Jazz at Newport, '64: Some Faces

If you're used to taking your jazz in a club, Newport is rather a shock. Instead of the usual hot, smokey atmosphere, and the sweating, swinging musicians alternately caressing and blasting your ears, you sit anonymously at a distance in a cool summer breeze, listening to a series of musicians each of whom has about 45 minutes to get on stage, get warmed up, establish his mood, and then get off again. It's like a parade, but somehow nearly every artist can establish himself and make himself felt.

The audience, in turn, is almost literally grabbed by the ears and dragged from the frantic heights of Dizzy Gillespie's jazz to the satin tones of Sarah Vaughan, and then blasted back to reality (of sorts) by the big noise of Count Basie and his band. The Festival is a real tour de force of the jazz world, and while it can never achieve the warm, intimate atmosphere of a small night club, it presents a survey of jazzmen and their styles unmatched anywhere.