The Live in Chester

Dizzy Gillespie

  • AllMusic Rating
    8
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

The Live in Chester Review

by Scott Yanow

Recorded less than a month before their exciting appearance at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra is in excellent form on this date from a concert in Chester, Pennsylvania. Despite there being liner notes, nowhere on this CD is the personnel of the orchestra listed. In addition to the trumpeter/leader, the key soloists are trombonist Al Grey, tenor-saxophonist Billy Mitchell and during the first part of "A Night in Tunisia," a young Lee Morgan. Other than an Austin Kromer vocal on "Wonder Why," the performances are generally quite rewarding with this version of the torrid "Cool Breeze" making for an intriguing comparison with the classic rendition from Newport.

blue highlight denotes track pick