This recording was made during a midnight performance at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw,
after the Quintet had performed an early evening concert at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen,
near The Hague. It was made for promoter Louis Van Rees' private archive and is
now owned by the Dutch Jazz Archive. I'm grateful to Arne Wolfswinkel for help
with this session.
Sonny Stitt joined the Davis Quintet in May 1960 for a one-week engagement at the
Showboat Lounge in Philadelphia (May 9-14); they played a week at the Regal Theatre
in Chicago in late May, and two weeks at Henri's Show Lounge in Milwaukee (June 3-12).
The Quintet then headed west: Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles Jazz Festival, June 17);
Blackhawk Supper Club, San Francisco (June 21-27). After that, Sutherland Hotel Lounge,
Chicago (July 6-17); Apollo Theatre, New York (July 22-31); Village Vanguard, New York
(August 2-14); Brandywine Music Box, Wilmington DE (August 15-20); Randall's Island Jazz
Festival (August 21); Minor Key, Detroit (September 6-11).
Norman Granz arranged for the Davis Quintet to tour Great Britain and a few continental
venues in the fall of 1960. Surprisingly few recordings from this tour have surfaced.
The itinerary was as follows:
September 24: Hammersmith Gaumont Theatre, London (two concerts)
September 25: Guildhall, Portsmouth (two concerts)
September 26: DeMontfort Hall, Leicester
September 27: Free Trade Hall, Manchester (two concerts)
September 28: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
September 30: Colston Hall, Bristol
October 1: Finsbury Park Astoria Theatre, London (two concerts)
October 2: Lewisham Gaumont Theatre, London (two concerts)
October 5: Town Hall, Birmingham
October 7: City Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
October 8: Hammersmith Gaumont Theatre, London (two concerts)
October 9: Kilburn Gaumont Theatre, London (two concerts)
October 11: Olympia Theatre, Paris (two concerts)
October 12: Konserthuset, Gothenburg (two concerts)
October 13: Konserthuset, Stockholm (two concerts)
October 15: Kurhaus, Scheveningen
October 16: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
After returning to the U.S. the Quintet (with Jimmy Heath subbing for Stitt) played
a week at the Regal Theatre in Chicago (October 21-27), and then at the Crawford Grill
in Pittsburgh (October 31). They were booked for a week at the Howard Theatre in
Washington DC (December 2-6) -- during this engagement Stitt was hospitalized with
pneumonia and Jimmy Heath again replaced him. Davis married Frances Taylor on December
21, and the Quintet -- now with Hank Mobley -- was booked at The Cloister in Chicago
for two weeks (December 26-January 8).
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