Norman Granz’s first Jazz at the Philharmonic (J.A.T.P.) concerts took place in 1944, and by the early 1950s, whenever he brought his famous stars to town, it was a big deal. Today I’ll share with you four short news films that exist on the web, but are not all easy to find and have never been grouped together before.
Granz organized his first European tour from March 26 to April 21, 1952. I don’t know of any footage from that year, although there is some audio. But there are film clips, and audio, from the following year: J.A.T.P. returned to Europe from February 15 to March 23, 1953. On February 23, they performed in Helsinki, Finland, and some footage was shot for the news item below. This has appeared on Youtube with the wrong country listed, but it is definitely the Helsinki concert. The opening words are (literally), “Helsinki, who’s calling?,” meaning “Helsinki, look who’s here!” Also, the letters YLE in the upper right indicate the Finnish Broadcasting Company. There is a copy with better resolution here, but it’s missing the opening titles which are included in my complete version below. The players are introduced by name, but the sound is not synchronized, so don’t be disappointed—when you see Lester Young, you are still hearing Flip Phillips! Drummers J.C. Heard and Gene Krupa get a lot of space. At 1:24 you’ll see three saxophonists—the one on the right, who does not get announced, is Willie Smith. Here is the news item:
A few days later, on February 26, 1953, the group was in Hamburg, Germany, and another news item was filmed. (The face at the beginning is the end of the previous news item.) This one has a few bits of synchronized sound— when Ella sings, and when Charlie Shavers plays a spectacular trumpet solo. Let’s watch:
Before going to Europe, the musicians had gone on a tour of Hawaii, Australia and Japan. Here’s a photo of them all in Hawaii from Metronome, taken in March but published in April 1953. (Rich and Eldridge were not available for the European concerts.)
The 1954 tour began with a concert in Brussels, Belgium on February 6. I vaguely recalled having seen news footage, and my friend Francesco Martinelli found it for us. He is one of the leading jazz historians in Italy, and is the editor of The History of European Jazz, which brings together essays by experts from many countries. The short film below, entitled “Harlem in Rome,” was part of a weekly newsreel series, La Settimana Incom, that was shown in movie theaters before feature films. This one is dated March 12, 1954, so the concert in Rome that it captures must have taken place during the previous week. This one actually is synchronized—but the sound is playing a few seconds behind the visual. First, you’ll see Fitzgerald with John Lewis on piano. Then Flip Phillips plays the saxophone, with Oscar Peterson on piano. The other musicians are Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, drummer Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, trombonist Bill Harris, Benny Carter on trumpet, and, on the far right, Charlie Shavers. I believe that’s Granz who walks up at the very end (it’s a bit hard to see). Let’s watch:
My understanding is that audio tapes exist of this entire concert in the vaults of the Concord Music Group. I wonder if they could be persuaded to release them?
Thanks to Francesco Martinelli, we also have a photo of a reception for the musicians, with three of their Italian hosts, published in Musica Jazz March 1954. The names from left to right are under the photo. Testoni and Polillo were pioneering jazz journalists, with Polillo also being editor of Musica Jazz for many years, from its founding in 1945. The reception was hosted by the FIDJ (the Italian Federation of Jazz), in which Mario Lappo was evidently active.
Now, of course Granz’s jazz artists did not only tour Europe. During the late 1940s and through the 1950s they also traveled every year on at least one, sometimes two, tours across the U.S.A. The 1955 tour lasted from September 16 to October 31. In the middle of the schedule there were concerts in Texas, and when they flew into Fort Worth on October 4, the local TV cameras met them at the airport. (The Dallas-Fort Worth airport opened years later, in 1974.) My friend, jazz researcher James Accardi, spotted this silent footage online as part of the NBC 5/KXAS Television News Archive, University of North Texas (UNT) Special Collections. (At the time the station was WBAP-TV.) The UNT Libraries have kindly given me permission to share this clip here, but please note that it is only allowed here and cannot be posted anywhere else on the web without permission. In other words, as always, you should share the link to this page, not the content.
As the silent footage was shown on TV news, a newscaster read a script, which is also available through UNT Libraries. First, let’s see the film. You’ll see Buddy Rich getting off the plane, followed by some non-JATP passengers; then Granz, Peterson, a beautiful close-up of Lester Young speaking, Ellis, bassists Brown and Whitey Mitchell (Red Mitchell’s brother, who was on the tour with Gene Krupa), Dizzy Gillespie, and Granz with Ella Fitzgerald:
And below is the announcer’s script—he’s reading the names of the musicians on the program, not necessarily saying who is seen getting off the plane. In fact, Young is not even mentioned—a sad commentary on his declining fame, which I’ve discussed. But the script includes a few lines that the narrator should save for the moment that he sees Dizzy. Gillespie says he feels great because he’s a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Why did Dizzy say that? Because that very day—October 4, 1955—the Dodgers had won the World Series against the Yankees. (This page is also here by permission of UNT Libraries and is not to be shared anywhere else, please.) Let’s read:
But this was of course the Deep South in 1955. Just three days later, at the Houston concert on October 7, police officers arrested Dizzy and Illinois Jacquet for “illegal gambling” because they were throwing dice backstage for money between shows. They also arrested Ella, her cousin and attendant, Georgiana Henry, and Granz, for being bystanders to the “crime.” This was reported in newspapers and jazz magazines. Of course, Granz always fought against such racism—he got a good lawyer and got the charges dismissed.
I hope you enjoyed this essay.
You probably know that the University of North Texas (UNT; formerly North Texas State U.) has one of the oldest and largest jazz programs in the world. So it’s no accident that the UNT Libraries have a tremendous amount of great jazz material digitized and available online. For example, the archives of the famous Voice of America radio host Willis Conover are here; and interviews by NPR radio producer Tim Owens are at this link.
For help with this essay, in addition to Accardi and Martinelli acknowledged above, I thank Tad Hershorn, Granz’s biographer, who shared some JATP itineraries with me, and my late friend Frank Büchmann-Møller, whose Lester Young biography has a detailed itinerary at the back. And I am very grateful to UNT Librarians Gabrielle Milburn, Lyndsay Knecht, and especially Maristella Feustle and Morgan Geiringer.
All the best,
Lewis