Ellington often acknowledged that the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival offered him a virtual rebirth in terms of his in-person and recording career but there is little doubt as to why.

Paul Gonsalves wasn’t a star tenor, certainly not in the same league as Ellington’s more starry names like Ben Webster or Johnny Hodges, but where larger egos might have used the occasion to show off Gonsalves kept it tight, gradually embellishing a simple R’n’B lick over the course of 27 choruses. It’s thrilling to hear Gonsalves’s confidence grow over the six minutes, as he finds new ways to vary the tune, with the occasional slip through sheer exhaustion only adding to the tension.