This historic LP is "Ted Heath at Carnegie Hall", Recorded May 1, 1956, and issued on London Records as a 12 inch Monaural LP (London Records, LL1566). It was a great band, with the finest jazz musicians that Britain had to offer. This amazing performance was part of the band's First American tour, which was noteworthy for several reasons. ********************************************* The following is excerpted from the Wikipedia article on trombonist and band leader Ted Heath : "In April 1956 Heath arranged his first American tour. This was a reciprocal agreement between Heath and Stan Kenton, who would tour Britain at the same time as Heath toured the United States. The tour was a major negotiated agreement with the British Musicians' Union and the American Federation of Musicians, which broke a 20-year union deadlock. Heath contracted to play a tour that included Nat King Cole, June Christy and the Four Freshmen that consisted of 43 concerts in 30 cities (primarily the southern states) in 31 days (7,000 miles) climaxing in a Carnegie Hall concert on 1 May 1956. At this performance, the band's instrument truck was delayed by bad weather. The instruments finally arrived just minutes before the curtain rose. The band had no time to warm up or rehearse. There were so many encore calls at the Carnegie Hall performance that Nat King Cole (who was backstage, but not on the bill) had to come out on stage and ask people to leave. During the tour, Nat King Cole was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by a group of white segregationists. Heath was so appalled he nearly cancelled the remainder of the tour but was persuaded by Cole to continue. They remained firm friends until Cole died in 1965 and collaborated musically on many occasions. Heath later successfully toured the US again and also toured Australia and Europe. " *********************************************** TED HEATH AT CARNEGIE HALL / Recorded live May 1, 1956 / London Records LL 1566 / 33 1/3 rpm, 12 inch…
listed on 9 July 2021
