Duke Ellington - What Are His Essential Recordings?

Started by George, August 31, 2014, 12:02:09 PM

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escher

#20
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on August 31, 2014, 07:34:43 PM
I'm a HUGE fan of the Duke, but I prefer his post-swing period, the period starting at about the mid-50's. This is Duke in more experimental mode. The music is full of all kinds of layered effects and whimsical undercurrents. But always with that trademark pulse.

probably it's a bit late to answer a post, but I was reading again it now and...
to me he's does not have a post-swing period and onestly I don't see his later stuff more experimental than what he was doing in the forties. He wasn't someone like Miles Davis who passed from playing bebop with Parker to the Cool albums to the third stream projects to post-bop to his jazz-rock period etc. Even in the late sixties/early seventies he was basically playing in the same style that made him famous in the thirties, there are many gems and I love that music but for instance the most harmonically daring experiments in his music I'm aware of are the Clothed woman and Tonk, composed in 1946 and 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZDMfUI4vkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1nOyMTtUHE


San Antone

Ellington at Newport

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Blues in Orbit

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Uptown

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NorthNYMark

#22
It was mentioned before once, but to me, his single greatest recording is the appropriately titled Masterpieces by Ellington, where he took advantage of the then-novel LP length to record extended, and exquisitely orchestrated, versions of some of his more well-known works.  The version here of "Mood Indigo" is nothing short of otherworldly.

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Nearly as remarkable (IMHO), and somewhat similar in approach, though perhaps a bit less ruminative, is Ellington Uptown, pictured in the post just above this one.

Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: escher on May 26, 2015, 01:39:47 PM
probably it's a bit late to answer a post, but I was reading again it now and...
to me he's does not have a post-swing period and onestly I don't see his later stuff more experimental than what he was doing in the forties. He wasn't someone like Miles Davis who passed from playing bebop with Parker to the Cool albums to the third stream projects to post-bop to his jazz-rock period etc.

Well, now, hold on...I never said any of that!

I'm talking about a more subtle progression...something more personal. There's always "pulse" (I did write that in my post you quoted) but in the time frame I mentioned I find the focus has swung more towards finding new outlets for musical creativity, as opposed to merely relying on an overtly "dance" aesthetic.

QuoteEven in the late sixties/early seventies he was basically playing in the same style that made him famous in the thirties...

If that's honestly how you hear his music then I won't argue with you. But count me out...


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

escher

#24
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on May 26, 2015, 03:42:03 PM
If that's honestly how you hear his music then I won't argue with you. But count me out...

I've posted two pieces of what I mean above, if you have counterexamples to prove me I'm wrong I'm interested (seriously).
Just to take famous examples:

Ellington in 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xqR6E26Tz4

Ellington in 1940
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qemBuum2jSU

I don't hear (besides the great quality of the music and the great difference in sound quality... it's clear that in 1966 the sound was recorded so much better) great stylistic differences, he never joined the bebop revolution,  like he didn't started to play in a postbop or modal styles, and he certainly didn't start to play free jazz. The style of his music was still swing intended as a genre.

NorthNYMark

Quote from: escher on May 26, 2015, 04:12:14 PM
I've posted two pieces of what I mean above, if you have counterexamples to prove me I'm wrong I'm interested (seriously).
Just to take famous examples:

Ellington in 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xqR6E26Tz4

Ellington in 1940
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qemBuum2jSU

I don't hear (besides the great quality of the music and the great difference in sound quality... it's clear that in 1966 the sound was recorded so much better) great stylistic differences, he never joined the bebop revolution,  like he didn't started to play in a postbop or modal styles, and he certainly didn't start to play free jazz. The style of his music was still swing intended as a genre.

While it's true that Ellington didn't embrace bop and its successors, it seems to me that he progressed in his own, perhaps more third-stream-ish direction.  His post-war works tend to treat the band as an orchestra as much as or more than a dance group.  That element was always present in his music, and the dance-oriented swing never went away, but it seems to me that there was a significant shift in emphasis.  The Masterpieces by Ellington album I mentioned above is an example, as well as the various concept albums he recorded in its wake.

Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: NorthNYMark on May 26, 2015, 04:24:10 PM
While it's true that Ellington didn't embrace bop and its successors, it seems to me that he progressed in his own, perhaps more third-stream-ish direction.  His post-war works tend to treat the band as an orchestra as much as or more than a dance group.  That element was always present in his music, and the dance-oriented swing never went away, but it seems to me that there was a significant shift in emphasis.  The Masterpieces by Ellington album I mentioned above is an example, as well as the various concept albums he recorded in its wake.

Yes. +1.


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

George

#27
In addition to the set in my OP, I now have these two sets:



and this CD:



I sampled Masterpieces on Spotify, but didn't get into it. Will revisit. Also will check out Uptown soon on Spotify. Thanks for the recommendations!
"I can't live without music, because music is life." - Yvonne Lefébure

NorthNYMark

Money Jungle is really extraordinary as well (IMHO)!

Brian

Quote from: NorthNYMark on May 27, 2015, 01:19:43 PM
Money Jungle is really extraordinary as well (IMHO)!

And Money Jungle is pretty conclusive disproof of the idea that Ellington never became a "modernist" (IMHO)! Around that time the Duke recorded not just Money Jungle but and John Coltrane, two albums where he enters the later-era jazz. Parts of MJ are an all-out war between Duke and Mingus...and Coltrane is Coltrane...and both albums are incredible. Two of my favorites.

escher

Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2015, 05:30:04 PM
And Money Jungle is pretty conclusive disproof of the idea that Ellington never became a "modernist" (IMHO)!

both the pieces I've posted composed in 1946 and 1947 were more advanced than anything on Money Jungle.

Brian

Quote from: escher on May 28, 2015, 12:39:01 AM
both the pieces I've posted composed in 1946 and 1947 were more advanced than anything on Money Jungle.
Unfortunately between the four videos you posted, two are "not available in your country" according to YouTube, but I agree about "Clothed Woman"!

Robert

Quote from: sanantonio on May 26, 2015, 01:43:01 PM
Ellington at Newport

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Blues in Orbit

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Uptown

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Good Call... also Money Jungle, Such Sweet Thunder, and This Ones For Blanton, At Newport.....

king ubu

Serious answer: everything  ;D

The Mosaic box collecting the small group sides for the Columbia family of labels is on the way out:
http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=235-MD-CD
This and its companion box with the big band sides would certainly be a great foundation upon which to build!

RCA had a big (24 discs, for jazz, that's still huge ... and it cost an arm and a leg, some 15 years back!) box for the Ducal centennial, but I guess you'd have to sell your wife and kids to get it nowadays ... "Early Ellington" and the OKeh set (the former three, the latter two CDs) complement it wrt to the earliest sides (anything from 1927 on is worth hearing).

Columbia (Sony now) has been treating the Duke like sh*t ever since they more or less froze their jazz reissues, but actually longer than that ... the early fifties material is not out in its entirety (1950-53), but the single discs of "Ellington Uptown" and "Masterpieces by Ellington" (the latter the first jazz long player, as far as I know - back then, only classical was allowed that new, expensive and expansive format) are essential. Then he went with Capitol for a pair of years, while Johnny Hodges was absent (that was another Mosaic box, and mind me, it's better than what many tell you!), 1956 was the return of Hodges and the return to Columbia (Ellington at Newport was the big "comeback", with Paul Gonsalves tearing it up), a series of mighty fine album followed, Sony put them in a box (OOP I think, or in the state of being re-pressed, who knows) but still, there was an LP series with more material from the period (1956-62) that remains badly distributed in its entirety. 1962 Duke went with Frank Sinatra's new label Reprise (another Mosaic box, ten studio LPs up to 1966 or 1967), then returned to RCA, where he'd spent much of the forties and where he recorded in every decade of his long career (not much in the fifties though).

The "Duke Box" by Storyville fills in some good bits of forties music, including the absolutely essential 1940 Fargo gig (also available as a 2CD set with extenstive booklet, but that edition is likely OOP) - the "Blanton/Webster band" live in prime form and in pretty darn good sound, too!

Then there's the Carnegie Hall concerts from the mid forties - four of them were put out by Mercer and then by Fantasy - they were collected (no remastering, old no-noise sound, but once you get used to it after some 20 minutes, just start the disc again and enjoy the great music!) by Univesal in a box ... one more is in the "Duke Box", and then there's one more that's elusive (but terrific).

Storyville also runs the "Duke Ellington Treasury Shows" series - double discs compiling some amazing early/mid forties transcription sessions - I've not caught up on these, but the six or seven volumes I've collected so far are terrific, and I bet my cat the entire series is!

There's also amazing stuff like "Money Jungle" (United Artists, get the most recent Blue Note reissue with even more material than was on the old disc), the encounters with John Coltrane (beautiful but somewhat restrained) and Coleman Hawkins (amazing!) - all three from 1962, the latter two on Impulse.

And there's a terrific date with Ellington and the Louis Armstrong All Stars (Roulette, sixties) - one disc edition has both LPs, two disc edition adds alternates and rehearsals that are most fascinating ... if in doubt, just listen to "Azalea"!

I bet I forgot hundreds of great things, but that's how it is with Duke Ellington  :)
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

Karl Henning

George, Mark & Brian, you're all absolutely right:  Money Jungle is hot!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

king ubu

Quote from: karlhenning on June 05, 2015, 01:43:12 AM
George, Mark & Brian, you're all absolutely right:  Money Jungle is hot!

It sure is! The story behind it goes like this: old buddies Mingus and Roach (who founded their label "Debut Records" many years earlier) had lost touch and hadn't played with each other for years. For Mingus, Ellington was the biggest hero there was, almost a deity, I guess. He had had a very short stint with the band, but Ellington - so that story goes - threw him out most graciously after he got into a fight (with knifes) with Juan Tizol: Tizol was an old problem he (Ellington) knew how to handle, but he couldn't need any new problems (Mingus). So there ...

Now, after many years, Mingus and Roach meet again, the plan (by some exec) was to put them together with Ellington and record an album. However, Mingus finds his time had evolved in much different ways than Roach's. As a bass player, you can either quit or go along with the drummer. Obviously, Mingus was in a dilemma: no way could he be the reason for the session to fail (no to take place), and obviously he didn't want to miss the chance to make that record. So somehow, he did acquit himself ... and I guess that's what accounts for the almost tangible tension during this amazing recording.

Desert island stuff, for sure!
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

North Star

Quote from: king ubu on June 05, 2015, 02:27:25 AM
It sure is! The story behind it goes like this: old buddies Mingus and Roach (who founded their label "Debut Records" many years earlier) had lost touch and hadn't played with each other for years. For Mingus, Ellington was the biggest hero there was, almost a deity, I guess. He had had a very short stint with the band, but Ellington - so that story goes - threw him out most graciously after he got into a fight (with knifes) with Juan Tizol: Tizol was an old problem he (Ellington) knew how to handle, but he couldn't need any new problems (Mingus). So there ...
Mingus's antics certainly are legendary. And add me to the choir singing praise for Money Jungle.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

San Antone

This Japanese reissue of the Blanton-Webster Band complete catalog is essential.  It captures what is arguably Duke's best period, and contains 30 more tracks than the other box in what is generally considered better sound.

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Dax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvfTLYvpN8 is the 1945 version of Caravan.

One attraction is the choice of what seem to be the least likely solutions. Busoni Carmen Fantasy territory.

Turner

#39
There´s also the super budget issue "The Duke. Edward Kennedy Ellington. Complete Works 1924-1947" - a 40 CD box, that at times can be found very cheaply. It´s probably not the last word as regards re-mastering though.

https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Complete-Works-1924-1947/dp/B00004LMT0

"Hot from the Cotton Club" is an attractive compilation album of such old recordings, from the EMI label.