About

"In early April, 1960, a large-scale jazz festival took place in Essen, one of the principal industrial cities of the Ruhr district in Western Germany. This city is notable not only for the Krupp works, but also for its enormous concert hall, the “Grugahalle,” an architectural and acoustical wonder with a seating capacity of no less than 8000.

In this hall were staged the two concerts that made up the third annual jazz festival in Essen, the “Essen Jazz Tage 1960” – on Saturday, April the 2nd, a concert of modern jazz; on the following day a concert devoted to various aspects of traditional jazz. This record captures some of the most memorable performances of the first of these concerts.

A German group, the Michael Naura Quintet, opened the concert and was followed by, in turn, a trio composed of Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke; Helen Merrill, accompanied by Pettiford; Coleman Hawkins with Powell-Pettiford-Clarke; the Dave Brubeck Quartet; and the Quincy Jones Orchestra.

Of these, the trio of Powell, Pettiford and Clarke, and the quartet with Hawkins were recorded for release on LP. However, contractual difficulties have, for more than three years, prevented the publication of this record, which has been awaited with impatience by the many people who heard about the project. Even though jazz musicians rarely remember their professional activities too well, both Kenny Clarke and Coleman Hawkins have recently said that they remember the concert very clearly and Hawkins even recalled two of the numbers he played. But in a way this is no wonder, since it rarely happens that musicians of this importance are brought together..." - Vinyl Me, Please