Search - Duke Ellington :: Duke Ellington 1935 1936

The first recordings of Ben Webster with Duke's orchestra

02/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's repeatedly mentioned that the Duke had a creative pause between his early successes in the late twenties and the early forties recordings. That's simply nonsense. On this disc you hear the proof: Duke and his men are playing together as one. In my opinion,the highlights of this CD are the titles "Cotton" and "Truckin".The former portrays the South wonderfully and unpretentiously in a common song context.Ivie Anderson's vocal is warm and perfect. The latter is a killer diller.On both tracks (and "Accent on Youth")you can hear Big Ben playing with the"Guv'nor"for the first time.I advise you to program your CD-player and listen to "Merry-Go-Round" ten times.It's one of the best Ellington tonal portraits ever,the same is true with "Showboat Shuffle". "Reminiscing in Tempo"(dedicated to his late mother)is the first jazz composition to span four 78rpm sides,now comfortably enjoyable on the CD-format. I'm a proud owner of the complete output of theClassics-series,but this is one of the most rewarding."