Duke's "Mr. Gentle, Mr. Cool"

[ghost of miles]

I'm possibly going to play McCoy Tyner's 1964 recording of Ellington's "Mr. Gentle, Mr. Cool" tonight & am trying to determine when Ellington first recorded this... first appearance that AMG lists would seem to be LIVE AT THE BLUE NOTE 1952. It was co-written by Duke and Harold Shorty Baker; for some reason, I'm thinking Duke debuted it in the late 1940s.

[jazzbo]

I think you may be right David, I seem to think of a version with Nance and Baker in the late forties, but I may be mistaking it for something from the fifties. . . It's such a great song, and nice performances of it are out there. . .

[EKE BBB]

According to Duke Ellington Panorama discography, there are only two recordings of that song:

-the one for the Live at the Blue Note (which was recorded on August 9, 1959 and not on 1952): Roulette CDP 7243 8 28637 2 4

-and a previous one, Live at Newport 58, recorded on July 3: Columbia C2K 53584

And it´s credited to Ellington/Rembert.

[Swinging Swede]

Well, there was a studio recording of it in 1962 which is on the The Feeling of Jazz album. I'm not sure when that was released originally.

The earliest recording does indeed seem to be the Newport 1958 version. Note however that the originally released version was a studio remake from July 21, 1958. The actual Newport live performance from July 3, 1958 wasn't released until the 1994 CD version.

There are also some other live versions known, although not necessarily commercially released. Lord lists the following dates and locations in addition to the ones already mentioned:

Sheraton Hotel, French Lick[!], Indiana, August 15, 1958

Kilburn State Gaumont, London, England, October 25, 1958

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Holland, November 2, 1958