For Duke

Recognized worldwide as "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald is arguably the finest female jazz vocalist of all time. Blessed with a highly resonant voice, wide range, and near-perfect elocution, Fitzgerald also possessed a deft sense of swing, and with her brilliant scat technique, could hold her own against any of her instrumental contemporaries. She came to initial popularity as a member of drummer Chick Webb's band in the 1930s, scoring a hit with a "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," before ascending to wide acclaim in the 1940s with Jazz at the Philharmonic and Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band, and issuing landmark performances like "Flying Home" and "How High the Moon." Working with producer/manager Norman Granz, she gained even more acclaim with her series of albums on Verve, recording definitive versions of the music of the Great American Songbook composers, including 1956's Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. Over her 50-year career, she earned 13 Grammy Awards, sold over 40 million albums, and picked up numerous accolades including a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A hugely important cultural figure, Fitzgerald made an immeasurable impact on the development of jazz and popular music, and remains a touchstone for fans and artists decades after her passing.

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

A curious happenstance in 1966 triggered the partnership between MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and George Duke. Brunner-Schwer was in San Francisco to record the Art van Damme Quintet.

As a true Alchemist, Duke Ellington was able to transform jazz music, then entertainment music, into art. he is one of the most important composers-arrangers and conductors in the history of jazz, keeping his big band active for almost 50 years. These two aspects of his career are closely related, using his orchestra as a laboratory to refine his writing while giving free rein to his soloists in order to further enrich the discourse ; the latter will remain faithful to him for the most part. Duke Ellington will also write for cinema, theater, melodies and songs (more than 3000) that will become standards accepted by all.

The influence of Duke Reid upon the development of the Jamaican music industry can never be overstated. During the 1950s, he dominated the island’s sound system scene, initially specialising with rare R&B imports from the US before turning to local talent to create ‘exclusives’ for his powerful sound.

A curious happenstance in 1966 triggered the partnership between MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and George Duke. Brunner-Schwer was in San Francisco to record the Art van Damme Quintet. After finishing the recording session one evening, he and his team strolled over to a club called the Jazz Workshop. Les McCann was supposed to be playing, but this particular day was his day off. Instead, a 20 year old pianist, still involved in his studies, was performing with his quartet. The music’s freshness so enthralled the German that he set up a recording session on the spot. This encounter between George Duke and Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in sunny California was both accidental and noteworthy. It turned out to be the jazzy prologue to future events: five years later the American began his fusion-infused sessions for the man from Germany’s Black Forest. These sessions are the theme of this box set with its seven LPs. Some 40 through 45 years after their initial releases, these albums still count as a fascinating and essential part of George Duke’s life’s-work and canon of the genre.

George Duke’s diverse musical history included stints with Jean-Luc Ponty, Al Jarreau, Frank Zappa (as a member of The Mothers Of Invention for a year), Cannonball Adderley and Billy Cobham – began a seven-year tenure with Epic Records, the focus of the SoulMusic Records’ 2016 anthology, ‘Shine On’ (SMCR-5140D). ‘No Rhyme, No Reason’ picks up where that 2CD set left off with handpicked cuts that reflect George Duke’s multi-faceted mastery in Jazz, Funk, Soul and Pop and includes five US R&B charted singles and confirms his place as a staple artist in the world of Smooth Jazz.

This 70-track, three-CD set contains a lot of seldom and never-before-released Ducal selections, from the mid-'60s to the early '70s. The 1965 Tanglewood recordings with the famed conductor Arthur Fiedler feature some rousing, jazz-and-strings renditions of "Caravan" and "The Mooch," along with a long-lost recording of a Duke radio interview. For those who love Ellington's beautiful but underrated piano playing, there are some spicy tracks from a keyboard jam session with Earl "Fatha" Hines. Some behind-the-scenes sides from a Newport Jazz Festival party are included, and 26 tracks from a previously unreleased Reader's Digest recording with organist Wild Bill Davis are unveiled. Ellington's last major concert from the United Kingdom in 1973, one year before his death, reveals his high level of musicianship till the end. Of course, stars like alto and tenor Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves solo sweetly, and Duke Ellington shows us, once again, why we loved him madly. –Eugene Holley Jr.

What we have here is the welcome memento of Duke Ellington and his band’s 1959 European tour. Berlin’s Sportpalast is not a concert hall and during the cursed Nazi reign often was the site of speeches by Hitler and his fellow criminals, but the hall can be said to have been thoroughly purified by sounds of jazz by the time of this concert.

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