Duke Ellington The Duke Box 1940 1949 [8cd Boxset] (2006) {storyville}

Thankfully, Duke Ellington's live performances were well documented in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s - and there is hardly a shortage of live Ellington recordings that are available on CD. Spanning 1943-1969, The Duke in Washington doesn't focus on any one concert. Instead, this Danish release (which Storyville released in 1999) was recorded at six different places - the interesting thing is that all of them are in Washington, D.C. (the Duke's home town) or nearby in Maryland and Virginia…

Duke Ellington - The Duke at Fargo 1940: Special 60th Anniversary Edition (2000) {2CD Set, Storyville 84385-38932 1}
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© 1940, 2000 Storyville | 84385-38932 1
Jazz / Big Band / Swing / Early Jazz

The widely heralded recordings made of Duke Ellington & His Orchestra during a 1940 concert in Fargo, ND, have been justifiably praised for their historic value as well as for the surprisingly good sound obtained by a pair of young amateur engineers with a portable disc cutter. Both the soloists and Ellington's unique-sounding blend of reeds and brass are very distinct. Some of these tracks previously appeared on the Jazz Society label, followed by a Book-of-the Month Club set, and all of them appeared on the now-defunct Vintage Jazz Classics, but this latest version tops them all for sound quality.

This 24-CD box, which dwarfs even most Bear Family sets in scope, is essentially everything Ellington cut for RCA-Victor over a 46-year period. There are gaps, especially after 1946 when he jumped to Columbia, but otherwise, this is all of it. One quickly discovers that, by virtue of its leader's taste, combined with the good sense of RCA-Victor's recording managers, this was a band that did little, if any, wrong on record…

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…

Duke Ellington - The Complete Capitol Recordings Of Duke Ellington (1995) {5CD Box Set Mosaic MD5-160 rec 1953-1955}
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© 1953-55, 1995 Capitol Records / Mosaic Records | MD5-160
Jazz / Big Band / Swing

Historians and some Duke Ellington fans look askance at the brief period he spent on Capitol Records (1953-55). This was a hectic period in jazz, with bebop in the near-view, hard bop coming along as well, and the big band was considered by many to be a relic of bygone eras. Yet Ellington persevered, and not without another adversity: the temporary loss of signature alto player Johnny Hodges, who was off leading his own bands. The resulting five CDs worth of material collected here show an Ellington band more aimed at repetition, both of its own repertoire, which had sounded better in the 1940s, and of other bands' material.

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…

This 10CD Box set was released posthumously and actually includes recordings from Ellington's private collection. They are mainly studio recordings which he produced at his own expense, but two volumes cover a couple of dance dates at military bases in California. The whole set is essential as it includes some compositions which are not recorded elsewhere (such as The Degas Suite and The River) and generally excellent performances.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1940 may not have been as popular with the general public as that of Glenn Miller, but they were one of the great big bands of all time. The best way to acquire their music is to get all of the alternate takes, which are available through RCA/Bluebird, but the Classics series has done a fine job of reissuing all of the master takes. This particular disc has a small-group session apiece led by altoist Johnny Hodges and cornetist Rex Stewart along with nine songs from the big band. Among the gems are "In a Mellotone," "Five O'Clock Whistle," "Warm Valley" (heard twice), "Daydream," and "Linger Awhile." In addition, the four classic Jimmy Blanton-Duke Ellington bass-piano duets (which include "Pitter Panther Patter" and "Mr. J.B. Blues") are included and find Blanton sounding quite futuristic, almost like Charles Mingus 15 years later.

This box set is drawn exclusively from the years 1932 to 1939. You get 75 tracks of prime Ellington from the 30s, including the first recordings of a number of undisputed masterpieces, such as 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Solitude', 'Prelude to a Kiss', 'Clarinet Lament', 'Echoes of Harlem' and 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue', among many more. There are of course other great Ellington recordings from the 30s not represented here - his elegy for his mother, 'Reminiscing in Tempo', for one - for Ellington recorded for a bewildering variety of labels, and these are just the ones currently owned by Sony. There are no sleeve notes, and no listings of the musicians, which is a bit frustrating. But for a 3 disc survey of the period in question, you really can't do better than this.