NRR Project: 'Jazz at the Philharmonic' (July 2, 1944)

 

NRR Project: ‘Jazz at the Philharmonic’

Recorded July 2, 1944

First, let me point you to Tom Maxwell’s clear and comprehensive essay on this entry at the National Recording Registry.

Jazz changed during the war years. Swing music faded away as the dominant form. The tight arrangements and sweeping sway of Goodman, Shaw, Miller, and Dorsey no longer enchanted the majority of the country’s listeners. Instead, singers began to become the focus of mainstream music, and bands began to perform as glorified backup ensembles.

Meanwhile, bebop came along, forged on the West Coast in the mid-1940s. This new style, in which jazz became a kind of chamber music, cut out the need to make something to dance to and replaced it with something connoisseurs could sit quietly and listen to. Much more adventurous in nature, bebop and related subgenres of jazz appealed to a smaller but enthusiastic listenership.

Enter Norman Granz. The jazz enthusiast and promoter was dedicated to providing the audience with content that was normally reserved for after-hours jam sessions. Granz wanted to bring this raw creativity to the average listener. He began booking gigs on Monday nights, first in clubs and then in L.A.’s Philharmonic Auditorium. He booked jazz’s greatest exponents and simply let them get together and blow.

The results he recorded and released, beginning a new tradition in jazz. The excitement of these live sessions was easily translated onto vinyl, and Granz continued to curate lively recording sessions for decades.

Another huge step forward was the debut of the racial integrated ensemble. To this point in jazz history, there had been white bands and Black bands. Granz struck down those barriers, choosing his participants for their talent, not for the color of their skin.

The lineup for the very first Jazz at the Philharmonic was stellar. Nat King Cole played paino, and Les Paul was on guitar. Illinois Jacquet and Bumps Myers were on tenor sax, pianist Lux Lewis was there, trumpeter Shorty Sherlock as well, Johnny Miller on bass, Together they tore up the night with wild improvisations, in front of an enthusiastic crowd. A newchapter in jazz was being written.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Library of Congress Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection, Second Battle of Guam. (July 20-August 11, 1944).