It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
Love Call
Sophisticated Lady
Solitude
Caravan
Back Room Romp
Ko-Ko
Never No Lament (aka Don't Get Around Much Anymore)
Cotton Tail
Take The "A" Train
Satin Doll
Come Sunday
Black Beauty
One of the toughest jobs in assembling the Jazz artist compilations must have been picking the 21 tracks featured on the Duke Ellington disc. Ellington composed thousands of songs and had a career that spanned six decades.... more » More than a jazz great, Ellington is simply one of the most important musical figures in the 20th century. Surprisingly, all the material here was recorded on or before 1960, which eliminates great later works like the Far East Suite and the sacred concerts. Also missing is the legendary 1956 Newport Jazz Festival performance of "Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue," which was the flashpoint that revitalized a career that had fallen on commercial hard times with the emergence of bebop. Not surprisingly, there are four tracks from the so-called Blanton-Webster era, which was a happy convergence of personnel and Ellington's own muse that led the Ellington band to unsurpassed heights. A bit flawed, this is the briefest of glimpses at a musical galaxy that goes on forever. --Tad Hendrickson« less
One of the toughest jobs in assembling the Jazz artist compilations must have been picking the 21 tracks featured on the Duke Ellington disc. Ellington composed thousands of songs and had a career that spanned six decades. More than a jazz great, Ellington is simply one of the most important musical figures in the 20th century. Surprisingly, all the material here was recorded on or before 1960, which eliminates great later works like the Far East Suite and the sacred concerts. Also missing is the legendary 1956 Newport Jazz Festival performance of "Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue," which was the flashpoint that revitalized a career that had fallen on commercial hard times with the emergence of bebop. Not surprisingly, there are four tracks from the so-called Blanton-Webster era, which was a happy convergence of personnel and Ellington's own muse that led the Ellington band to unsurpassed heights. A bit flawed, this is the briefest of glimpses at a musical galaxy that goes on forever. --Tad Hendrickson
"This disc contains a useful pocket-sized version of the early- to mid-period Ellington. The emphasis is on 1930s and 1940s Ellingtonia, a period that found Ellington gradually assembling a peerless band of highly individual, brilliant musicians, and putting together a band-book with songs and arrangements of unparalleled sophistication. By the time Ellington recorded such early-1940s sides as "Koko" he had what is undoubtedly the greatest big band in jazz, with players like Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Jimmy Blanton, Cootie Williams and many others. Jazz has always been strongly identified with the charismatic improvising soloist--Armstrong, Parker, Gillespie--but Ellington's achievement as a bandleader was to balance this fact with a brilliantly adventurous sense of the jazz ensemble and jazz arrangement. He was also notable for how, unlike Armstrong, he both spanned the early history of jazz in his career & remained open to "modern" developments; while Armstrong attacked bebop as incomprehensible "Chinese music", Ellington recorded with musicians like Coltrane, Mingus & Roach, and was a potent influence even on the jazz avantgarde: the link from Ellington to Monk & Mingus to musicians like Cecil Taylor is a direct one (indeed, Cecil Taylor's early recordings contain a number of versions of Ellington and Strayhorn tunes).This compilation's music can't be argued with: this is essential music. But I'm rather surprised by the failure to represent the later Ellington. This suggests that while Wynton Marsalis's hand is perceptible in many aspects of the Ken Burns project, he wasn't involved here: Marsalis & his critic-supporter Stanley Crouch have been strong advocates for Ellington's later work. I find myself on the whole agreeing with Gunther Schuller's assessment (in _The Swing Era_) that the later Ellington only sporadically matched the heights of his 1930s and 1940s music; yet certainly there's a lot of later music one wouldn't want to miss, & I'm baffled by the exclusions here. I'm sure it's only timing considerations that kept the monumental 15-minute "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" from the 1956 Newport concert off this disc--that's the track that single-handedly reversed Ellington's decline in fortunes through its astonishing extended Paul Gonsalves solo that nearly induced a riot. I am very puzzled, though, at the omission of classic tracks from recordings like _Such Sweet Thunder_ ("Star-Crossed Lovers", in particular), or _The Far East Suite_ ("Isfahan"), or _And His Mother Called Him Bill_ (with Billy Strayhorn's ultra-chromatic swansong "Bloodcount"). Such omissions speak not just to representation of highpoints in Ellington's career, but also to Ellington's ambitions: this compilation ignores Ellington's aspirations to large-scale composition. I might agree that these aspirations didn't always bear fruit (as with Charlie Parker, the 3-minute limitations of old 78s actually seemed to intensify rather than limit Ellington's music); yet they are important to one's sense of Ellington's career & achievement, & deserve representation here."
A great Duke Ellington primer
Brian M. Burke | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 01/14/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've loved jazz for years, but have never ventured into big band or swing. However, watching Ken Burns' documentary got me interested in Duke Ellington, and I picked up this CD. It's awesome, with great classics like East Saint Louis Toodle-oo, Mood Indigo, Take the "A" Train, and (my favorite cut of all), Solitude. This disc is 74 minutes of jazz genius, and a must have for any collection."
Fine Introduction
Howard Sauertieg | Harrisburg, PA USA | 01/23/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This collection is a fine introduction to Ellington, focusing on his first two decades of recording with his orchestra. The poor sound quality of the earliest recordings is only "poor" in a relative sense, given the difficulties of recording a large orchestra with the primitive electronic equipment of the 1920s. At least the recordings of "Black and Tan Fantasy," "The Mooche" and "Mood Indigo" do capture the instrumental interplay and timbres that were a large part of Ellington's genius as a composer and arranger. The music in this collection is both sophisticated and earthy, "popular" and "arty" at once - a very difficult feat to pull off, but Ellington was a great entertainer as well as a great composer. There are better Ellington CDs but most are available in packages of 2 or more discs; this is a fine one-disc introduction and a fine jumping-off point for further exploration of the vast Ellington catalog."
Best Ellington CD I've Seen
Jeril Bills | Spanish Fork, UT USA | 11/19/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It seems to me that the purpose of the Ken Burns Jazz Series is to document a history of jazz music. If that is true, and this CD is supposed to tell the story of America's greatest composer, then he (Burns) has done an excellent job. While it's not perfect, it does include early performances like "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," "Black and Tan Fantasy," and "The Mooche" that are frequently ignored in Ellington compilations. It also includes some of the best recordings from the Blanton-Webster era, and the performance of "Jeep's Blues" from The 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Although I would have liked to have seen the "Black and Tan Fantasy" with Bubber Miley, The Carnegie Hall version of "Come Sunday," and the 1928 "Black Beauty," as well as maybe a song like "Chelsea Bridge" or "Perdido" to replace "Take it Easy" or "Back Room Romp," I realize that nobody can limit an Ellington CD to 21 recordings and please everybody, and Ken Burns has done a better job on this one than any other I've seen."
A Strong, Representative Taste
Paul Frandano | Reston, Va. USA | 01/28/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Every track on this CD is classic Ellington; unfortunately, it's fairly easy to compile a five-disc set of "essential Ellington," with each of 100 tracks truly deserving the designation "essential." The Burns compilation focuses, as does the series itself, on the early period through the great Blanton-Webster Band. For every item selected from these years, however, three equally superb pieces will have to be left off. My own personal lament is that a few more Billy Strayhorn tunes besides A Train--at the very least, Chelsea Bridge--might have been included. All that said, if you only have a slight acquaintance with this glorious, timeless music and you're looking for more than the nibbles and bites Ken Burns has given you, this is is as good a sampler as any other 20 track CD out there--having, as it does, the band playing across a broad range of song styles and tonalities--and, at the bargain price, actually better than the rest."