Duke Ellington

And His Mother Called Him Bill--tribute to Billy Strayhorn after his death, full of re-readings of Strayhorn compositions, very moving and elegiac.

The Far East Suite--Ellington goes to India, integrates it into his sound. This does not mean lots of tablas and such; they are still playing big band jazz, but the melodies and arrangements are Eastern-inflected.

The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse--ditto, but with Africa this time. One of the last albums he did (some of the tracks never got official titles). Some pounding stuff on this one. Also includes fabulous intro voiceover in which Duke cites McLuhan.

The New Orleans Suite--swings like hell. A few old blues and jazz classics mixed in with new compositions. Like floating down the river on a gambling boat, etc.

Such Sweet Thunder--Suite based on characters from Shakespeare. Some of his most prettiest melodies and most complex arrangements. Some of the tracks really do sound like the characters they're named for.

Money Jungle--Trio with Max Roach and Mingus. Has become slightly overrated I think--essentially they're just jamming--but it sounds sophisticated, loose and improvisational and hey, what a band.

Back to Back--Duet with Duke on piano, Johnny Hodges on guitar. Great blues wailing.

Black, Brown and Beige--the first and most famous suite. Never released in complete form (he kept reworking it after poor initial reception), but there's a great reissue with a good part of it, including Come Sunday, awesome spiritual with Mahalia Jackson.

Also: read any bio of him. Amazing man, interesting messy contradictory unbelievable American life.

I would also suggest Latin American Suite, which is very much in the mode of Far East, et al, and one of my sleeper faves among his albums, and the admittedly somewhat less successful Afro-Bossa; coupla killer tunes on there.

It's astonishing to hear how the band lifts off after Jimmy Blanton joins. He was only 20 and he reinvented jazz bass. One of the great overlooked geniuses of the century.

Also agreed abt the Proper box being terrific value.

To me Money Jungle is having nice coffee and pastry in the morning music. It's got atmosphere and it sounds good, but they're not splitting the atom or anything. I think Mingus is the best thing on it, he's rolling along.

Blood Clot really is amazing. It billows and hangs in the air. That's my favorite Ellington album I think.

blood clot? tell me more...

Stuart Nicholson's Reminiscing in Tempo is a good book - a mainly oral history of Ellington.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=11:27:40|AM&sql=Atyb8b5f49sqh

And as much as I love the version of "Blood Count" on And His Mother . . ., when I hear the tune in my head I hear Andy Bey's version (with lyrics) on his amazing Shades of Bey album.

After rereading the initial question, I must ad another vote for the Blanton-Webster set. If you don't fall in love with at least some of this music, I question what it is you like music for.

While I love the later album/suite oriented era, I think his earlier swing-era and pre-swing material sometimes gets short shrift because people assume they know it because they know "Take the A Train" and "Satin Doll." Plus there are about a kabillion different Ellington collections from his earlier days, so it's hard to know how to tackle it.

RCA owns a lot of great early Ellington; if you see any single discs on their Bluebird imprint from Ellington's early career in a used bin, grab 'em (not least cause they're out of print). As much as I like prime and late Ellington, my life would be poorer without "The Mooche," "The Dicty Glide," the earliest "Mood Indigo," and countless more.

Also, there are two great two-disc sets titled something like The Duke's Men, which feature mid-period small-group recordings. Lotta great stuff on there.

Later Ellington: search the "Queen's Suite", which contains the lovely piece, "Single Petal of a Rose". It's on a CD called "The Ellington Suites" on OJC

vote three for The Blanton-Webster Years; I've been advised by people who know to avoid the new repackage of the same material in a cardboard case: "they fucked up the remaster" was his objection.

I really love The Far East Suite, it's the only thing I know from way later, obv I need to explore more

and I was beaten to recommending the Proper box, so I'll second that

I don't know - I have this and the remaster sounds fine to me, as good as you could expect for this period. I'm pretty sure that this is the same remaster that's in the Centennial edition.

"chocolate shake" is v. close.

As for Far East Suite...it's absolutely beautiful. Can't think of anything else to say.

Indeed. They are catchy and fill o hooks. With early to mid Ellington, due to recording technology, most songs were only around 3 minutes long. The classic Ellington / Strayhorn number Take The A Train packs a whole musical narrative in less than 3 minutes and has a great fadeout ending.

I am listening to Jungle Nights in Harlem and you should too.

I really love Far East Suite
and the shite with Coleman Hawkins.

If you don't like it, you're racist.

underrated record is 'side by side' w/ johnny hodges
sweets edison KILLS IT on trumpet

Must look into that then!
I love those underrated ones.

Jubilee Stomp is an acceptable substitute if Jungle Nights in Harlem is not available.

Damnit hes prolific.
I havn't heard any of this.

that improv at 8:40...nobody in his league

yeah totally!

a shout-out to Strayhorn
it's funny, i feel like it's become part of the Ellington "narrative" that Strayhorn didn't get the credit he deserved ... but I feel like on virtually every live recording I've heard, Duke gives him a shout out. (i know strayhorn might've been overshadowed by the Ellington genius mythos, but it doesn't seem to be Duke's fault anyway).

I'm loving his Three Suites today, especially his majestic peer gynt.

Finally remembered to play Blue Rose (the mono-LP-era R Clooney collabo). It's really good.

There's something very hard to cover about Ellington. I'm part of a jazz facebook group that has a different theme each week where various musicians post their videos on that theme, and this week it's Duke Ellington. Somehow nearly everyone sounds dumb when playing Ellington tunes.

https://dgwh4hty77sxy.cloudfront.net/9107-medium_zoomcrop/image.jpg

very fine is this, Strayhorn out of Ellington's shadow for an album and with it seems most of his band and Johnny Hodges.

bought a used copy of the Latin American Suite on RSD, what a stunning record

his ability to synthesize latin music into what he did without resorting to cliche tropes or signifiers like "hey check it out - congas!" is really amazing

such ambitious music, reminds me a bit of the "third stream" stuff I've heard but without a stick up its butt

his ability to synthesize latin music into what he did without resorting to cliche tropes or signifiers like "hey check it out - congas!" is really amazing

otm, and The Far East Suite is similarly brilliant in this regard. There's no "Hey, let's throw a sitar and/or koto into the arrangement TO PROVE WE WERE REALLY THERE." Those late '60s and early '70s suites are some of my favorite work of his.

I need to track down Far East Suite what are the other ones?

New Orleans Suite is a fucking masterpiece for starters.

The New Orleans Suite is great, as is The Private Collection, Volume 5 which includes two suites: "The Degas Suite," and "The River," the latter of which includes a theme later used on New Orleans Suite.

The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse is essential; if you like Latin American Suite, you'll love this.

There's a compilation called The Ellington Suites which includes The Queen's Suite (1959), The Goutelas Suite (1971), and The Uwis Suite (1972) -- not quite on the same level as Afro-Eurasian, but still pretty fascinating.

love the suave intro by Duke on Afro-Eurasian Eclipse as well, it never gets old.

Rikki tikki

Queens Suite is on the level of the others but I agree the other two suites on that cd are not quite.

all the Private Collection albums are excellent, especially the studio recordings

xps
I should have mentioned you should check out Afro Bossa as well.

yeah, private collection boxes are fantastic (and usually pretty cheap).
recent ellington I've been getting into is the concert in the virgin islands (which confusingly is not a live record). great version of "chelsea bridge".

I have that and Afro Bossa on a weird 2fer but I have not really put them through their paces yet

picked up a nice copy of New Orleans Suite yesterday, wow....this lives up to my expectations

this is really intensely rewarding music

thanks everyone, been slowly picking some of these up and it's good to have recommendations

recently been listening to a lot of this one:

https://www.discogs.com/Duke-Ellington-An-Explosion-Of-Genius-1938-1940/release/2949550

Love so many of those tracks - got to know them on the excellent Braggin' in Brass album of his 1938 sides. "Pyramid" is an excellent cousin to "Caravan."

yeah "Pyramid" is really a standout there

just saw "anatomy of a murder" the other night, after long admiring the soundtrack. was VERY cool to see how the music was used in the film.

i really dug the scene from the club where ellington's jazz band can be seen playing. here they are:

https://imgur.com/Qvyjcb1

to the best of my knowledge that's L-R grady tate, jimmy woode, clark terry, jimmy hamilton.

is that right ? i would've thought sam woodyard would be playing drums, but this guy doesn't look anything like him.

also i like how ellington is called "pie-eye" in the film. cool bass drum design, too:

https://imgur.com/a/qgCuvNJ

oh FUCK

ok here we are:

https://i.imgur.com/Qvyjcb1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YRd9fHp.jpg

Cool. I need to watch it too.

really love cootie williams' vocals on this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O9bnB4_9UY
PECKIN' - Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra, vocal by Cootie Williams (1937)

that doesn't look like grady tate to me. Wiki says the soundtrack is James Johnson on drums. Having trouble finding a good pic of him to compare.

Yes to Peckin'. My fav of his jive songs.

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA1gfjvpFOE

A new series has launched called Ellington In Order, a remastering of just about everything Duke recorded.

That’s good!

There is no physical release; it’s streaming-only.

That’s bad.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4ornuDeqxrpKPMnh5zKxNN?si=5hGa-gJJQdCX-j92fEV8yQ

hmmm — yeah, seems like they could do one of those 100+ CD sets a la Beethoven or Bach ... it'd probably sell!

Exactly — and considering the target audience for Ellington isn’t likely to be listening via streaming, a big CD box a) would presumably be cheap to produce, and b) would sell.

But at least this material is finally getting remastered, especially his ‘20s sides — I don’t think the 1991 OKeh Ellington set has ever gotten a sonic upgrade.

A new series has launched called _Ellington In Order_, a remastering of just about everything Duke recorded.

_That’s good!_

There is no physical release; it’s streaming-only.

_That’s bad._

https://open.spotify.com/album/4ornuDeqxrpKPMnh5zKxNN?si=5hGa-gJJQdCX-j92fEV8yQ🕸

Ah, the Hoffman forum has the answer: it’s just Sony-owned stuff (which now they own the Victor masters is a lot).

True, it's not everything Duke recorded, and I'm not enough of an expert to know how much tune-overlap there was from one label to another, especially among the smaller labels. But supposedly the Vocalion material isn't part of this, which is odd since I assumed Sony owned those, like they do Robert Johnson's Vocalion sides.

Last I knew the Vocalion stuff was owned by Decca, now owned by Universal.

The RCA Victor stuff alone is huge. The "Centennial" box set from 1999 was probably the last time any of those records were remastered from the best sources from RCA's vaults. (I *think* it was mostly original metal parts too, which is typically rare but not that surprising for an artist of Duke's stature.) I used to covet that set - a whopping 24 CD's - but the mastering was really bad. If you listen to any of the Ellington stuff John R. T. Davies mastered, it's clear they jacked up the high end and did something wrong where you have that loud high-pitched noise that shouldn't be there. (Has nothing to do with typical surface noise, they just messed something up with those transfers.)

Some great RCA LP's like ...and his mother called him Bill and Far East Suite but I really want the Blanton-Webster band records from 1940 to 1942 re-done, that alone took up six discs of the Centennial box set thanks to the additional duets and small combo stuff which was also great. If it's available as a download, I'll settle for that - again, it's been close to 25 years since this stuff has been remastered.

Should clarify, "it's clear they jacked up the high end and did something wrong" is in reference to RCA's 1999 Centennial set.

Comparing the two versions of The Mooche the Victor version sounds really sharp and the Okey version sounds about the same general quality as I remember from 90s CDs.

I didn’t even know the opening track, so neat to walk though his career the way the band experienced it.

but I really want the Blanton-Webster band records from 1940 to 1942 re-done

The very existence of that massive RCA box was frustrating — I wasn’t going to shell out $400 or whatever it was for a bunch of things I already had, things I didn’t necessarily want (the Tanglewood concert), and things I was sure would get their own release soon anyway (Blanton-Webster). The mastering of the Blanton-Webster recordings was, as you said, poorly done, but it was actually a marked improvement over the ‘80s CDs of that band, which sounded like a landline phone. A year or so after the big box came out, RCA started releasing many of its elements as standalone sets (e.g., the mid-‘40s recordings 3CD set, which actually sounds fairly decent)…but it was years until the Blanton-Webster material got its own release. When it finally came out it was in cheap, flimsy packaging, and then it quickly went out of print. I hope this current project brings the same necessary fidelity to these recordings that, say, the most recent Robert Johnson set received.

It looks like Ellington In Order is available for download on HDTracks. I listened to a few samples, compared them with The OKeh Ellington, and...this feels like a missed opportunity. Maybe the comparison to the Robert Johnson set isn't fair (after all, guitar and voice is probably easier to futz with mastering-wise than a 12-15 piece orchestra), but the new remasters don't sound dramatically different. They do sound different, and a little better -- slightly fuller, a little more bass -- but it's not the revelation it could or should have been. I dunno, I probably had unrealistic expectations that advancements in technology over the last 30+ years would've resulted in more of a sonic upgrade. ymmv.

i remember getting the remastered Blanton-Webster CD set in the mid-'00s. it sounded fucking awful because they decided to leave in all this digital clipping, or something?

https://i.discogs.com/LkVQURXYwybpf77OllTlS47I9e6ITPkFqsNJGqvJGpA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:543/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI2MDI3/MzYtMTYxNzUwMTYw/MS02MTA3LmpwZWc.jpeg

so i have stuck with my original CD from the '80s. much better in my opinion:

https://i.discogs.com/wMShlgdGSP8MLEbXuVMg2qsVHbi8R6GZOWIYkz5RKSQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:594/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwMTc1/MTQ3LTE2MzE0MzY0/MzgtNTgxNi5qcGVn.jpeg

but i'd be interested in checking out another, new remaster of these recordings.

Yeah, that was a real disappointment — same mastering as on the big 1999 RCA box, as far as I know. Things like “Jack The Bear” especially are really frustrating for what you mentioned, when the reeds come in at the beginning — I don’t think it’s digital distortion, but just a shitty mastering job that over-emphasized the high end so that any distortion on the 78 would be magnified. That said, I still prefer it to the ‘80s set, but it sucks that the choice is limited to either something that sounds like a megaphone, or dealing with that brittle/bright mastering.

For early ‘40s Ellington, the 1940 Fargo set has vastly superior sound to any ‘40s Ellington studio recordings I’ve heard. I’d almost recommend it to a newbie over the ‘40s studio dates for that reason, despite not having certain key songs (like “‘A’ Train”), and you really get a sense of how exciting it must have been to see that orchestra live.

If you want a cheap, easy way of hearing how good early '40s Ellington can sound, find this CD:

https://www.discogs.com/release/4740444-Duke-Ellington-Rockin-In-Rhythm

Very common, very cheap, but it was remastered by the late, great John R. T. Davies. (Part of a series of jazz samplers that formed a survey on jazz history, courtesy of the UK magazine publisher Marshall Cavendish.) "Ko-Ko," "Cotton Tail" and "Jack the Bear" actually sound natural - no shrill EQ, no excessive noise but no noise processing like NoNoise or CEDAR either. It's a damn shame Davies didn't do a complete and comprehensive collection before he died.

this is what I have, any of you tru headz wanna comment on the mastering/sound?

https://www.discogs.com/release/2949550-Duke-Ellington-An-Explosion-Of-Genius-1938-1940

Sony/RCA put out a 4CD set in 2008 covering 1932-1939 in what I assume are newer transfers than The Okeh Ellington. The mastering is less aggressive than the RCA Centennial box. I always thought the latter sounded remarkably present but also, as mentioned above, unduly harsh at times with that weird high-pitched noise coming in, usually toward the end of a track.

...but that set doesn't cover the Okeh material, I see. Never mind, carry on!

in my opinion, for pre-war ellington, you need:

The Okeh Ellington 2xCD (Columbia) [1927-1930]
The Complete 1936-1940 Variety, Vocalion & Okeh Small Group Sessions 7xCD (Mosaic)
The Blanton-Webster Band 3xCD (RCA Bluebird) [1940-1942]

curious what others would add, but this has been enough for me.

Just now seeing: In Order Volume 1 (1927-1928)---43 songs, 2 hrs. 11 min.--is also on YouTubeMusic; maybe they've got the rest, or will have:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l_NlTYi1pu5LbIIUR-eDP6MPfBuUSMJD4