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Ellington Treasury Shows


Sundog

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I have all eight volumes released on cd so far.

This is a stupendous series in my opinion. Excellent sound quality. Great performances, featuring a number of selections live that are rarely recorded elsewhere. The original shows are well supplemented with other contemporaneous broadcast/taped live performances.

It's so very fortunate that Storyville has initiated this program!

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I have all eight volumes released on cd so far.

This is a stupendous series in my opinion.  Excellent sound quality.  Great performances, featuring a number of selections live that are rarely recorded elsewhere.  The original shows are well supplemented with other contemporaneous broadcast/taped live performances.

It's so very fortunate that Storyville has initiated this program!

How come I knew that you would have the low down on these? ;) Great to know that the music and sound quality are both excellent. Looks like this series will satisfy my Ellington "jag" for a while. Thanks, Merry XMAS!

May the "Duke" be with you!

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These are essential Ellingtons. I had the DETS series when it was released on LPs.

Getting the Storyville double CDs now. They include some additional material. This was one of the great Ducal band and what they did offer on those broadcasts is pure joy!

Just got volume 8. This will be my Christmas music.

Agree with Lon, the sound is excellent!

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  • 1 year later...

Bringing this back up to echo Lon & Brownie's thoughts and to urge anybody who likes or loves Ellington to check this series out. V. 11 should be out next month. From April through October of this year I'll be devoting one big-band show a month to these broadcasts. As Lon pointed out, they've supplemented the shows (which originally came out on LP in the 1980s) with 1943 and '45 broadcasts from the Hurricane, etc.

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I'm intrigued. What's the 411 on these?

They were broadcasts that Ellington did for the Treasury Department in 1945 (continuing into 1946, I think) encouraging people to buy war bonds (later re-titled "Victory Bonds" after Japan surrendered. There are a number of tunes that Ellington rarely performed after 1945 (such as "Blutopia"), some pop songs of the day, and a fair amount of Ducal songbook staples. Lots of performances of The Black, Brown and Beige Suite... and peppered with Duke pitching for war bonds. Many of the shows were done on the road (I'm particularly taken with V. 6, which contains a broadcast from Evansville, Indiana). The liner notes are generally pretty good, done by several longtime Duke connoisseurs. You can find them online for $20-$21 (including shipping) or order them directly from Storyville.

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I'm intrigued.  What's the 411 on these?

They were broadcasts that Ellington did for the Treasury Department in 1945 (continuing into 1946, I think) encouraging people to buy war bonds (later re-titled "Victory Bonds" after Japan surrendered. There are a number of tunes that Ellington rarely performed after 1945 (such as "Blutopia"), some pop songs of the day, and a fair amount of Ducal songbook staples. Lots of performances of The Black, Brown and Beige Suite... and peppered with Duke pitching for war bonds. Many of the shows were done on the road (I'm particularly taken with V. 6, which contains a broadcast from Evansville, Indiana). The liner notes are generally pretty good, done by several longtime Duke connoisseurs. You can find them online for $20-$21 (including shipping) or order them directly from Storyville.

Thank you for the information David. I've just ordered vol. 1 in order to get an impression.

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Yep, "A Slip of the Lip." First recorded in '42, I think, and one of the few (correct me if I'm wrong) songs Ellington recorded that directly addressed a war issue.

Yes, that's it I believe. I think it goes "Shhh... a slip of a lip might sink a ship". I have it first, on tape from 1943.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm devoting the first Big Bands of the month to the Ellington Treasury shows from April through September of this year and am prepping right now for taping the May program--man! Who else here has V. 4? The versions of "It Don't Mean a Thing" and "Solitude" from 5/19/45 on disc 1 are back-to-back with Al Hibbler, Marie Ellington, Kay Davis, and Joya Sherrill all singing together... wonderful! :tup

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So far I've listened to the fist disc four times, haven't moved on to the second one yet! Sound on the Treasury Show itself is very good; the sound on the following "filler" show is less good (the source is not as great quality) but acceptable. Remastering by Jack Towers, which is always a good thing. . .

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