FITZGERALD - North Sea Jazz Concert Series 1979 (White Vinyl)

BERTUS DISTRIBUTION INTRODUCES NORTH SEA JAZZ
CONCERT SERIES
Bertus Distribution, in collaboration with NTR, AVROTROS and
MOJO, presents a new vinyl series consisting of live recordings
of legendary artists through the decades made at the renowned
North Sea Jazz Festival.
The North Sea Jazz Concert Series will include officially licensed releases that will
be released as standard on 180-gram white vinyl in a sleeve of heavy paper printed
on reversed board. The records will be captured in mainly black-and-white artwork by
Hans Pol in his signature style of the festival with inspiration from the covers of classic
older jazz releases from the Blue Note label, for example. The liner notes are written by
journalist and jazz expert Jeroen de Valk.
For the first release in this series, the honour is given to one of the most famous jazz
singers ever, Ella Fitzgerald. On Friday 13 July 1979, she gave a raucous and peerless
performance at the festival then still held in The Hague. The "First Lady Of Song"
worked her way with verve through standards like 'There Will Never Be Another You',
'Satin Doll', 'Round Midnight' and 'Mr Paganini'. Her accompanists that night were Paul
Smith on piano, Keter Betts on bass and Mickey Roker on drums; a trio line-up with the
power of a big band.
Future releases will include NSJ recordings by such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy
Rich, Ray Charles, Dexter Gordon and Jan Akkerman. It will be a long-running series
with the aim of releasing the most extraordinary NSJ performances on vinyl.
The first edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival took place in 1976 at The Hague's
Nederlands Congresgebouw with some 9,000 visitors. In the first year, jazz legends
such as Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz performed
alongside a host of artists from the Dutch avant-garde.
The festival, officially NN North Sea Jazz since 2018, has now developed into a major
international event that is also known beyond the Dutch borders as an event where jazz
from the past, present and future merges with other genres such as blues, soul, funk,
hiphop, pop and more. Over the years, it has grown to fifteen venues, around thirteen
hundred musicians and an annual audience of between eight-five and ninety thousand.
Since 2006, the festival has been held in new wider venue, namely Rotterdam Ahoy.

Vinyl release of Fitzgerald, Ella - North Sea Jazz Concert Series 1979 (White Vinyl). Released through NORTH SEA JAZZ and available on LP.