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AOTW Aug 6-12 - Yet More Ellington


John Tapscott

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I didn't warm to this record when I first heard it 25 years ago, but have recently begun listening to it again (the early CD version), and finding lots to enjoy. I'm not sure "enjoy" is the best way to describe my reaction to this record - fascinated, challenged, absorbed, perhaps. Certainly there's lots of creative energy here - perhaps a bit too much on occasion, which takes away from the cohesivness of the date. In any case, listen to the version you have and let's begin the discussion Aug 6. Look forward to hearing your comments.

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A phenomenal record, and one that broke a lot of misconceptions for me about Ellington when I was a kid starting out in jazz, coming in through 'A Love Supreme' and thinking of Duke as old-fashioned. It was the first Ellington I ever bought (a cut-out LP of this on UA, I think), and I loved it immediately. Mingus and Roach were drawing cards for me, but Duke is able to hold his own in their world, and this did a lot to draw me into his world with open ears.

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This must have been about my 10th Ellington record. I bought is as a college freshman and loved it right away. Wonderful date - I love it.

My first copy was a mono UAJ original, then a stereo United Artists reissue, then a stereo UAJ original, then the first cd. Now I think I'm listening to my 3rd cd edition. Great listening for 40+ years.

Edited by Chuck Nessa
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I first heard this album when it was reissued on LP on Blue Note in about 1986. When I got it home, it was one of those things I simply couldn't believe. "I could have been listening to this for twenty odd years!"

Duke, for me, has always been much more a pianner player than a bandleader. So it's been his albums with small groups that I've mainly collected. Seeing it in the racks when it came out, it obviously fitted in with that sort of approach. So I took it home with me.

But when you listen to it! When you hear the title track, it just grabs you by the balls. I've seldom heard such dramatic urgency in music coupled with utter funkiness of groove. And it's not a one-track album. "Switch blade" is another that severely gets to me; uncut funk, as George used to say. And that's true of "REM blues" and "Backward country boy blues". These gentlemen were so goddam funky!

I like most of the tracks on this, but it is when Duke gets funky that he really bowls me over. I don't think there has ever been a pianist who could drive six inch nails into your forehead with the blues like Duke could. He seems to reach into the uttermost parts of the galaxy and pull down ideas that rush at you with the force of a meteor. You get this sort of feeling on "Weary Blues" from "Back to back", where Duke consciously imitates Avery Parish, but in an astounding way, and "Summertime", from "Piano in the foreground". But this album is a summation of and concentration on that side of Duke's vision.

The only track I'm not so keen on is the treatment of "Warm valley". I have Duke's original version on a 78 and I so much associate it with Johnny Hodges that I can't really concentrate on this version. My fault really.

MG

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This must have been about my 10th Ellington record. I bought is as a college freshman and loved it right away. Wonderful date - I love it.

My first copy was a mono UAJ original, then a stereo United Artists reissue, then a stereo UAJ original, then the first cd. Now I think I'm listening to my 3rd cd edition. Great listening for 40+ years.

I've got three cd releases as well: the original US, the TOCJ (like the sound a lot), the new US cd.

I've got a UA stereo reissue lp too that I really didn't treat with kid gloves. . . because I was an enthusiastic kid (of 23 or so when I first got it) showing off the lp to friends (who mainly didn't get it).

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Wow...sounds like I need to re-evaluate this one. It's currently in my trade pile...

I'll give it another chance, but like the original poster mentioned, this one has never connected with me.

[taking it out of the trade pile...]

Wouldn't be the first time I end up liking an album I had previously dismissed...

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This is on my long list of EMI/Blue Note CDs that I'll order sometime this year. Should be good. The only Ellington I have so far is the session with Coltrane which I find interesting.

Wow. I'd encourage you to try some other Ellington. . . he's one of the musicians I most adore.
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Wow. I'd encourage you to try some other Ellington. . . he's one of the musicians I most adore.

So where should I start? Is any of his stuff on Pablo good for an Ellington newbie?

A lot of that is currently on sale at 2001, available for ridiculous €2.99. :)

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Wow. I'd encourage you to try some other Ellington. . . he's one of the musicians I most adore.

So where should I start? Is any of his stuff on Pablo good for an Ellington newbie?

A lot of that is currently on sale at 2001, available for ridiculous €2.99. :)

If you're liking "Money jungle", try this one

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An earlier trio session with lots of very interesting playing. Available on Columbia Legacy.

MG

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Wow. I'd encourage you to try some other Ellington. . . he's one of the musicians I most adore.

So where should I start? Is any of his stuff on Pablo good for an Ellington newbie?

A lot of that is currently on sale at 2001, available for ridiculous €2.99. :)

'Newport 56', 'Ellington Uptown' are two of my favorites. I really like much of his 50's Columbia stuff (which those two titles are). 'And His Mother Called Him Bill' and 'The Far East Suite' are two of his 60's RCA titles I like quite a bit, and the first of those is universally recognized as one of his greatest works. 'The Blanton/Webster Band' ha some of his greatest 40's stuff. I don't do well with the earliest Ellington material (20's and early 30's), it's lost on me, but others will have plenty of suggestions on that and other eras. The titles available on Fantasy are very good - his late work is very rewarding and very underrated IMO. The Ellington/Coltrane session, to me, was pretty much an uncomfortable, lifeless compromise all around, which makes the explosiveness of 'Money Jungle' (recorded just nine days earlier) all the more amazing.

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I more or less second Felser's recs. The Webster-Blanton recordings on the 3 cd set Never No Lament are absolutely essential. The Far East Suite is my favorite of the later recordings, followed closely by Such Sweet Thunder, And His Mother Called Him Bill and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the '56 Newport set -- aside from the legendary Paul Gonsalves performance and one or two other tunes, I don't think it's that great.

Money Jungle was one of the first Ellington albums I ever picked up. It went over my head the first time I heard it. But my opinion of it has risen with each listening. Was this Duke's only recording of "African Flower"?

By the way, Chuck said something pretty cool about this recording a few months ago:

I see Max as "THE other guy" on this recording. I see Mingus as the"outfoxed" guy on this recording. I see Dukie as the MF.

Guy

Edited by Guy
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I first heard this album when it was reissued on LP on Blue Note in about 1986.

Same here; that's the issue I got, and still have. Great album, great choice. I'm going to give it a spin tonight.

"Fleurette Africaine" is my favorite track on the album---just a masterpiece.

Edited by BruceH
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I first heard this album when it was reissued on LP on Blue Note in about 1986.

Same here; that's the issue I got, and still have. Great album, great choice. I'm going to give it a spin tonight.

"Fleurette Africaine" is my favorite track on the album---just a masterpiece.

It's my favorite track on that album as well.There is something special about it.

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"Fleurette Africaine" is my favorite track on the album---just a masterpiece.

It's my favorite track on that album as well.There is something special about it.

Mine too. The beauty of the track is that it falls amidst several more aggressive tracks.

This session covers a lot of ground stylistically. There are times when the musicians seem to be tugging at one another, other times when it just falls into place beautifully.

I had the original LP for years, bought the first CD to get the extra material.

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Scott, you've gotten good recommendations here. I have to say: the Pablo sides are a good way to start out and get your feet wet in Ellingtonia. Lots of modern Duke there and lots of looking back to the past. I would say my favorites may be three of the Suites cds, the "In the Common Market" (I have that on lp but i think it's cd'd), and the featuring Paul Gonsalves disc.

I like the 1956 Newport two cd set more than Guy does. . . That band. . . Nance, Terry. . .Gonsalves. .. Woodyard. Wow.

I like 50s Ellington in general and would say Blues in Orbit, Indigos and Anatomy of a Murder are three good starting points for that decade.

Edited by jazzbo
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With "Money Jungle" I have to say when I first bought the cd and "Very Special" spilled out I just flipped. It may be the best track on the disc for me in fact. The swing. . . the new guys are pretty in sync with the old guy here to my ears. . . it just really communicates a mood of exuberance.

And the new material still remains my favorite because "Switch Blade" is my second favorite. I was very enamored of Charles when I first grabbed the cd, and the way he leads off with that meaty and "mean" feel just had me in its spell. And I love the space in the music, the way Duke is so in command with single notes then runs then those so Ducal chords. The mood is sustained and Max is giving the perfect groove until Charles does his plucky ending, showing off.

The "Money Jungle" composition and performance sometimes really rocks me though. This is so "modern" and yet also so very "Rockin' in Rhythm" to my ears. . . a blend of the new and the funky and worn shoes old. I seem to feel Duke really having fun with Charles and Max here. That hard hitting sound he gets out of that piano. He learned how to fill a room with sound long before this date! I'd love to hear what they might have spoken in preparation for this one.

Both the "Solitude" performances are good. In my mind's eye I can see Duke making is faces as and wide smiles as he presents this stylish staple with slippery charm, pretending to the unseen audience that he's sort of thinking this arrangement up as he goes along. Sure. We believe you Duke. The alternate I like a hair more because it seems to convey this offthecuffness the most. Really, Charles and Max could have gone down the hall for a cold one. I don't think their contributions to the final part are necessary at all. Would have been nice as a "solitudinal" piano piece.

I should like "Backward Country Boy Blues" more, because it shares characteristics with my other favorites, but it seems less "invested" and by the end of this cd I'm just wanting something sweeter. "Warm Valley," I agree with MG that this isn't the richest version by any stretch, would have served better as the closer. But I'm spliting hairs.

I find myself listening to the old cd version most. The new one though it offers more, offers a bit less to my ears sonically. It may be just me but I hear some distortion. I really like the sound of the TOCJ cd I have, but it lacks the extra material, and the extra material really sings.

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I'm not really ignoring it but it's not really among my favorites, I left it and African Flower off as I didn't have much to say about them, they don't jazz me. Yeah, the old guy gives them the slip. There's so many better versions of Caravan out there.

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There's so many better versions of Caravan out there.

And not by Duke - Norman Simmons' version on his album "In private" is one I find a particular knockout. He says in the sleeve note that he always thought pling the tune fast was wrong; he aways imagines a string of camels plodding slowly through the sand. So he plays it slowly, with Lisle Atkinson behind him giving up the "A love supreme" riff. I think that's THE masterpie version of the tune.

MG

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Well, yes I like that . . . but I thnk my favorite Caravans are the live ones that Duke did in the last years of the fifties. . . where he introduced the players on percussion and it had that long loping groove. . . there are a couple of versions on the Private S

Series that are just such fun!

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