Duke Ellington at the Crystal Gardens, Salem (1952)

[EKE BBB]

Hep just released a new double CD album on its Metronome Series (Hep CD 92/93) with the concert of the EKE orchestra at the Crystal Gardens, Salem, Oregon in 1952. Some of the performances had previously been issued on various discs (Folkways FJ2968, Sunburst 501, Stardust 201...), but never as complete as in this new set.

Track listing:

CD I

I. Fancy Dan (Ellington) 5.37

2. The Hawk Talks (Bellson) 3.17

3. Tenderly (Gross, Laurence) 5.01

4. Frustration (Ellington) 4.01

5. Tea For Two (Youmans, Caesar) 3.46

6. Take The A Train (Strayhorn) 5.23

7. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington) 6.38

8. Don't Worry Bout Me (Bloom, Koehler) 4.21

9. Perdido (Tizol) 5.37

10. The Jeep Is Jumping (Hodges) 3.04

11. Deep Purple (Parish, DeRose) 4.09

12. Caravan (Tizol. Ellington, Mills) 4.29

13. Warm Valley (Ellington, Russell) 4.50

14. Medley l Let a Song Go Out of My Heart (Ellington, Nemo. Redmond) - Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Ellington. Russell) 4.19

CD 2

I. Mood Indigo (Ellington) 6.31

2. How High The Moon (Lewis,Hamilton) 6.49

3. Monologue (aka Pretty and the Wolf) (Ellington, Hamilton) 3.22

4. Duet (Ellington) 3.34

5. Skin Deep (Bellson) 7.32

6. Blues At Sundown (Ellington) 3.11

7. Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me (Ellington,Russell) 2.13

8. It Don't Mean A Thing (Ellington) 7.09

9. Dancers in Love (Ellington) 3.06

10. The Tattooed Bride (Ellington) 13.09

11. Trumpets No End (Blue Skies) (Berlin) 2.37

12. Take the A Train - partial playout 0.30

Personnel

Duke Ellington& His Orchestra:

Cat Anderson, With, Cook, Ray Nance, Clark Terry, trpts; Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman, trmbs; Juan Tizol, valve trmb; Jimmy Hamilton, clt and ts; Willie Smith, Russell Procope, as; Paul Gonzalves, ts; Harry Carney, bars; Duke Ellington, pno; Wendell Marshall, bs; Louie Bellson, drms, Jimmy Grissom, voc.

A note from David Lennirk (who did the restoration, editing and digital remastering):

Two sources were used for this issue. One was a set of five microgroove lacquers, purchased from the estate of a Toronto jazz promoter, and the other was a tape copy which surfaced just after the lacquer discs had been transferred to digital. Both were dubbed from a common original set of tapes, but neither con named the beginning of the performance, some tunes were incomplete on both copies, each one had some edits but in different places, and neither set was in a logical sequence. The best was taken from the two sources.

Album notes by Andrew Homzy.

[tranemonk]

Woo-Hoo... is it up for sale now? Got a link? I saw this and thought it didn't come out until next month???

thanks.

[brownie]

The Folkways Records release of this concert dates from 1983. It was a double LP box.

The Salem concert was on one LP. The second LP had April 1952 concerts from Olympia, Wash., and Yakima, Wash.

'Original recordings made in the field by Wally Heider. Remastering by Jack Towers'.

Glad to see a version of the full concert coming out!

[EKE BBB]

Just got an email from Hep reporting that the are shipping today. So, it's already available.

Go to the New Issues section of Hep's website to order it.

[LAL]

Thanks for ze heads up.

[Ted O'Reilly]

A note from David Lennirk (who did the restoration, editing and digital remastering):

Two sources were used for this issue. One was a set of five microgroove lacquers, purchased from the estate of a Toronto jazz promoter, and the other was a tape copy which surfaced just after the lacquer discs had been transferred to digital. Both were dubbed from a common original set of tapes, but neither con named the beginning of the performance, some tunes were incomplete on both copies, each one had some edits but in different places, and neither set was in a logical sequence. The best was taken from the two sources.

Album notes by Andrew Homzy.

A correction is necessary here: David Lennick (not Lennirk) put the material together from a couple of superior sources, acetate and tape, and did a digital transfer. It was then handed over to Alan Bunting. Mr. Bunting would like us to know:

"Just come across the "Organissimo" WEB pages announcement of the Ellington set - don't know if either of you are members of this and are able to post to it but it would be nice if someone could put the record straight and I got at least some of the credit."

He goes on to say,

"I realise I'm probably being a grumpy old man but maybe I'm entitled to have [a] little whinge!

Sincerely,

Alan"

Alan Bunting has done scads of fine work on mostly orchestral works, but lots of jazz as well. You can see his site at http://www.pelstream.co.uk/

I'm awaiting this release with great hopes. This particular Ellington aggregation wasn't particularly well documented...