Newport Rebels

Newport Rebels
Studio album by
Jazz Artists Guild
Released1961
RecordedNovember 1 & 11, 1960
StudioNola Penthouse Studios in NYC
GenreJazz
Length39:34
LabelCandid CJM-8022/CJS-9022
ProducerBob d'Orleans
Charles Mingus chronology
Mingus
(1961)		 Newport Rebels
(1961)		 Oh Yeah
(1962)

Newport Rebels is an album by various artists released under the Jazz Artists Guild, led by bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, that was recorded in November 1960 and released on the Candid label.[1]

Background

Though the album is a standard studio album, the recording and group resulted from the 1960 Cliff Walk Manor (or C.W.M.[2]) concert, aka Newport Rebels festival, aka "the protest festival" and sometimes known as the "Rump Festival",[3] organized by Charles Mingus and Max Roach as a protest against the exploitation of the Newport Jazz Festival.[4][2][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

The regular 1960 Newport Jazz Festival was shut down by violent rioting[15][16][17][18]of drunken youths, while Mingus and Roach's alternative festival happened without incident.[19][20][13]

Nat Hentoff's liner notes explain the background situation of the album and festival:

The one positive accomplishment of the 1960 Newport Festival was the creation in rebellion of a musicians' festival at Cliff Walk Manor. As the 'official' rites were ending because of ugly rioting in the streets several hundred people were listening in calm and pleasure to the rebels at Cliff Walk. The dissidents had been organized by Charles Mingus and Max Roach in protest against the accelerating commercialization of the annual Ben-Hur-with-a-horn production of Freebody Park. It was exhilarating for the musicians involved to realize that for once in their careers, they were capable of formulating and sustaining their own ground rules without booking agents, impressarios, and other middlemen. The rebels set up their own tents for sleeping quarters, even stitching the canvas themselves; handled advertising and promotion; alternated as announcers of the rebels; and took tickets. (Mr. Mingus roamed the grounds besides, asking for payment from freeloaders outside the fence) [...].[21]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStar[11]
DownBeatStarStarHalf star[22]

The contemporaneous DownBeat reviewer commented: "One of the non-insignificant faults of this album is a looseness that induces sloppy playing", and identified Jones as the main culprit.[22] AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow states: "In 1960 bassist Charles Mingus helped to organize an alternative Newport Jazz Festival in protest of Newport's conservative and increasingly commercial booking policy. The music on this LP (which has been reissued on CD) features some of the musicians who participated in Mingus's worthy if short-lived venture".[11]

Track listing

  1. "Mysterious Blues" (Charles Mingus) – 8:35
  2. "Cliff Walk" (Booker Little) – 9:37
  3. "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" (Harry Barris) – 3:47
  4. "Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do" (Everett Robbins, Porter Grainger) – 7:11
  5. "Me and You" (Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Tommy Flanagan) – 9:46

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Charles Mingus discography, accessed May 1, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Balliett, Whitney (July 8, 1960). "Jazz Concerts". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 18, 2024.
  3. ↑ Goodman, John (2013). Mingus Speaks. University of California Press. p. 142.
  4. ↑ Lees, Gene (August 18, 1960). "Newport the Trouble" (PDF). Downbeat. Vol. 27, no. 17 (PDF). {{cite news}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)
  5. ↑ Jackson, Ashawnta (July 23, 2020). "The Newport Rebels and Jazz as Protest". JSTOR Daily Arts & Culture. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ Wilson, John S. (July 1, 1960). "2 JAZZ FESTIVALS OPEN IN NEWPORT; Original Series in Park Is Rivaled by New One on the Lawn of Near-by Hotel". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Johnson, David. "It's Time! Max Roach In The 1960s". Night Lights. Indiana Public Media. Archived from the original on January 9, 2026.
  8. ↑ Levy, Aidan (November 1, 2022). "Read an extract from Saxophone Colossus: The Life & Music Of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy". The Wire UK. Archived from the original on April 20, 2023.
  9. ↑ Wright, Matthew (June 18, 2024). "Jazz Artists Guild: Newport Rebels". Jazz Journal UK. Archived from the original on June 18, 2024.
  10. ↑ Ackerman, Karl (August 12, 2020). "The Rebel Festival". AllAboutJazz.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 Yanow, Scott. Newport Rebels – Review at AllMusic. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  12. ↑ Levy, Aidan (November 14, 2023). Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins. Da Capo.
  13. 1 2 Fremer, Michael (October 1, 2005). "Mingus! Roach! Dolphy! Eldridge! Jo Jones Fight Waterfront Commercialization". Analog Planet. Archived from the original on March 28, 2025.
  14. ↑ Mergner, Lee (April 20, 2022). "Charles Mingus @ 100: Christian McBride Reflects". Tidal.
  15. ↑ Special (July 3, 1960). "Riot Disrupts Newport Jazz Fete; Marines and Guardsmen Sent In; RIOT BREAKS OUT AT JAZZ FESTIVAL". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Wilson, John (July 4, 1960). "Newport Jazz Festival Closed Because of Rioting". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ White, Ted (January 1961). "Riot at Newport". Rogue. January 1961.
  18. ↑ Baker, Joe (December 12, 2012). "LOOKING BACK: 1960 Newport Jazz Festival riot". The Newport Daily News.
  19. ↑ Saul, Scott. "Outrageous Freedom: Charles Mingus and the Invention of the Jazz Workshop". American Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sep., 2001). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 387-419.
  20. ↑ Baldwin, Robert H. "Tale of Two Cities". The Pinkerton Eye (Fall 1960).
  21. ↑ Hentoff, Nat. Newport Rebels liner notes. Newport Rebels (Media notes).
  22. 1 2 DeMichael, Don (September 28, 1961). "Various Artists: Newport Rebels". DownBeat. Vol. 28, no. 20. pp. 41–42.
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