Duke Ellington

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.

Jungle Nights and Jubilee Stomp are early stuff. On Bluebird, nice and cheap and very hard swinging and excellent.

I am really enjoying The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, one of Ellington's last albums. I know it's supposed to be African-influenced -- and it is -- but it sounds even more rock-influenced, to me. Dark, thumping and rhythmic. Very unlike what I expect of Ellington (OTOH, I'm not all that familiar with his bread-and-butter big band work). Anyway, great disc. (n.1).

-------------
(n.1) I did cringe at the corny spoken-word opening of the album, tho. Minor quibble, I guess.

haha, i LOVE that spoken word intro.
as has been noted in this thread, there's a ton of later period (60s-70s) Ellington that is amazingly good. One I didn't see mentioned is the piano/bass album with Ray Brown called This One's For Blanton. Sort of an album length sequel to the duets Duke did with Blanton way back when. The New Orleans Suite (Hodges' last album, I think) has some great moments as well.

I have this and the remaster sounds fine to me, as good as you could expect for this period

I've kind of changed my mind on this. I think they did kind of screw it up - though it's still listenable if you turn the treble down a couple of notches on your stereo.

yeah, i think maybe the first disc of the B|W Band comp is kind of dodgy, esp. on headphones. I've got an old double LP with a lot of the same stuff and it sounds better to me, even on my crappy turntable. That said, those recordings would be great recorded on a cell phone. goddam, some of it is unbelievably good.

I am really enjoying The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse

YES.

"Didjeridoo" is quickly becoming a tune I feel really gypped that I never got to play with my jazz combo in college

emusic subscribers who don't have this record, you have wasted a month.

Tom, you should post here too:
Ellington as pianist

Matos DJs on Wednesdays here and plays something from The Far East Suite almost every week.

I've been listening to The Far East Suite pretty much nonstop, with a couple of plays of The Seattle Concert thrown in. Sound is rough, as it's a 1952 show (and Ellington's first LP as such), but really sweet. Clark Terry is really nice on "Perdido."

I should say the album is really sweet, not the rough sound.

Duke Ellington becomes first African-American on U.S. coin

this is great -

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gbfqxqejldse

Eee, that does look good. Also expensive.

Jazz man is first African-American to solo on U.S. circulating coin

I've been saying for years we need to get politicians off our money and artists on. Nice work, DC! We could get off to no better start.

http://dcist.com/2009/01/dc_duke_ellington_quarter_released.php

Oh god, the comments.

"I looked up Duke Ellington"

Wow. Says it all, really.

[6] | snoopydog

Who is Duke Ellington and why should I care about him? Are there any other individuals on the quarters that I missed? Usually it's some stupid mountain or some wild life from the state. Who's Duke Ellington? Was he the architect of DC? I thought that guy was French. Ellington does not sound French to me.

I realize that DC isn't exactly the center of intellectualism but really, a piano player who likes white suits?

This is why I have instituted a strict "DO NOT READ COMMENTS ON INTERNET" policy. Talk about douchebags.

a funny thing to post on an Internet message board, yeah, but I'm talking about newspaper comments, etc.

Beat out Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglass. I guess I could live with any of those on a quarter. I still would like to replace Andrew Jackson on the 20 with someone a little less....genocidal, though.

Charlie Parker never committed any indian massacres, did he?

<a href=http://www.sendspace.com/file/oc5mla>;Shhhh!</a>

What is that, video of Charlie Parker committing indian massacres? Whilst playing "Cherokee"?

Jubilee Stomp

lol, just got this bizarre email from Amazon:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has purchased or rated music by Duke Ellington, you might like to know that New York, March 1959 is now available. You can order yours for just $950.00 by following the link below.
New York, March 1959 New York, March 1959
Duke Ellington
Price: $950.00

Album Description
New York, March 1959 by Ellington, Duke

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

?????????????????

Me too, discussion over here

CD PRICES: Did they ever become as affordable as the vinyl/cassettes they replaced? Why?/Why not?

It's a "burn on demand" CD, even

See also http://www.amazon.com/2007-2012-Building-Excluding-Cafeteria-Restaurant/dp/0497503093

Customers Who Bought Related Items Also Bought

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PHXQ1W30L._SL500_SS100_.gif

Duke puts it on wax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjKlFFp4-IE

Like making waffles.

I bought a cheapy 3-disc Ellington set the other day and it is totally ruling my life.

your saying so inspired me to listen to the yale concert, which re-blew my damn mind

Once I get my sound back, I'll have to track that down.

whenever this thread is revived, i worry that duke died.

nobody tell amatuerist what happened, i'm afraid it might break his heart

longish piece in the NYorker on Duke, http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/05/17/100517crat_atlarge_pierpont?currentPage=all

just saw that! amazing photo. was going to ask if anyone had read that new book -- i was just flipping through it at the bookstore.

Keep eyeing that one in the bookstore, but haven't taken the bait yet.

"Blazing Saddles" was made in 1974!

??

He's in it.

no he ain't, that's count basie

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