Ellington in Order

Vienna Art Orchestra - Duke Ellington's Sound of Love (1999) {TCB 99802}
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© 1999 TCB Records | TCB 99802
Jazz / Big Band / Experimental Big Band / Avant-Garde Jazz

One might think this disc would focus on the more romantic side of the Ellington-Strayhorn catalog. But don't let the title fool you. Mathias Ruegg's large band gives tunes like "Red Garter" and "Smada" a playful, blasting treatment. Particularly noteworthy is the transformation of "Mood Indigo" into something of a drunkard's lament, with a deep, wobbling trombone line. It's a labor of love that some Ellington purists might find a bit appalling, but it deserves kudos for its new approach.

This admittedly pricey – but by all means mandatory – Grammy Award-winning box set is the final word on the "songbooks" recorded by Ella Fitzgerald between 1956 and 1964. The audio contents have been completely remastered and each title has been expanded – wherever possible – to include previously unissued material.

This oddly titled CD (which was issued in 1997, hardly the 20th anniversary of Duke Ellington's death in 1974), seems to be a recording that was made by a member of the sound crew for a 1963 concert in Switzerland, including roughly the first half of the show. Although the instruments are all audible, the rhythm section is picked up far better than the reeds or brass on several selections, which also have been resequenced instead of leaving them in the order in which they were performed. On these tracks, the microphones sound as if they are at the back of the stage, making the full band sound rather muffled. Yet clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton is very audible in "Silk Lace," while members of the brass section play various percussion instruments to back violinist Ray Nance in the exotic "Guitar Amour."

Duke Ellington wrote Sacred Concert in the mid-1960's and performed the work with his orchestra and various soloists between 1966 and 1974 at churches around the USA and Europe. Ellington never wrote a score of Sacred Concerts, and it wasn't until 1993 when John Høybye and Peder Pedersen produced a score mostly meant for choirs, but including the full vocal lines and harmonies. Ellington's own performances were all different. The amount and order of the movements and everything about interpretation was agreed just be-fore the start of each show, and the musicians and soloists improvised in true jazz style.The movements of Sacred Concert are reflections and allusions of traditional gospel songs and the historic roots of soul music in America, and the songs sung by black slaves in the hellish working conditions of the cotton fields. The threads of freedom, brotherhood, God's mercy and praise run through each lyric.The album was recorded at the Kokkola Church in 2017, one long take at a time, making the improvi-sation sections genuine. The choir parts have been recorded post-production in a studio by Anu and Marzi.

As usual with the Classics series, the music on this CD is released complete and in chronological order, covering the music originally released by several record labels but without including alternate takes. In the case of Duke Ellington, because he would frequently record the same song slightly rearranged on several occasions for different companies, there are multiple versions of some titles on this CD, but the alternate versions that he made for the labels have been left out. During the very important period covered by this disc, the Duke Ellington Orchestra (having recently found their sound) was hired by the Cotton Club as the house band and they hit the big time…

Chico Hamilton Quintet - Ellington Suite (1958) {Pacific Jazz Japan, CP32-5364, Early Press}
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© 1958-59, 1987 Pacific Jazz / Toshiba EMI Japan | CP32-5364
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Drums

This release will have fans of Eric Dolphy salivating as it includes some long-lost work that jazz scholars didn't know existed at all. When the premiere reissue producer Michael Cuscuna researched all known Pacific Jazz tapes attributed to Chico Hamilton, all he came across were three edited numbers from this session, two of which had appeared on a compilation and another only on a DJ sampler. But this release is due to the luck of a Canadian resident who was digging through a used record bin in his hometown of Brighton, England, where he found a copy of The Ellington Suite with the personnel listed from a later session and a near mint blank test pressing of what turned out to be the long lost Chico Hamilton original version with Dolphy.