So Long, Lonesome.

Text 10
Notes January 7, 1959

the1959project:

Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong rehearse for the Timex All Star Jazz Show, 1959 (Maynard Frank Wolfe)
The fourth and final Timex All Star Jazz Show aired on January 7, and the hour-long program starred Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and George Shearing, among many others.
The series’ most famous product — Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie’s sole joint performance on film — is from this episode. They duetted on “Umbrella Man,” which was a Diz favorite; somewhat surprisingly, that performance was preceded by Gillespie playing “St. Louis Blues,” which was obviously much more a part of Armstrong’s catalog. It was clearly intended to be a “best of both worlds” concept between bebop and traditional jazz trumpet, but in practice the network TV medium meant the result was a bit soulless (though it’s still a gift to have any footage at all).
“Now that four Timex all star jazz shows have noised by, the pattern of the CBS-TV series is uncomfortably clear: The emphasis is on show rather than jazz,” wrote William Ewald in the Chicago Defender. “Whatever musical nourishment they might offer — and Wednesday night, there were a few cupfuls — was accidental. The aim is to provide a spectacle, a circus of sound and faces, an unconscious burlesque, if you will, of jazz complete with words like ‘dig,’ ‘man,’ and ‘blowing up a storm,’ They offer the sort of rustic exhibitions that genuine jazz buffs would hoot off stage.”
With that pithy commentary in mind, here are all the clips from that show that are available online.
The first (at the 2:39 mark) is Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars, with “Now You Has Jazz” (yikes) and “Tiger Rag.”
Here’s Dizzy Gillespie, Junior Mance, Les Spann, Sam Jones, and Lex Humphries.
The main event, with Armstrong and Gillespie.
Armstrong, Bobby Hackett, and Gene Krupa are in the band backing vocalist Barbara Dane, who sings “Old Fashioned Love.”
Dakota Staton performs “The Thrill Is Gone” with the George Shearing Quintet.
And finally, a sort of awkward jam session (that Tumblr won’t allow me to embed) that squeezes in the remaining talent: Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Milt Hinton, and Jo Jones, among others.