LESTER YOUNG, DIZZY GILLESPIE AND OTHERS

Four concert and tour programmes for Norman Granz’ Jazz at the Philharmonic series, 1951-58, comprising: JATP at the Gaumont State, London, 8 March 1953, for two back-to-back charity gala concerts, ‘being the first appearance of an American Jazz group in Britain for eighteen years’, signed in ink at their portraits by tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Flip Phillips, trumpeter Charlie Shavers, and altoist Willie Smith, together with an original handbill for the concert, 267 x 188 mm; JATP 10^th National Tour, 1951, signed at their portraits by Norman Granz, tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Flip Phillips, and pianist Oscar Peterson; JATP 14^th National Tour, 1954, signed in ink at their portraits by Norman Granz, Dizzy Gillespie, Flip Phillips, clarinettist Buddy De Franco, drummer Louie Bellson and bassist Ray Brown, accompanied by a letter of provenance from Norman Saks; JATP First British Tour, 2-18 May 1958, signed by Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and trumpeter Roy Eldridge; each wire-stitched in original pictorial wraps, the largest 305 x 230 mm.

The Jazz at the Philharmonic series began with a concert organised by jazz impresario Norman Granz at Los Angeles’ Philharmonic Auditorium on 2 July 1944. The ever-changing group recorded and toured extensively, with Granz producing some of the first live jam session recordings to be distributed to a wide market. After several JATP concerts in Los Angeles in 1944 and 1945, Granz began producing JATP concert tours, from late fall of 1945 to 1957 in USA and Canada, and from 1952 in Europe. They featured swing and bop musicians and were among the first high-profile performances to feature racially integrated bands. Granz also insisted on integrated audiences and equal treatment for white and black artists.

[With:] a colour photograph of Dizzy Gillespie, circa 1982 [printed later], signed on the mount in pencil 'Bob Adams', chromogenic print, 280 x 278 mm, in window mount (510 x 410 mm).