NRR Project: 'The Jazz Scene' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “The Jazz Scene”

Various artists

Produced by Norman Granz

Recorded 1949

2 hrs., 33 min.

Wow! I had heard pieces of this before, but I had no idea this album existed. It’s a jazz masterpiece, consisting of many talents contributing to a view of American jazz in the year 1954. Giants perform on this recording, and they play not their hits but new, challenging work that stretches the listeners’ sense of what the genre could accomplish.

Read Tad Hershorn’s epic, exhaustive essay on this album. The man to make this happen was the legendary producer Norman Granz (1918-2001), who supported the jazz community and worked for civil rights as well. Here he corrals great artists into doing whatever they want on record, going with the takes the artists approved of.

You must listen to this album! It carries a wide spectrum of performances, including: Charlie Parker. Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Nat ‘King’ Cole (on piano), , Buddy Rich, Bud Powell, and Billy Strayhorn. Here is Coleman Hawkins’ immortal solo piece, “Picasso,” and Machito’s hypnotic, stellar “Tanga,” bursting with horn blasts like shafts of light.

And so much more. Granz released the album in a set of only 5,000; he priced them at the then-astronomical $25. The album contained extensive liner notes, and photographs of the performers as well. It was truly a luxury object. This is America's classical music.

The extended version, gifted with some alternate takes, is over two hours of sonic bliss. I am listening to it again, all the way through.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Kiss Me, Kate’.