Newport was the famous happening, before happenings were even thought of, and certainly long before people started writing books about individual albums. It was Gonsalves’ extended solo on ‘Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue’ that made the news, and incidentally made explicit the connection between 1950s Ellington and R&B. But there was other excellent stuff, including Hodges on ‘Jeep's Blues’ and Clark Terry on ‘Newport Up’. This reissue sounds identical to the Columbia double, with all of its live stuff (some originally unissued), its studio remakes with fake applause and its early-evening broadcast – with the addition of three studio tracks and three from a broadcast, done earlier the same year. Rotterdam, on the other hand, sees things in a state of flux – extra trumpets to fill a gap, reedman Turney playing trombone parts (really!) – but also the last European tour for Hodges and Lawrence Brown. This is the band that later the same month did Ellington's so-called 70th Birthday Concert, a more expansive double-LP that perhaps trumps the present CD. But here you still get a great ‘La Plus Belle Africaine’, the organ of Davis taking over ‘Satin Doll’, and the latest variation of ‘Diminuendo’ featuring three tenors on ‘In Triplicate’. A radio recording with good balance and enthusiastic atmosphere.