Duke's Place - A multipurpose Duke Ellington Thread

There are two two-CD collections called THE DUKE'S MEN: SMALL GROUPS (Columbia, 1991 and 1993 respectively): recorded in the late 30's. Don't miss these-great stuff.

 

To my ears the Blanton-Webster sides sound quite good on the Stereo reflections disc (in which they make up the most part of the cd, as transcriptions, apart from the stereo sides from 1932), as well as the Fargo set from JSP. And, as noted, the RCA Victor lp comp from the early 70s sounds better than any of the other cds I have of the same sides.

 

I think "Day Dream" is about as beautiful as music gets!
Youtube clip

 

Good question. Don't know. But speaking of live Ellington, one I enjoy is The Great Paris Concert, from 1963 (?) on a 2 CD set paired with some odds and ends from that time formerly passed off as "Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits" or something like that on Reprise. There's also a set of mid-'50s concerts issued on CD (Laserlight?) real cheap called Happy Birthday Duke! Not likely to be ranked as prime Ellington but enjoyable and not bad sound either.

Isn't it grand?

 

I politely disagree. My post added quite a bit in that it referred people to the actual recording which has extensive documentation of how the audio restoration was created. If you intend to provide brief chat posts for free, which BTW is what I also do, then don't try to give more information than you can that's accurate.

I'm sorry you were mildly insulted and took this personally, but IMO I did you no injustice. Your post didn't represent the recording as well as it should have, IMO. There are plenty of nastier corrections and niggling posts here that are much snarkier, IMO.

 

Mosaic issued a 7CD-set with Ellington's 1936-1940 small-group sides. I prefer it to the earlier Columbia 2CD-sets.

 

I think they are the best and most logical place to start for anyone interesting in this music, and, along with the early and mid-40s, the most exciting, enjoyable and accessible music Duke made.

While I can enjoy and appreciate various interpretations of material, I almost always favor originals. If nothing else, I don't even see how one can be a fan for a musician without being intimately familiar with the original, or at least older, versions of their material. Especially when we're talking about a prolific songwriter.

The best collection of Duke's finest music is the 4 CD Proper box set that goes up to the mid-40s. As good a sound as you can hope for given the age of the material (and some of it was just recorded very poorly), all original version of the songs, and, quite frankly, my favorite music of the 20th century.

However, I abandoned it in favor of expanding the collection, starting with the full recordings of the Blanton-Webster band, then finding an excellent one CD comp of this 20s music and a 2 CD comp of his 30s music. While I'm glad I did that, I would still consider the Proper set all one “needs.”

While my preference and taste run complete opposite of this, it's a real testament to an artist's legacy when two people with different tastes can find something to love about his music.

As for his later music, sure I like some of it, but like everyone else that's around for a while, it just can never have the same spark, the same energy as the older music. The more "formal" kind of thing like the suites and whatnot just bore me. I love Money Jungle and Blues In Orbit as much as the next guy, though, if just for the fact that we get to hear Duke in a small group setting (amazingly, despite his legendary status, I feel Duke's actual piano playing is often underrated).

The Newport thing- maybe this is heresy, but I just don't think it's that great. I appreciate its historical importance and I have it but really the only track I like is the one with the famous long sax solo. The rest are just either ok-but-not-great versions of songs and another boring suite.

Other than Newport, are the 50s possibly the most overlooked period of Duke's music? He was jumping between record labels and his band wasn't as steady, but there is Johnny Hodges and other great musicians and there are some diamonds in that period.

 

A one CD snapshot of his most famous tunes is the '16 Most Requested Songs' -Columbia Legacy noNoised it but I find it okay.

7 selections from 1932-1947 and 9 tracks from 1950 - 1960.

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Requeste...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1265729587&sr=8-3

Ir is funny how some Cds are cheaper than their MP3s comps these days

 

I just took a look at that set, and there is a lot of music that I've never heard. I've looked at it before, but it takes a lot of talking for me to justify the price with my wife. I have one box set and two singles (The Cosmic Scene and Newport 1958) from mosaic so I know the quality is top notch. I guess it will have to go on top of the short list, and I'll have to be a bit more convincing with the wife.

 

It's worth it.

Good luck!

(I'm glad I'm alone )

 

What tape source did Mosaic use for Newport 1958?

From what I recall of the liner notes from the expanded edition, it was never a matter of Columbia having "access" to the VOA tapes. They didn't ask. The re-recording was done only a few days later, in part because Gonsalves had blown his big solo into the VOA mic.

All the above said, I agree with Mike B. After steeping myself in the late 20s and 30s Duke and the Fargo gig, I finally opened the Newport set and after listening to it once it struck me as kind of too slick and too sloppy at the same time. IOW, not as enjoyable as the early material.

Possibly my all-time favorite, overplayed yes, but I can't tire of it: 'Cotton Tail' the original 1941 recording.

 

When I started listening to Duke Ellington it was through his 50's and 60's music. To me, these were the original versions and I loved what I heard. It was old music when I discovered it, and as I stated in my original post I am disappointed that it took me so long to discover it. I am going back to discover the older originals and in a lot of cases I've been pleasantly surprised at how good the originals are.

Are the 50's overlooked? I think Duke is underrated and overlooked for all eras. He has some fantastic music that most people have never heard, and that is a shame.

 

Any love for the Dreyfus releases? I have Koko which covers the Blanton-Webster material and I remember liking the sound but its been a while since I listened so in hte cue for tonight.

 

I had two Dreyfus Ellington CDs and didn't like them; they sounded no-noised/processed to me. I sold them and got the RCA "Jazz Tribune" 2CD-sets instead.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Retrospection-Piano-Sessions-Duke-Ellington/dp/B001W6WARW/ref=pd_sim_m_2

Anyone familiar with the Lonehill Jazz label? I'm looking to pick up the 50's Piano Reflections material in best quality. This one was issued just last year.

As for an early comp, I played Jubilee Stomp (Bluebird- 1992) a couple days ago and though it's no noised I thought it sounded really nice. Of course the music is just fantastic.

 

Like the Definitive label Lonehill Jazz is also based in Andorra. Enough said in my view, but I know other members' mileages vary

 

The tapes Mosaic used came from Columbia/Sony. The Newport 1958 release is a remaster-reissue of the mono Columbia LP which was a STUDIO remake of seven of the tunes played at the festival, and the two tracks that Columbia released that were actually festival performances. Mosaic added four more live tunes from the festival.

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1014

 

Oops, 'Cotton Tail' recorded May 4, 1940, same day as 'Never No Lament.' Boy, talk about a great session.

I first heard it when I got a dj gig at the Key Bridge Marriott across from Georgetown in the early 90s; didn't know the song but I was supposed to be playing for a group of swing dancers who hung there weekly. When the first blast opened that song hooked me right up and the floor filled up with swingers.

Nice piece on the song by David Rickert here.

 

For some reason I was thinking ahead to 'Take the 'A' Train.'

Which song was recorded in Hollywood, apparently somewhat unique location for Ellington recordings from this period I gather. Any idea where in Hollywood it was recorded?

Were these done with a single mic set up for the whole band or several mics and mixed on the fly?

 

One thing about Duke's mastery is his range. Even at the beginning, the hot numbers as I think they'd call 'em are killer stuff, like Cottontail, but then he'll go into something more subtle, like Misty Valley... and those knock me out too. Did anyone handle a band's palette more richly than Duke?

That's right. Sometimes I'll see a Duke Ellington tribute type disc and think, "That's nice but I hope folks are listening to Duke's own records first," if you know what I mean. If any era is under-appreciated in terms of folks listening to it, perhaps it's the pre-tape eras because of the sound? Of course various efforts made to "improve" that situation generally seem to make things worse. Quite often they sound good for the times too. Even 'way back on the OKehs, many have a great use of depth. That fortunately still comes through even in the Columbia CD set.

Eh? Knock it off already.

 

Thanks, I will check that out... maybe the original producer was right to re-do it in the studio, but the fake applause thing is unfortunate. Glad it got set right finally.

Identical situation with Peggy Lee and George Shearing's gig at the 1961 Miami Beach Disc Jockey Convention; the gig recording had faults so they redid it in a studio somewhere there the next few days, then actually recorded the two of them introducing the songs with piped-in applause (Beauty and the Beat). A great set, recently restored to the studio presentation by Capitol Jazz.

 

Not that I disagree. . . but Cotton Tail was already a decade and a half into his recording career!