Apart from the available recordings - originally on LPs and later re-released on CD - interesting newly discovered unreleased material by the Dizzy Gillespie State Department Orchestra surfaced a few years ago. The titles and the orchestral framework of the compositions are mostly the same as those on the existing Verve releases, but the interpretations vary greatly, as can be expected from jazz soloists of this stature. Fortunately, the quality of these newly discovered recordings has survived the decades very well. In many cases, the band actually sounds even better than on the original releases. It has not been determined exactly where and when these recordings were made, although it must have been during the summer of 1957, after the Latin American tour when the band performed in Chester, Pennsylvania and at the Newport Jazz Festival, which offered its stage to the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.