Newport Jazz Festival (July 4, 1957)

An audio actuality of a segment of the opening night of the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, heard exactly as it took place that evening. All of the music performed was part of a birthday tribute to Louis Armstrong, whose performance capped off the event. What we hear here, however, is music from the event's first three sets: a musical excursion to New Orleans courtesy of clarinetist George Lewis and his ensemble, pianist Bobby Henderson playing a program of Fats Waller favorites, and selections by a hand-picked group of Armstrong alumni led by the great trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen.

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