Sunday, January 02, 2011

Chuck Berry at Newport, 1958


Chuck Berry doing "Sweet Little Sixteen" at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. Unlike the hit record version, this features a clarinet break. Thanks to miglesias64 for the clip, which comes from Bert Stern's documentary film Jazz on a Summer's Day.

I was tempted to write that the enthusiastic reception given Berry at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 contrasts with that given Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he did a set with electric guitar, organ and bass, as well as drums and piano. Some cursory research, however, convinced me that it is not clear that Dylan was booed for using non-traditional instruments instead of for poor sound quality or the shortness of his set.

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