A Night In Tunisia – 1987
Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy teams up with Jon Faddis, Arturo Sandoval and Johnny Griffin
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It was quite an all-star group gathered together in 1987.
No jazz history book would be complete without tenor-saxophonist Johnny Griffin, trombonist Slide Hampton, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Ed Thigpen.
But also imagine adding a trumpet section comprised of Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Faddis and Arturo Sandoval.
“Night In Tunisia” begins with Sandoval playing a rapid flurry of notes.
Griffin takes a muscular and powerful solo, Hampton is solid, and Gillespie is in excellent form for this period; there is also a spot for Jones (whose audience includes an admiring Griffin) and a particularly inventive solo by Gomez.
However Jon Faddis steals the show with his dazzling statements and stunning high notes.
Check out the closing cadenzas which are topped off by Faddis playing “West End Blues” a la Louis Armstrong for a chorus.
-Scott Yanow
Ella Fitzgerald