JATP – Jazz at the Philharmonic – are the four mythical letters representing a series of concerts that helped the world fall in love with jazz. Norman Granz was behind the project, the man known as the "most successful impresario in the history of jazz." He worked with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker ... the list goes on and on. The JATP series was shot between the 40s and the 60s, aiming to showcase the world's best jazz artists and, from 1958-60, the series went to Paris. Here, before a crowd of established jazz lovers (the post-war years saw an explosion of the genre in France), the Pleyel arena played host to a music vibrating with the innovation of previous decades, capturing the vivacious zeitgeist of an increasingly developed, progressive and complex world.
Part two of this concert series offers a cast that might as well be playing up on high as the universe's all-star band. So full of stars, the horn section is comprised of Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Don Byas. They work through standards, mixing them with improvised sections that lay bare just how alive and kicking jazz was in this era. The latter part of the concert features a notable solo from Candido Camero, the Cuban percussionist known for helping to popularize Latin-jazz and a true unnovator of the humble congo drum.
