Blues in Orbit

Artist: Duke Ellington
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Extra tracks
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 696998704121
EAN: 0696998704121
ASIN: B0002J58O2

Release Date: 2004-07-27

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Tracks:

Three J's Blues
Smada
Pie Eye's Blues
Sweet & Pungent
C Jam Blues
In A Mellow Tone
Blues In Blueprint
The Swingers Get The Blues, Too
The Swinger's Jump
Blues In Orbit
Villes Ville Is The Place, Man
Track 360
Sentimental Lady
Brown Penny
Pie Eye's Blues (Alternate Take)
Sweet & Pungent (Alternate Take)
The Swinger's Jump (Alternate Take)
Blues In Orbit (Alternate Take)
Track 360 (Alternate Take)

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Customer Reviews:

Head Boppin Fun.......2005-08-26

Well the Jimmy Hamilton intro is worth the price of the Cd but if you are a layman with little experience with Duke this is a great Cd to get as your first you will tap and shake and smile into the wee hours of the morning.

A Classic Album Beyond Description.......2005-04-15

The only reason this 1959 album doesn't come up in conversations about Duke's best albums is simply because Duke's catalogue is so enormous and literally every thing he did is classic or near classic. In other words if Duke had recorded only a dozen lp's in his lifetime- this lp would be praised to the high heaven's- and in a lot of circles today it is highly praised as one of his best. I've been listening to this cd in my Buick Park Avenue all week long and can't get enough of "C Jam Blues " and "Three J's Blues " and " In A Mellow Tone ". The original liner notes are intriguing as well and sets a great visual for really enjoying this classic album. The liner notes state that these are after midnight sessions recorded over two nights starting on December 2, 1959 in New York at Columbia Record's studio on East 30th St. and Dukes late nite dinner has arrived at 2am- a sizzling steak, a pot of coffee with lemons in it,portions of american cheese, and grapefruits. If you're just getting into jazz- I highly recommend this album as a great way to initiate your collection. My favorite track on this lp is "C Jam Blues"- I just can't get enough of Ray Nance's violin work on this track- it literally blows me away every time I listen to it. Jazz and Blues lovers everywhere- listen to me- get this lp in your collection pronto. I actually own the original vinyl album of this cd on Columbia -of course it does not include the great bonus tracks found on this cd. As for me- who knows when this cd will be taken out of my cd player in my Buick Park Avenue- maybe never. Duke, If you're listening up there in heaven - you truly were the 20th centuries Beethoven.

This should be a classic.......2005-03-09

What an excellent session by the Duke. I don't know why this isn't considered one of the classic Duke Ellington records. I picked it up because it was on sale and was blown away. All of the songs are excellent, "Pie Eye Blues" and "Sentimental Lady" are my favorites. But pick any track at random, they're all great.

This is a pretty loose session, true, but by no means is it sloppy. If anything, the looseness makes these great tunes even more engaging. The Duke's playing is, of course, superb, but there are also excellent solo turns from Ray Nance and Johnny Hodges.

This is a re-release on which the bonus tracks are really a bonus. I'm not really interested in alternate takes - I'm not a musician or an archivist, just a music fan. But there are three tracks that were not on the original album and they're great. These are not throwaways, they're as good as the 11 originals.

Finally, I'm amazed at how far remastering has come. The sound is incredible. Put this on when someone's over and they'll never guess this was recorded in the 50's.

The Blues Suite.......2004-08-31

If you think playing the blues is easy, well you need to listen harder. The 12 bar blues may seem easy and repetitive and straightforward, any kid after a 2 hour class may be able to play some blues, but it takes a life to learn to play it with feeling, with meaning. Duke and his men are able to find that in this album. If this material seems simple at first look, how come there are no Ellingtons on Hodges around anymore? Why there are no albums like 'Blues in Orbit' anymore? Because this is not kid stuff, this is not easy stuff, this is not simple stuff. Putting down this album as 'not adventurous' just because it has the word 'blues' in the title is not knowing what the blues is about, and how complex is to the play the blues right. This album is one of the best in Ellington career, and most certainly a indispensable purchase.

Straightforward, Hard-Swinging Jazz.......2004-07-29

There's nothing particularly adventurous about this album, which finds Ellington and a somewhat stripped-down version of his orchestra playing straightforward arrangements of what is for the most part rather simple material -- including tunes that were already established classics of the jazz canon ("In a Mellotone," "C-Jam Blues"), as well as lesser-known and more recent compositions. However, the musicians are all in excellent form, playing with great precision in the ensemble passages while nonetheless swinging very hard on the uptempo numbers and managing to invest each piece with a feeling of relaxed spontaneity -- a quality that is often less conspicuous in Ellington's more ambitious works from this period. The individual soloists, particularly the great Johnny Hodges, also turn in some riveting improvisations, and the emphasis on blues and pieces that are informed by a blues sensibility imparts a nice sense of stylistic unity. The result is an album that, while perhaps not quite on par with Ellington's greatest recordings from the early 1940's, and certainly not as formally complex as some of his later works, is extremely rewarding on its own terms.

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