The music is amazing, but the recording is pretty bad. Some instruments can hardly be heard (even with headphones) and the background noise of the crowd is too high. I felt like listening to a bootleg whereas it is supposed to be a "real" live album. So yes, jazz is a music that might be better live, but if it recorded in the right conditions, it's even better... 5 for the music, 2 for the recording.
The Newport Jazz Festival (like its Folk cousin) had a reputation for being cerebral and (small c) conservative, which was why it was such a revelation when Duke Ellington pulled off this barnstorming performance that had the normally staid crowd dancing in the aisles. Due to problems with the recording the original release of this album was mostly a studio performance recorded the next day, but in 1999 another tape of a radio broadcast surfaced enabling us to hear the full show for the first time. This is really live jazz at its best! Nice!