Ella And Duke At The Cote D’azur

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington - Ella & Duke at The Cote D'Azur (1966) {2CD Set Verve 314-539-030-2 rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 585 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 214 Mb
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© 1966, 1997 Verve / PolyGram | 314-539-030-2
Jazz / Classical Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Swing / Big Band

Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington did not team up in concert until relatively late in their careers (although she did record her Ellington Songbook with him in the '50s). This live double-LP actually finds Fitzgerald singing six numbers with the Jimmy Jones Trio and only "Mack the Knife" and a scat-filled "It Don't Mean a Thing" with the orchestra. Ellington has eight numbers for his band, mostly remakes of older tunes (including a guest appearance by former associate Ben Webster on "All Too Soon," a remarkable Buster Cooper trombone feature, and a rowdy version of "The Old Circus Train Turn-Around Blues"). This is a spirited set of music that with better planning could have been great.

This is an eight-CD set more for Duke Ellington fanatics than for general listeners. Originally, some of the music came out as a two-LP set (Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur) and a single album (Ellington's Soul Call), but the great majority of the material was previously unreleased when this box came out in 1998.

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…