Duke Ellington

Thanks for posting that! Interesting arrangement, too -- different from what was released at the time.

It took me a while, but I grew to dig his voice. The first Ellington piece I (knowingly) heard was "You, You Darlin'" off the Blanton-Webster band set. I thought his singing was square and corny, but eventually heard how it worked with the rest of the orchestra. I can't imagine "Flamingo" any other way -- even Mingus' version (which is great) feels like something's missing without Jeffries.

The poster Ben Williams of 11 years ago up-thread is eternally otm, some of the greatest music ever created on there.

Lately I cannot stop playing Ellington Uptown, The Far East Suite + Such Sweet Thunder. What a player/artist/arranger, he even makes Mingus sound like a mere gifted acolyte.

whoa never knew that ellington recorded w/ conny plank! this doesn't sound like neu! but it does sound damn good.
https://soundcloud.com/groenlandrecords/duke-ellington-his-orchestra-afrique-take-3-vocal/
As described by Henrik von Holtum, who wrote the album’s liner notes:

Duke Ellington’s musical works are seemingly well documented; the likelihood of finding a good, unreleased Duke Ellington recording is slight at best. When Grönland Records called and told me they had found exactly that in Conny Plank’s estate and asked me if I wanted to give it a listen, I felt pretty honored, and excited. The music of Duke Ellington is – in my worldview – to jazz what Bach’s oeuvre is to classical music: THE great benchmark, or – to raise it up onto an even higher pedestal – the Old Testament, the alpha and omega. With both Bach and Ellington, you can sit down at a piano simply to go through it building chords and something great always happens. This music is so rich, and it is virtually indestructible.

I listened to the recordings for the first time in Grönland Records’ offices. One session, two songs: three takes each of “Alerado” and “Afrique.” They weren’t just alternate takes, like you often get on reissues of jazz classics; you can really hear Ellington working. He’s not just looking for the best take to get something clearly defined, he’s experimenting.

The tempi change, solo instruments are switched around, and, on the last take of “Afrique,” you can even hear soprano vocals. “Alerado” is a straightforward swing number, it features Wild Bill Davis on the organ, and, most notably, Cat Anderson on the trumpet, who provide a foundation for striking concepts of sonority and solo performance. The musical approach to “Afrique” is freer and more avant-garde; the foundation of the piece is a tom-tom based beat that is sustained throughout and layered with improvisations and arranged segments.

Conny was fascinated by how great the difference in tone was between his prior studio work and those takes; the Ellington big band was delivering something totally different, something better than he was accustomed to. It resulted in a recording that even Conny could be happy with. This session seems to have given an important impulse to his work, independent of the praise he received from the master.

This casts the bon mot often attributed to Conny that “every band gets the sound it deserves” in a different light; it no longer comes across as an arrogant remark, but as a clear conception of a simple fact: one can only produce what’s there – if the performance isn’t any good, technology won’t help either. So, for him, it was a moment of realization and revelation.

And ensuring that the performance was spot-on was one of Conny’s great talents. Independently of one another, artists he later produced repeatedly described how vital his kindheartedness, tranquility and circumspection were to producing successful recordings.

so cool

Whoa new exotica-mode Ellington produced by conny plank??? Is this out yet?

out july 10

this is insanely exciting

Seriously can't wait for this.

Wow this will be great.

I have been going through a major Ellington binge for the last couple of months, I have barely listened to much else lately tbh

waht

I didn't know much about Ellington other than his dad was a butler at the White House. I read a bit of the Terry Teachout book today and he portrays him very much as a brilliant last minute-meister who drove his band mad with mad with his consistent idle procrastination, rather than the driven musical Stakhanovite I was expecting. It was an amusing revelation for me(considering his 1700 compositions in 5 decades) that adds to his legend if anything.

Duke salutes the Beatles!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oCnFvz8YKc

https://youtu.be/0eaTmoPmJPU

Duke Ellington - Reflections In D -- a friend posted this.. apologies if it's already in the thread

"Well gentlemen, Sullivan's wardrobe department is letting me off the hook with the lace cuffs, but the rest of you are going to have to roll with it."

I am really getting into Bonga off the Afro Bossa album recently.

You thought the recently-discovered hi-fidelity Armstrong recordings were something?

Dig THIS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEU1bIxZHDo

Digging it

Nice one!

So much bass! Which is to say, there's bass. And guitar too. Really gives a sense of how the early rhythm section would have motored the live orchestra.

this is great: 15 minutes of the ellington tribute at the white house in 1969.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW9PdAY8_D0&feature=youtu.be

Wow! Thanks for posting that!

Always loved this exchange, after Ellington kissed Nixon four times:

Nixon: "Four kisses? Why four?"
Ellington: "One for each cheek."

so suave, flirting with Pat and accepting his Medal of Freedom with a shout-out to Strayhorn

<3

It must have felt good for him to go to the White House as a revered 20th century icon and thinking his old man used to occasionally work as a butler there to get by.

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.