And another one I have recently stumbled across Alan...."Back to Back" Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues. Sensational recording on Verve. This is another classic!
'Onya Alan. Let me be the first to suggest even the most obvious collaborations. I am not into Big Band stuff either and you will note that with these fabulous recordings. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington- The Great Summit; Duke's Big 4; DE and John Coltrane; DE Meets Coleman Hawkins; and the most beautiful- Blues in Orbit. Great how this 'sharing' of records is like being amongst friends sharing a single malt and listening to fabulous music. Cheers from Oz.
🎉Congratulations Alan on your 4th anniversary in the RU-vid “creator-verse”🎉 I have a BA in Jazz Studies and Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. I studied under the great composer and musician David Baker. David’s favorite composer and idol was Duke. So I spent multiple semesters studying Duke. And the span of Duke’s musical recordings are immense, nearly 5 decades worth of material. Along with Satchmo, Duke was essentially the co-creator of both Jazz music the genre and 20th Century modern American music. You’ve taken on quite the challenge. Should be a lot of fun though. So many phases of Duke’s career but there are distinct periods of his output you should not ignore. * Jungle Music - I know it’s an unfortunate term but the past is like another country, people behaved differently there. You’re fantastic at providing context so I trust you’ll give this period a fair treatment * Billy Strayhorn - Duke had many collaborators but none of them were as influential or important as Billy was for Duke. The compositions between these two composers/arrangers are a self-contained musical period in and of itself. I would consider treating their time together as its own musical universe * Live At Newport and after - I’m sure you already know but this album alone changed the trajectory Duke would take with both his approach to music as well as the small combos and hard bop collaborators he would play with after. Even though this album is strictly big band. This album resurrected Duke’s career both commercially and artistically. * Pablo recordings - Duke’s late period produced some of his best and most affecting work. There’s so much here to explore it’s certainly an entire episode alone. “Duke’s Big 4”, “This One’s for Blanton!”, “The Ellington Suites”, “The Intimate Ellington”. Have a great month of May and I look forward to your deep dive into Duke’s music!
Thanks very much, Patrick. I appreciate the time you took to make this very helpful comment. As you might expect, I’m not going to try to bite all of this off in one mouthful. My first attempt is really going to be to get a grip on pre-war compilations. I am a big fan of the jungle phase, and of the settled band that he had in the 1930s, especially with Ivey Anderson singing. So that will probably be the initial focus. Thanks very much for these suggestions, including later ones. And I look forward to any comments you have on my first efforts when they appear!
On a side note, I must say the Newport recording is one I struggle with. I can’t reconcile the electric effect it had on his career with my own reaction to the record. I do appreciate the reaction of the crowd, but I do often feel that this is one of those cases where “you had to be there.”
@@TenMinuteRecordReviewsA lot of that "electric effect" came from Paul Gonsalves' solo on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" and a beautiful young platinum blonde woman in the crowd struttin' her stuff to Paul's almost Coltrane-like fire music solo. I think Paul collapsed after it was over. 🤣
I need to get some more Duke myself as the albums I have are amongst my favourites particularly Ellington Masterpieces and Ellington Uptown (1951 and 1952) With these albums you are getting that authentic 30's/40's big band sound in superb recording quality.
The two Columbia Ellington Era 1927-1940 vol 1 & 2 box sets are good places to begin with for the earlier Ellington. The notes in the booklets by Stanley Dance are very informative.
Thank you for 4 amazing years Alan! I think we share the same opinion regarding Duke. I’m also not that keen on big band stuff. Especially when it’s too busy and dare I say it, too happy-go-lucky. But when the tempo is mild and the arrangements sparse I can really dig it. So the records I want to recommend to you are the same as the ones I have in my collection. I’m on the same journey as you so my Duke collection is far from complete. But as of now, these are the ones I have. Let me start off with my favorite: Ellington indigos (1958). Just a beautiful record! Then we have Midnight in Paris (1962). It follows the same formula. Mellow tracks for a mellow day. Soothing! Then there’s all his “Suite” records: The far east suite, New Orleans suite, Latin American suite AND the best one: The Afro-Eurasian eclipse. I also have the soundtrack to Anatomy of a murder, the collaboration with Coltrane (the cream of the crop), Mingus & Roach and Newport from 56. These are the ones that have resonated with me. I have tried to find the deep cuts if you will. So I have certainly missed out on a few but those are waiting to be found! I’m excited to see what you discover on your Dukian exploration. I Hope that my limited recommendations can bring you some excitement! /Adam
Thank you for this, very much. My focus in this particular video will be the pre-war era, though what you’ve suggested here seems like a great roadmap to some of the later work of as you say a more sparsely arranged variety, which I am regularly trying to discover. I will certainly get to these. Much appreciated!
Hi Allan, you do the proper research and present it in an engaging and informative way. This is the big value of your channel. Good question regarding Duke Ellington comps. I liken The Duke to Brian Wilson as someone who could write snappy and entertaining pop tunes but was also capable of deeply personal and emotionally enriched compositions. I'm all in with CDs and a good starting point in that format is the Columbia Legacy three disc collection 'Duke Ellington - The Essential Collection 1927-1962'. This one came out in 1999 and is a more concise version of a larger box set that came out around the same time. It covers the major periods of the Duke's career and comes with substantial liner notes. A shorter comp was compiled by Orrin Keepnews for the BMG label in 2000 and is simply titled 'The Very Best of Duke Ellington'. It makes for a good survey. The great stuff starts with the three disc comp 'Duke Ellington: The Blanton Webster Band' that features recordings made in the early 1940s and is uniformly excellent. The Duke also recorded some outstanding long players in the 1950s, which reveal a deeper exploration of big band swing and can be easily considered masterpieces. You might enjoy the appropriately titled 1951 album 'Masterpieces by Ellington' that features deep dive versions of earlier tunes. The Shakespeare themed 1957 album 'Such Sweet Thunder' is beautifully composed and performed. But the absolute standout album for me is the 1958 recording of the previously composed song suite 'Black, Brown and Beige'. This album captures the Black American experience in a compelling and emotionally deep way and swings from joyous to mournful. It must be one of the greatest recordings of the 20th century. Hope this helps. The Duke Ellington journey is well worth it!
Thank you Daniel, for the kind words about the channel and for this very helpful perspective on the comps you mention. And although I am not the biggest fan of Duke’s post-war stuff, I do agree about BB&B. A deep, rich work.
I dove deep into Duke’s catalogue a few years ago. One place I recommend starting is the RCA Vintage Series, a reissue campaign from the 1960s that has excellent sound on LP, wonderfully curated with informative liner notes, produced by the same guy who would produce some of Ellington’s best contemporary work of the ‘60s, Brad McCuen. If you collect those, you’ll get a wonderful collection of essentials as well as deep cuts. (And I very much recommend all other non-Duke LPs from the Vintage series). Now, a few key RCA tracks are missing from those LPs because they were reissued on other comps in the years prior. For those interested, those LPs are: At His Very Best, In a Mellotone, The Indispensable. These aren’t quite up to the same standards, but pretty good. When it comes to non-RCA pre-War stuff, of which there is a lot, I haven’t quite found the recipe that offers satisfactory sound and packaging. CDs are the better bet in those cases.
Thank you so very much. Another correspondent got in touch by email to recommend a 3 LP set on RCA called the Age Of Ellington, distributed by the Sunday Times in the UK. I wonder if those are one and the same? And thanks for the tip re the Vintage series.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews Get ready to become real frustrated when it comes to collecting pre-WWII jazz. Since everything was recorded direct-to-disc, there aren’t any good sources for the tracks apart from surviving copies of commercial 78s. Most American record companIes destroyed their surviving metalwork during the war, sometimes later. Working from 78s means hearing the hiss, pops and clicks, so even early on they tried to filter that out resulting in dull sound. The frustrating part is that those reissues who did the least filtering sound the best - but it’s impossible to tell, apart from listening. An even worse trend that started im the 1950s was to add lots of reverb… It’s a vast topic.
@@vinylarchaeologist Interesting. I have already noticed a lot of “needle drop” recordings on some of these comps and I suppose that is why. Is there a point at which Duke’s recordings become better preserved?
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews With the arrival of magnetic tape and the LP in the late 1940s, which coincides with his early Columbia LPs, his switch to Capitol, and then back to Columbia. But then you’re missing out on most of Duke’s classic recordings, many of which actually sound wonderful, they just haven’t been served well in the LP era.
Happy anniversary. Well if you're looking for the best Ellington compilations your best and physical resource is going to be in the realm of CDs. Here's a list of what I have in my collection: 1. Early Ellington- The Complete Brunswick & Vocalion Recordings of Duke Ellington (Decca Jazz GRD 3-640) 2. The Blanton - Webster Band (RCA 5659-2RB) * my first and still favorite Ellington compilation. 3. Complete Columbia & RCA Victor sessions With Ben Webster (Featuring Jimmy Blanton) Definitive Records DRCD11170 * more complete than the above compilation which only includes the RCA sessions. 4. Black, Brown & Beige (The 44-46 Band Recordings)RCA Victor 6641-2RB An Ellington biography I recommend is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout (2013). Also, any study of Ellington has to delve into the Ellington/Strayhon collaborative relationship - see these books: 1. Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn-David Hajdu 2.Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn: Walter van de Leur (somewhat technical but valuable in providing insight into what compositions/arrangements were Strayhorn's. Hope this helps- Mike.
Thanks Mike, this is very helpful. I do have the B/W vinyl box which is excellent. The other comps are new to me and will explore. Intrigued by that 44-46 RCA set in particular. Still undecided as to how much Duke biography I’m going to bite off. As it stands think I’m going to limit myself to “the bits you need to know to make good choices at the record store”. But either way your book recs very useful and much appreciated.
Really like your openness Allan. Great looking maples too by the way. Quite different from my part of the world. Duke made some extraordinary music. I’ve grown to really enjoy a big band. The subtle harmonies. And Duke’s gifted sidemen- Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Clark Terry……and experiment with easy to pick up albums like Masterpieces, or The Far East Suite, or And his mother called him Bill. Great depth in there. Cheers. Really enjoy your channel.
Thank you Mark. I feel as though I *ought* to enjoy his post war big band stuff but every time I put a lauded record on the turntable I find myself disappointed. Latest example being Newport ‘56. However, hope springs eternal and I look forward to exploring these suggestions. At some point I will do a postwar Duke video and I’m still hopeful of finding stuff I can unabashedly endorse!
I agree with the general consensus that the greatest of all Ellington bands was the one that recorded for Victor from 1940 to 1942. It was superb. From a LP standpoint, the most comprehensive collection is the Webster Blanton 4 record set on Bluebird which has all 66 issued sides. But if you do not want to go that far, two other albums are In A Mellotone on RCA and Jumpin Punkins on RCA Vintage series are also excellent and should be fairly easy to obtain and not that expensive. RCA Vintage also has another Ellington small group collection titled Things Ain’t What Used To Be which has sides from the same period which has groups led by Johnny Hodges and Rex Stewart.
Not sure if it was mentioned already but The Duke and His Men on RCA Victor is a pretty good compilation of what you are looking for. There's also a collection called Never No Lament that collects all they've masters of his recordings from 40-42.
Also, aside from the early Ellington era, you should listen to the version of U.M.M.G from the Columbia album "Jazz Poll Winners". I don't know of any other albums this version appears on but it is quite different from others such as the version that appears on the Billy strayhorn tribute album "... and his mother called him Bill".
Best of luck with this adventure! Years ago in a music forum I wrote a two paragraph summary of Duke’s career from the beginning to the LP era. This was meant for CD listeners but it encapsulated his pre-LP era quite well. To summarize that post, I think it’s best to divide this part of his career into chunks based on what family of labels he was recording for: the early Brunswick era in the early 20s, the early RCA/Victor era through the early 30s, the first Okeh/Columbia era through the late 30s, and the second RCA/Victor era through the late 40s. Regarding US releases, the early Columbia period is not well served by LP or CD compilations at least not in a comprehensive way. There are two “Ellington Era” box sets that cover this period but not very chronologically. The early RCA era has a number of early LP comps but none are even close to being comprehensive. The 40s RCA era is much better served, particularly the Blanton band of the early 40s. There are two Smithsonian 2LP sets titled 1940 and 1941 that are excellent! There is a French series of single LP comps that cover the entire RCA periods in their entirety and chronologically including all known alternates.
That is truly a concise and useful piece of intel. Thank you very much. I suppose another issue is that he may have recorded the same tune many times for different labels. Plus the later vocal versions of earlier instrumentals! Thanks for the suggestions on comps. I have one of the Era sets, the earlier one I believe. Others have mentioned the RCA comps, particularly the Vintage series. But I didn’t know about the French ones. This is truly Pandora’s box.
The French RCA comps are all titled “the Works of Duke Ellington”. There are about 25 of them. There is also a French series of LPs that covers the Columbia/Okeh era called the Complete Duke Ellington. Those I see far less often.
Oh! What a task! Ellington has got hundreds of great masterpieces recorded as early as 1927 during the " jungle band" Years. I love everything he did during all those years right up to the end of the big band era in 1948 really. The thing is that in recent years both RCA and Columbia have reissued several box sets of the finest quality with the liner notes of those sets often more than sufficient to educate you on the importance of all this incredible early output. I suggest you get pretty much everything. There's no way of really getting around it. And listen in chronological order. I came to jazz through the big bands and the big band era . It's a fantastic period. These great bands were the early giants of jazz. Especially in Ellington's case his band was a vehicle he used to feature his different great soloists. Good luck in your endeavor! And keep up the good work! A jazz fan from Gatineau, Québec.
Thank you! Yes, I think if one becomes an Ellington “completist” there is no end to what you can gather, with all the different versions of songs in different eras for different labels. It’s overwhelming. My goal for the moment will be to suggest a reasonable strategy for collecting Ellington comps covering the period up to 1945. Your comment and others have been very helpful.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviewsAlso, If you had to survey everything in chronological order, from the Columbia, RCA and their smaller subsidiary labels, you could go to a one stop deal : The French CD collection specialized in vintage recordings known as : "The chronological classics" they have issued absolutely everything from 1924 to 1953, including a separate series of CDs just for all the alternate takes. The only downside in this collection, is that the liner notes are not too elaborate...
Hi Alan, Good work on the 4 years. Always a must watch when you post mate. So Duke Ellington eh? I have to say my journey mirrors yours somewhat. This is the jazz I like. I'm good, but then @thejazzshepherd gives me a hard time for not embracing the full jazz canon and how can my view be valid without understanding the full context and what these guys endured which then informs me of the music. And he was/is so right. Life is hard and I need to let it all out on a Friday night at the dance hall and what better way than the Duke or Earl Hines. This was popular music in 1935, before wide spread uptake of radio and TV and music at home on your player of choice. You go to the dance hall to ..dance. In fact before the bop scene that's what music was for . You didn't go to a club to sit and listen! I've learnt to embrace a the wider jazz canon but I'm still a hard bop man at heart. So Duke comps. I have most of Dukes 50's Columbia recordings but these are not what you are after great though these recordings are. Perhaps Masterpieces goes closest to giving you a taste of what the Duke was capable of in the dance hall. One option is this collection LPs which are a series of recordings that Mel Torme had made of radio recordings (I think) from some dance halls the Duke was playing in 1945. www.discogs.com/release/8825104-Duke-Ellington-And-His-Famous-Orchestra-A-Date-With-The-Duke-Vol-1-1945-46 There's like 8-10 volumes maybe. Other than that I'm stuck. Goodluck on the quest.
Thanks for the kind words. I had a look at those radio recordings. Mel Tormé! Who’d have thunk it? Very interesting. I think what got me into exploring Ellington (out of more than a sense of obligation) was the “jungle” sound with Bubber Miley et al. And in truth, that is small group work of a sort. The polished, slick big band sound I don’t care for I’ve come to understand as a postwar phenomenon. Perhaps due to the fact that high frequencies were better recorded on tape and thus the brass sound became much brighter (for me, oppressively so). Compared to that, the sound from the mid-20s to mid-30s is positively punk rock.
Recommend The Duke's Men Small Groups Volume 1 and The Duke's Men Volume 2 1938 - 1939; both on Columbia. I have these on cd, so I am not certain of their availability on vinyl.
Hey, I've been diving down the Ellingtonian rabbit hole recently, semi-unintentionally. I got hooked on the Norman Granz titles on Mercury, Clef, Norgran, and Verve, where many Ellington players recorded, and recorded Duke compositions. So that lead me to seek out titles where these musicians were playing with Ellington. Note that my earliest Ellington was Masterpieces that AP put out on 45 RPM (with the red cover), which was recorded in 1950, and Ellington has a 20+ year career as band leader before this. That said, I found an RCA title called Duke Ellington and his Orchestra 'In A Mellotone' (LPM-1364), which is a comp of 78 recordings from 1940-42 and features Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carnes on baritone sax (a new favorite), and the legendary Jimmy Blanton on bass. I got my copy is VG+ condition for $5. Hope this helps. Looking forward to your return to RU-vid! -- Mike
Catching up on some old messages... Yes, thanks Mike, this is really helpful. Really, comps are the only way to go unless one is prepared to go all shellac/Victrola. And given the quality of recording pre-war, and the age and condition of originals, I've never been that tempted to dig into the pre-vinyl era. There are some darn good comps to be had, and thanks for these suggestions.
I'm kind of in the same boat as you with the Ellington's I only own one Ellington record and it's the same record I bought in the mid-60s it's Duke Ellington and John Coltrane on impulse label
HOOOO Boy! Compilations? [manic Laughter] my friend to get the BEST of Ellington you are going to have to get into live recordings and airshots...because The Duke was totally energised and changed by (not Billy Strayhorn, though he was) JIMMY BLANTON a bassist Yup you read that right, but Jimmy had TB and there was a recording ban and theres pitifully little official recordings. So good luck with THAT!
For Ellington small group sides, two albums on the Epic Encore series The Duke’s Men and Hodge Podge (the Mono versions) that were reissued in the late 1960s are worthwhile. Keep in mind that Duke was a prolific recorder so it depends how comprehensive you wish to get. His post 1950s records have way too much Paul Gonsalves for my taste.
@@TenMinuteRecordReviews the small group recordings date from 1936 to 1939. I think l have a good amount of knowledge of Ellington recordings, and l am Ellington collector myself and would be glad help you in your search.
Alan, sorry for not commenting over the last several months. Been trying to recover my Gmail account and the computer generated help has NOT been helpful. I’ve been watching your videos, couldn’t comment or give likes, so I broke down and created a new account to connect with my favorites. Love your content, enjoy your break and if any of your subscribers know an easy way to recover a gmail account, I’m open to all any suggestions. Thanks🙏🏻
@TenMinuteRecordReviews Where’s a tech savvy teen when you need one? The vape craze has sapped their technological powers, LOL!!! Glad to be back, Alan. You’re the best, tremendous work on all your vids, sir🙏🏻
