response on Sweet Georgia Brown - that's the one studio track on the album , recorded at Angel Studios in Islington, North London on the evening of October 20^th. This was added to  give us the chance to feature some players who weren't present at our concert - James Pearson on piano, Tony Barnard on guitar, Alex Garnett and Sammy Mayne on saxophones and the bravura trumpet playing of Ryan Quigley battling in the last choruses with George Hogg.   Perhaps they should be introduced as "In the left corner, the Glasgow bruiser Rucking Ryan - in the right corner Pretty Boy Hogg - the Boy Wonder".

Georgina Jackson - He's Funny That Way

70th Anniversary JATP Concert At Cadogan Hall, London

There were many great moments at the concert - I was able to watch from the front stalls whilst Elliott Henshaw pounded his Slingerlands and I loved the three tenors wailing on Rifftide – Tom Walsh's solo on I Can't Get Started was superb and let's not forget our two ladies amongst that sea of testosterone. - Georgina Jackson and Nicola Emmanuelle paying respective tributes to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

70th Anniversary JATP Concert At Cadogan Hall, London

Pete Long and I now wish to use the JATP formula to try and entice a younger audience to come and experience the excitement that jazz can offer. Watch out for us in the coming years and we hope the age of our audience will be as diverse as that of the talent on stage.

The Jazz Repertory Company Showreel 

JATP Drum Battle At London's Cadogan Hall

Richard Pite, The Jazz Repertory Company

- Purchase the Album as a CD or download here.