More on The Duke Ellington Centennial Celebration
The Duke Ellington album project is being researched, restored and
remastered by jazz historian and long-time WKCR-FM (Columbia University,
New York) air personality Phil Schaap, whose diligence on Miles Davis &
Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings led to three 1996
Grammy awards. The digital remastering process (which includes both analog
and digital stereo synchronization and pitch control) is supervised by
Mark Wilder at Sony Music Studios in New York, utilizing the 20-Bit SBM
(Super Bit Mapping Process).
Schaap has unearthed previously unreleased material (alternate takes,
out-takes and other rare masters) from far-flung sources, and restored
long-dormant stereo masters by utilizing state-of-the-art digital
technology. Further enhancing the reissues are original Lp liner notes,
augmented by new essays from guest musicians (like Wynton Marsalis) or
original band members (like former bassist Aaron Bell, and former valve
trombonist John Sanders), plus Schaap's always intricately detailed
elucidations.
"Ellington's Orchestra existed before the Swing Era, during it, and
most remarkably, after it," writes Phil Schaap in his new liner notes to
ELLINGTON AT NEWPORT 1956 - COMPLETE. By 1956, however, the chasm between
mere existence and prosperity had overtaken Ellington. He saw the popular
outdoor jazzfest (in its third year, having started in 1954) as a means to
redeem his reputation with fans, critics, journalists - and Columbia
Records, with whom he had signed a new 5-year contract just the week
before. Imagine Duke's exasperation, then, when at 8:30 showtime, Saturday
night, he found four key players missing; their absence was a real problem
and after three numbers he yanked the orchestra from the stage. Three
hours later (just before midnight) the full band returned to the stage
with a set that began with Duke's theme, "Take The A Train," and would go
on to make history.
A half-hour or so into the set (which included Ellington's 20-minute,
three-part "NJF Suite" composed for the occasion) the band launched into
"Diminuendo In Blue." The tune was customarily segued into the set's
closing "Crescendo In Blue" via an interlude played by Duke, but tonight
he gave the interlude to tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. 'Mex' proceeded
to burn down the house with a solo of 27 choruses that sent the crowd into
a frenzy. Instead of leaving, Duke wisely stayed onstage, cooling down the
crowd by featuring alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges on a couple of lush
encores, "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" and "Jeep's Blues." When
festival impresario George Wein then took the mic to end the show, a riot
of rock and roll proportions nearly ensued. Again, Duke saved the day,
offering "Skin Deep" and a brief statement of "Mood Indigo." Now, the
concert was over.
Even as the wire services buzzed with the story of Duke's 'comeback'
and Gonsalves' triumph, Columbia producer George Avakian knew that he had
a winner on his hands, and the jazz public would respond. Even so, he had
made up his mind to bring the orchestra to New York the next day (Monday)
and re-record the concert set. Gonsalves had played his entire solo into
the Voice Of America's mic instead of the Columbia mic, which was enough
of a reason to re-record; in fact, Avakian was just generally displeased
with the set. He had Duke and emcee Father Norman O'Connor (New York
radio's 'jazz pastor') re-record their stage announcements and
introductions. Stock applause was dubbed onto the recording, which was
significantly resequenced from the concert order. The 39-minute Lp that
resulted from this included about 15 minutes actually taken from the
concert set (which was about 90 minutes long) and 24 minutes from the
studio.
Ironically, this best-selling album of Ellington's career would have
remained as is for eternity, had not Schaap and certain colleagues
discovered the original Voice Of America tapes were still archived at the
Library of Congress. Through a complex, painstaking and time-consuming
technical process, a digital synchronization with the Columbia tapes
yielded a true stereo master that enabled the original concert to be
restored to its natural state. (This technique had been utilized briefly
for a track on the Miles Davis/Gil Evans boxed-set, and a track on the
reissue of Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin, but never for a double-CD's
worth of music.) Finally, after more than four decades, to hear that
concert in its entirety, as the Newport audience heard it that night, is
nothing less than a transcendent experience.
No such dramatic circumstances attended the creation of SUCH SWEET
THUNDER, though drama - and tragedy and comedy - were certainly at the
heart of the matter. The parallels between William Shakespeare and Duke
Ellington are taken for granted nowadays. Both were prolific writers. The
Bard wrote for his repertory company and the Duke wrote (almost
exclusively) for his repertory company, namely his orchestra. It had long
been one of Ellington's (and Billy Strayhorn's) ambitions to bring the
characters, feelings and situations of Shakespeare's plays into the
orchestral repertoire.
On August 7, 1956, one month to the day after Newport, Duke and
Columbia producer Irving Townsend set to work. The takes were tentative
and they did not return to the project for five months, only completing
three more takes. Into 1957, their endeavors blossomed in the springtime
and yielded nearly all the portraits on the original 12-track Lp; most of
the 10 bonus tracks date from the earlier '56 sessions. Although this was
publicly announced to be Duke's first stereo release, an engineering snafu
(mono vs. stereo ambience) precluded the stereo release. Once again,
Schaap utilizes digital technology to overcome the snafu, restore the
tracks to stereo, and reconcile several titles with Strayhorn and
Ellington works preceding SUCH SWEET THUNDER.
By 1958, Ellington was secure enough at Columbia to return to BLACK,
BROWN & BEIGE, a project he'd started back in 1943, an extended-form piece
(or suite) that musically represented the odyssey of blacks in America.
From Africa to slavery, emancipation and finally assimilation, it was
alternately joyous and sorrowful, something he called "a tone parallel to
the history of the American Negro." Totally misunderstood by the press
when he first presented it at one of his annual Carnegie Hall concerts in
'43, Ellington returned to the suite only twice over the next decade or so
to record it. The third time was the charm, however, as Columbia recruited
its spiritual megastar Mahalia Jackson, who deigned to sing on Duke's
soon-to-become gospel standard "Come Sunday" and a moving version of the
23rd Psalm. The bonus material includes Mahalia's acappella version of
"Come Sunday" and some eye-opening studio conversation.
Ellington was commissioned by director Otto Preminger in 1959, to
compose the original motion picture soundtrack for ANATOMY OF A MURDER
(starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and George C. Scott). It was Duke's
first assignment as a composer and bandleader/orchestrator on a film
score, and many jazz optimists perceived it as Hollywood's long overdue
recognition of the artist. Behind the scenes, however, the orchestra was
really unprepared (or at least untrained) in the discipline and rigor of
this highly specialized craft. Most of the recording from the first three
days of sessions at Radio Recorders went unused, and it was not until the
band was brought to 20th Century-Fox Studios and the crunch of deadline!
(as Wynton Marsalis' liner notes emphasize) was upon Duke and his men that
Preminger got what he wanted.
Though Marsalis and Schaap both have reservations about the way the
music was ultimately used on-screen, historical consensus regards it as
one of the top jazz soundtracks ever, alongside The Man With the Golden
Arm, Pete Kelly's Blues, and precious few others. Schaap has done away
with the reverb that marred the original 34-minute Lp, and come up with
more than twice as much music with rare (or previously unreleased)
rehearsal takes, rare singles, cues, dialog, and an open-ended promotional
deejay interview with Ellington himself.
On the 1961 summit meeting entitled FIRST TIME! THE COUNT MEETS THE
DUKE, there is a warmth and camaraderie not only between Basie and
Ellington but between their band members that is nearly visceral. (As
bassist Aaron Bell recalls in his guest liner notes, that may have had
something to do with the open bar set up in the far corner of the studio!)
Rather than stage a 'battle of the bands' (a concept that Basie and his
manager tossed in the toilet before the sessions ever began), a decision
was made to find ways for the bands to complement each other. "Basie
believed that his collaboration with Ellington was about compatibility not
competition," notes Schaap.
With the Basie clan in one stereo channel (left) and Ellington's crew
in the other (right) there were opportunities galore for soloists to dig
in and work. The repertoire on the original 8-tune LP neatly alternated
back and forth between Ellington and Basie staples, a format that Schaap
has stuck to with the out-takes and alternates that boost this CD to 15
tracks. "All this business about royalty has always thrown me," begin
George T. Simon's original liner notes. In this case, the Count and the
Duke enjoy a noble time, indeed.
Official Press Inquiries may be directed to Legacy Media Relations
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