Search - Duke Ellington :: At the Alhambra

Honored To Be The First Reviewer Of This Fine French Duke At

Original Mixed Up-Kid | New York United States | 08/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a wonderful cd, capturing Duke in France Live in 1958 post Newport at what can be considered his commercial peak of popularity..This Cd is about 70 minutes long,excellent sound quality,the band is great and this prime Live Ellington offers 13 tracks with such standards as Take The A Train, Jeep's Blues, a medley of The Mooche,Creole Love Call and Black and Tan Fantasy from the late 1920's, some rarities, and naturally an encore of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue..The band plays ala Newport style of both their 1956, and 1958 with this performance coming in October 1958...the similarities in texture and feel is evident..Don't have more to say except add it to your collection if you are into this period of Duke and were weary of taking the purchase plunge.

You won't be sorry.."

Live at the Alhambra

Arthur Shuey | Wilmington, NC USA | 01/30/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Duke Ellington

At the Alhambra

Pablo Records PACD-5313-2

Most readers internalized Ellington melodies while still in the womb. When this record came out, he was still on the road, hammering that sound into America's soul. It is easy to tell from this release how Ellington's sound and attitude so heavily influenced every jazz act that followed him. It's fresh, it's fun, it's precise, and it's unlike any other music. This was the sort of insidiously free and mind-expanding jazz that Stalin made a point of banning from his Soviet Union.

I met an elderly man in an area hospital ten years ago who, from a start in a South Carolina reform school that gave vocational training in music, became a trombonist, then a bassist, and finally a pianist in Ellington's band, and I recall some of the Duke-specific eccentricities he shared with me on a small, electronic keyboard set carefully on the arm of his wheelchair. "...See, and then we'd go to the six," he explained, "and we called these 'stink chords."' Asked why those particular passages were so labeled within the Ellington organization, he explained, "because if you play 'em wrong, it stinks."

While these 13 live recordings from 1958 are certainly art, they are also comfortable and familiar to us, because we are on the other side of Ellington's tremendous influence. This record is an old friend you haven't thought about in a long time, but with whom, once you run into him and chat for a couple of minutes, you will want to keep in better, more frequent touch.

The set list includes "Take The 'A' Train," "The Mooche," "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" and "Rockin' in Rhythm.""