The 1957 Newport Jazz Festival was heavily recorded; Count Basie, Cecil Taylor, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and more all had their sets released by Verve. This wailing performance by Dizzy Gillespie and his 15-member big band was one of the highlights of the event; the group included many of the players heard on his studio albums Birks’ Works, Dizzy In Greece and World Statesman, including trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, and trombonist Melba Liston, and pianist Mary Lou Williams makes a guest appearance on a 10-minute medley of sections from her Zodiac Suite. Lee Morgan gets a showcase on the closing track, “A Night In Tunisia”; three years later, he’d blow the walls down on a studio recording of the tune, as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, but here he’s relatively controlled. All the music is lush and swinging, with impeccable arrangements and precisely timed blasts of energy.

– Phil Freeman