The Ellington Reader

[ghost of miles]

I had a nice moment of serendipity with this one. Thursday night I was doing some research for a radio project and checked it out from the library where I work. It's a nice-sized volume--a "tome," as some (one in particular) might call it--with a wide variety of articles discussing Ellington and his music, beginning in the late 1920's and going all the way up to the late 1980's/early 90's. Especially fascinating is Richard O. Boyer's three-part New Yorker profile, "The Hot Bach," published in 1944. The volume is edited by Mark Tucker, whose bio EARLY ELLINGTON is high on my to-get-list.

Friday afternoon I ambled over to our downtown used bookstore, thinking how great it would be if a used copy of THE ELLINGTON READER were to suddenly appear on the shop's "new arrivals" shelf. I entered the bookstore, and lo and behold--there it was! Dear readers, I fairly whooped with delight!

I am currently wishing for a nice, reasonably-priced used copy of the Ike Quebec 45s Mosaic set to appear in the window of my local used-CD store...

[jazzbo]

Very nice book. His "Early Ellington" is really more of a detailed musical analysis than a bio, an interesting read none-the-less.

[.:.impossible]

I found this book used as well! I'll flip to a random page every so often and read from there. I really need to start from the beginning like I did with the Monk Reader. The Ellington is a bit thicker though...

Good luck with the Quebec!

[Chuck Nessa]

Again, I bought it cheaply as a Barnes and Noble close out. A fine collection.