Duke Ellington

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.

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.