Guest Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 listening to a very clean copy of the lp and it is like the duke orch. is right here with me, even at a low vol. that cat anderson tpt just roars through the speakers. the lp seems to me to be some sort of "dukes greatest hits" in a way-- it is from '55, a time which i remember hearing somewhere (i think perhaps in the ken burns doc) that '55 was a stagnant time for the duke and his orch they were kind of has beens and playing bad gigs, releasing greatest hits lps, etc etc...is that exactly true? first off? secondly I would like to say i like how duke rearranged his older tunes. how could i not like this lp? i like June Christy remembers those Kenton days, so why wouldn't i like the dukes reworking? any other good examples of artists going back and redoing older material? also any other info regarding thius specific lp i should be privy to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 Actually, this was the beginning of the Ellingotn "resurgance". Johnny Hodges was back, and that wasn't all. Duke was always redoing his older material. Examples abound. He also did two sides of other big band leaders hist in the early 60s. Even on that Bethlehem side, there was a new piece or two. I often wonder how Duke felt about being on Capitol. The years he was with the label soincided with on of Stan Kenton's peak periods of popularity. Kenton's music was being hyped as "modern", "progressive", and all that, whereas Ellington....well, if Kenton was "now" for the label, what was Duke? I wonder... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.D. Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) This was originally released as " Historically Speaking" and was represented as something of a "retrospective of Duke up to the present day ( 1955 at the time) It was one of my first modern jazz records, got for Christmas 55, and was my first Ellington. Became a total convert.. espescially to Hodges after hearing Jeep and Mellotone. It did have, however, one of the worst covers for a Jazz album. Might have suited a Halloween issue There is a companion album... "Duke Ellington presents" with a nice version of Cottontail A number of CD issues combined tracks from both albums.. currently a Lonehill issue which also has some of the Capitol tracks from the 55 period Edited January 15, 2006 by P.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 One of French critic André Hodeir's most controversial article - 'Why Did Ellington Remake His Masterpiece?' -was a negative view of these two Ellington Bethlehem albums that was included in his book 'Toward Jazz'. There is a translation of his article in 'The Duke Ellington reader' collection which came out from Oxford University Press. It still makes a quite interesting read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Hey P.D.! Nice to see you hear again! Hope all's well! *** I quite like both of Duke's Bethlehem albums, but I think "Presents" is better, in the end. I also like the Capitol sides - but then that Mosaic was the first larger chunck of Ellington I ever got (just in time before the centennial run on that set started). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 I'm spinning Historically Speaking right now - that version of East St. Louis Toodle-O is so different from the original, slower tempo, totally different mood: This is not a simple revamping of material, but a very creative treatment of his own book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 brownie- that must be what i heard about, but couldnt refer to: that hodieir article. do you have it linked online anywhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 brownie- that must be what i heard about, but couldnt refer to: that hodieir article. do you have it linked online anywhere? Search for a link to the article proved negative. 'The Ellington Reader' book seems areadily available at Amazon Highly recommended book! Oh, it's HODEIR not HODIEIR or HODIER, a common mistake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fer Urbina Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 the lp seems to me to be some sort of "dukes greatest hits" in a way-- it is from '55, a time which i remember hearing somewhere (i think perhaps in the ken burns doc) that '55 was a stagnant time for the duke and his orch they were kind of has beens and playing bad gigs, releasing greatest hits lps, etc etc...is that exactly true? first off? ... any other good examples of artists going back and redoing older material? also any other info regarding thius specific lp i should be privy to? About the Ellington Bethlehems, I actually listened to these before I ever got to listen to the *original* versions (long time ago), and IMHO some of the tunes are great (Jeep is jumping for one, if I remember correctly), but the tempo in Cottontail and Koko is probably too fast. Basie also redid some of his older hits in "The Count Basie Story" (Roulette 1961): see organissimo thread and allmusic review. Great recording IMHO F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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