Bonanza night on BBC4 - Dave Brubeck Quartet in Jazz 625 at 7.30pm, Dizzy Gillespie in Jazz 625 at 11pm, with 1959: the Year that Changed Jazz at 10pm. Caveat 1: these are the completely pointless early 1990s BBC2 re-edits of Jazz 625 with celebrity introductions (EDIT: I've never been happier to be wrong. Despite the billing indicating that the Slim Gaillard-introduced re-edit would be used, Brubeck was the 1964 original with Steve Race all present and correct. I'll forgive the periodically-wowing audio track and the couple of seconds missing at the start of 'Sounds of the Loop'. EDIT 2: Gillespie is the Humph-fronted original, not the Neneh Cherry-led repackaging I've endured for 20 years. I am wanking as I write this.). Caveat 2: I'm not sure that an equally cogent case couldn't be made for just about any year between 1935 and 1965. However, glass half-full and all that. Here's a bit from the Brubeck show - the awesome power of Joe Morello much to the fore:
I know precious little about jazz, as you know, but I can't help thinking they're focusing on 1959 because a) it's a nice round number of years ago, and b) to fit in with '1959: A Panorama Guide'. In citing 1959 as a key turning point of a year for Britain they're wholly justified: it was the year when the full ramifications of 1956 became obvious, and so is arguably even more important than the year of Suez itself. Not so sure about jazz, but I don't think the importance (or not) of 1959 in jazz is the sole reason why they're concentrating on it here, now.
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