Duke Ellington Presents

Artist: Duke Ellington
Label: Shout Factory
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 826663747027
EAN: 0826663747027
ASIN: B0009Y26RW

Release Date: 2005-08-02

Related Categories:

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Swing General

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Contemporary Big Band

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Summertime
Laura
I Can't Get Started
My Funny Valentine
Everything But You
Frustration
Cotton Tail
Day Dream
Deep Purple
Indian Summer
Blues

Similar Items:

East Coasting
The Bethlehem Years
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Customer Reviews:

Worth checking out--lots of the "Strayhorn effect".......2007-03-27

I found this CD in a bargain bin at a record store that was closing, and, while it's not the warmest Duke album, it's certainly one of the most plush. Cottontail burns here with Paul Gonsalves giving his extended treatment to the original chart (with, it sounds like, Cat Anderson adding his, um, tasteful touch to the band choruses). Elsewhere, though, the palette is much more moody and expansive, with cool ballads that spring forth big climaxes. Strayhorn contributed five works to this album, among them Deep Purple, a fine arrangement of his own "Day Dream," and "Laura." "Laura" in particular is a fascinating feature for Johnny Hodges in that Hodges seems to be influenced by Charlie Parker's (Hodges-like) reading of this on the with-strings album. Sure, the sound is muddy, but if you're the type who would track down and appreciate these arrangements, you probably aren't TOO hung up on the need for crystalline digital transfers. One of two concurrent Duke albums for the smaller Bethlehem label, this album hasn't gotten the Columbia dress-up and publicity that virtually all of his other late-fifties reissues have gotten, and that's a shame, because on every track, you can hear the band tentatively getting used to their new role as a studio orchestra rather than a dance band, and the soloists really rise to the occasion. Why not five stars? Many of the finest charts (especially, in fact, the Strayhorn ones) are quite dated in their more elementary use of whole-tone sonorities, making them--in isolated moments--sound less sophisticated than the more experimental ballads the band would record in the sixties, or even, for that matter, than the plush ballads of the Blanton-Webster period in the forties, that were less self-conscious and had more of a constant pulse. Nonetheless, these are chance-taking arrangements, and if you're into jazz orchestration, check it out.

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