EKE BBB

OK, I´ll start this one. BBB´s premiere took place on January 23 (1943) in the first of many Carnegie Hall Concerts for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. It received a cold reception from critics and public. This suite, as many of the extended works Ellington developed through his career, was criticized as being "pretentious" and as being a vain try of melting "serious music" and jazz. BBB has been criticized as well of having too much themes, too much changes of time and too much different moods. I couldn´t disagree more. It contains wonderful moments of fabulous music and some of the best Ellington melodies. It´s one (if not the most) spinned Ellington discs on my shelves. BBB original version (about 45 minutes) was edited, reduced, expanded and changed many times through Ellington´s career. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* This 1958 (recording date) performance consists of the two principal parts of the complete piece, "Work song", heard in Parts I and III, and "Come Sunday", heard in parts II, III, IV and V. My personal highlights include: -the complete Part I, with its grandiloquent orchestral start, with that drum making its tom-tom tom-tom (this effect is even greater in the version included in Duke Ellington Private Recordings, vol.10), with continous new melodies and changes of rhythm. Dig it! ... and then there´s that simple but beautiful solo by Harry Carney. He makes another good one on Part II (I must recognize the first time I listened to this second one I thought it was a tenor sax and not a baritone) -the superb introduction by Shorty Baker on Part III and his brief call and response game with the orchestra. This 40 seconds are worth the price of the CD. Shorty Baker is a great asset in the whole suite. -Come Sunday: Mahalia Jackson is simply amazing here. This is one of my favorite Ellington melodies (and I have a great deal of them). Actually, I don´t own any Mahalia Jackson disc apart from this. So, this AOTW and this re-listening of BBB will make me include some MJ CDs on my wish-list (I know you´ll recommend some). -Ray Nance´s violin solo on Part V is one of his best with Ellington Orchestra. Keeping the Come Sunday melody, it introduces the 23rd Psalm. More impressions to come!

I must recognize the only CD I have with Roland Hanna as a leader is "Sir Roland Hanna plays the music of Alec Wilder" in the "Helen Merrill presents" series, reissued in Gitanes/Verve. A good collection of solos, halfway between jazz and classical music (at least to my ears) rounded off with a beautiful version of "Sounds around the house" with Helen on vocals. Though this one is not in the first line of my "most spinned discs" starting grid, I really dig it. And I really appreciate his work with Mingus.

To keep this ball rolling, I oficially nominate Jim Sangrey (under his permission ) to pick next AOTW (Feb 1-7) B)

Thanks Jim R for allowing me to pick AOTW for January 25-31. This is one of my favorite LP-era Ellington recordings, no doubt. Recorded in 1958, it´s BB&B´s third appearance on disc in an altered and edited version. It features Mahalia Jackson on "Come Sunday" and "23rd Psalm". This could be a good chance to discuss Ellington´s extended works skills (by comparison with his mastering within the song-type musical form). In advance, I must recognize I love Duke´s suites... and it doesn´t mean that I don´t like his hundreds of songs. BTW, now you know the meaning of the second part of my username, dig it?

1929

Freddie Jenkins, Cootie Williams, Sonny Greer, Aurthur Whetsol, Jaun Tizol, Wellman Braud, Harry Carney, Fred Guy, Barney Bigard, Joe Nanton, Johnny Hodges, and Duke Ellington seated at the piano.

Manuscript, complete with Ellington´s notations, of "Light", the last section of the first movement of Black Brown and Beige, as of Carnegie Hall 1943 concert.

Howard Theater, Washington, early 1940

The Frog

Here comes Sonny...

And my favorite Rex Stewart (no doubt here)

One of my favorite photos of Cootie:

Duke at the London Palladium

The Duke, Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney at Hyannis, Mass. © Olle Lindholm of Sweden

Now look at this sax section: Johnny Hodges flanked by Ben Webster and Al Sears!

Nice photos, John! The last one is a real gas! Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra as soon as 1930. Look at the childish face of Johnny Hodges and Sonny Greer!

Yes, I usually copy what I´ve written before using the "add reply" or the "backwards" button, except for a few times... and that´s when I begin to swear on every language I know swear-words (and in that ocassions I wish I knew swajili)

I haven´t got any problem with links, file attachments or quote buttons... but sometimes I have to push the "add reply" button twice, because it doesn´t seem to work at the first time. Then I realize that sometimes it had worked that first time and I have duplicated post/thread!

Jam session... look at the Rabbit, looks like he´s having a good time! And the Duke... where´s the piano? B) He´s playing Rosetta Tharpe´s guitar!

Or is Django giving advice to him?

Post your secret photos of Duke Ellington here! Or the well-known pictures! Even weird stuff! Just to start: Duke & Django, two geniuses together... is Ellington teaching Reinhardt how to play piano?

Next on my wish-list: something by Quartet Out. How could I get those releases, Jim?

Track 15: I have the complete Galaxy recordings of Art Pepper.... and now I know I should listen to it MORE FREQUENTLY!!!

ubu: Looks like it´s the same material: -track list is exactly the same in the Storyville release: same 61 songs and in the same order. However, total playing time doesn´t fit. -regarding recording dates, the Storyville is also from 1935 (13 tracks), 1938 (14 tracks) and 1939 (15 tracks), and the last 19 tracks, acording to liner notes, "...are generally believed to have been recorded c. 1945. However, a copy of Standard 191 bears the following legend, in ink: "Production Test 1/22/44". Therefore, if this notation is accurate, these performances took place on or before January 22, 1944." The Storyville doesn´t mention source and remastering process. The only mention is "produced for CD release by Anders Stefansen". And the release date is 1999, three years after the M&A you brought. To these ears and for that time and source, the Storyville has superb sound. Hope this will help!

Another one from Gottlieb´s site: