At Newport

For his appearance at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, Count Basie welcomed back tenor saxophonist Lester Young and vocalist Jimmy Rushing, veterans of his group who’d been gone for a while. They returned in top form, slotting back into the hard-swinging ensemble’s foot-tapping arrangements like they’d never left. Being onstage allowed the Basie band to stretch far beyond the three-minute constraints of the studio, and some of these performances become almost ecstatic in their longer, even more energetic versions, particularly the closing, nearly nine-minute “One O’Clock Jump” that features blazing solos from Young, fellow tenor Illinois Jacquet, and trumpeter Roy Eldridge. Basie’s other singer, Joe Williams, also delivers on tracks like “Roll ’Em Pete” and “All Right, Okay, You Win.”