Duke Ellington ... And His Mother Called

When Billy Strayhorn died of cancer in 1967, Duke Ellington was devastated. His closest friend and arranger had left his life full of music and memories. As a tribute, Ellington and his orchestra almost immediately began recording a tribute to Strayhorn, using the late arranger's own compositions and charts. The album features well-known and previously unrecorded Strayhorn tunes that showcased his range, versatility, and, above all, the quality that Ellington admired him most for: his sensitivity to all of the timbral, tonal, and color possibilities an orchestra could bring to a piece of music. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

…And His Mother Called Him Bill is a studio album by Duke Ellington recorded in the wake of the 1967 death of his long-time collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. It won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1968. Ellington recorded the album as a tribute to Billy Strayhorn, who died of cancer in May 1967. Strayhorn was a composer, arranger, and one of Ellington's closest friends.

Such Sweet Thunder (1957). Excellent Duke Ellington work from the late 50s - written and recorded during a period in which he was reemerging with a stronger jazz vision than ever before! The set was written by Ellington and Strayhorn - and dedicated to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario - but forget the Bard-inspired roots of the tracks, because the shimmering moods of the pieces is pure Ellington - with a richness of feeling that's totally great, and a sound that's wonderfully fresh, given that most of these numbers aren't overplayed Ellington compositions! Players include Cat Anderson and Clark Terry on trumpets, Paul Gonsalves on tenor, and Johnny Hodges on alto…

By 1967, the heyday of the big band was over. Rock and Roll ruled as the popular music of the day, and the financial challenges of keeping a large ensemble together for recording - and especially touring - were huge. But Duke Ellington - one of American's finest bandleaders, pianists, and composers - was more than just a genius in the field of music. He also succeeded as a business man, keeping his orchestra not only busy on the road, but also creating his finest art - what he called "American Music" - in the 1960s and 70s.
Big Bands Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra, is the second release from the Jazzhaus music label's "Big Bands Live" series, and it captures the group in top form in a previously unreleased 1967 concert recording in Stuttgart, Germany…

Count Basie was among the most important bandleaders of the swing era. With the exception of a brief period in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later, and the band continued to perform after he died…

Sarah Vaughan, Art Farmer, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and more.
As an informal soundtrack for his revealing biography of Billy Strayhorn, Lush Life, David Hajdu selected and annotated the tracks for this rambling dig through the PolyGram archives. In doing so, Hajdu ranges far afield in date and idiom, yet the overall impression is amazingly consistent of Strayhorn as an elegant yet haunted musical figure whose work has a strikingly individual and timeless signature. Strayhorn himself is typically lodged in the background, appearing on two lovely Johnny Hodges tracks, "Your Love Has Faded" and "Three and Six," a Louie Bellson rarity, "Far-Eastern Weekend," and Ben Webster's "Chelsea Bridge" in various roles arranging, conducting, and playing piano…