Caravan Ellington

During the month of July 1966, Duke Ellington & His Orchestra performed at the Juan-les-Pins/Antibes Jazz Festival on the French Riviera, locally known as the Côte D'Azur. Situated near a stand of towering pine trees, the stage allowed the instrumentalists to gaze at vessels sailing by on the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. Ellington & His Orchestra, sometimes graced with the presence of vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, were filmed and taped extensively. When Ellington's Soul Call album was released in 1967, there was only room for 14 tracks…

These are rare 'live' recordings of the great Duke Ellington Orchestra performing on Two European tours in London on the 20th of February 1964 and in Stockholm on the 8th of February 1966. As can be seen from the personnel listing below all Ellington luminaries are present making this an extremely collectible addition to the Duke Ellington canon.

The liner notes neglect to mention in what year this April 29th birthday performance was recorded, but given the orchestra's lineup and set choices, 1953 or 1954 is likely. Unlike the majority of recently-discovered live tapes, this dance at Portland's McElroy's Ballroom was professionally recorded (by the great engineer Wally Heider) and so the sound is astonishing. This five-CD series is easily the best representation we have of Ellington's early-'50s lineup in an intimate ballroom dance setting.

For the second installment of an ambitious five-CD project, undertaken to observe his fiftieth birthday, master bassist Rodney Whitaker convenes a world-class sextet to pay homage to the oeuvre of Duke Ellington. It's a subject that Whitaker came to know intimately during his 9-year tenure with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, regarding it as his Ph.D in Ellingtonia through performance, deep study, and spirited conversation with Wynton Marsalis and bandmates through those years. With a front line of modern jazz masters - Brian Lynch, Michael Dease and Diego Rivera, the fiery, modern aesthetic of drummer Karriem Riggins, along with pianist Richard Roe and vocals by Rockelle Fortin, Whitaker celebrates the timelessness of Ellington's works by allowing them to live and breathe through the freewheeling, "cutting session" atmosphere he created for the session.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life…

This collection of Ellington's Thirties recordings is generous in that it offers 95 selections and meagre in that there is no discographical information at all (no recording dates, no personel, no matrix numbers). The liner notes give some information but leave one pining for more too. There the criticism ends. Audio restoration by Dutchman Harry Coster (who is attached to the Dutch Jazz Archive and has an outstanding reputation for painstaking restoration of old material) is beyond reproach and the recordings never sounded so good before. And of course there is the music itself, which is formidable, both in musical content and in execution by that peerless group of proud individuals that constituted the Duke Ellington orchestra…

Duke Ellington was the most important composer in the history of jazz as well as being a bandleader who held his large group together continuously for almost 50 years. The two aspects of his career were related; Ellington used his band as a musical laboratory for his new compositions and shaped his writing specifically to showcase the talents of his bandmembers, many of whom remained with him for long periods. Ellington also wrote film scores and stage musicals, and several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. In addition to touring year in and year out, he recorded extensively, resulting in a gigantic body of work that was still being assessed after his death.

We hear juicy, fine and atmospheric jazz from two such unusual imitators, musicians and wonderful instrumentalists. Familiar themes take on completely new colors in their interpretation, especially since the closeness and intimacy of this musical encounter can be heard in their duo.

Budget sampler featuring Ellington performances with Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hodges, and Al Hibbler, among others, taken from various periods. A good starter set for those who haven't taken the full plunge.