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Duke Ellington with Billy Strayhorn
Photo: Don Hunstein
The Duke: The Essential Collection (1927 - 1962)
Complete Track Listing and Featured Personnel
The sixty-five musical selections on this set represent a cornerstone
of 20th-century music. And yet, these recordings, meticulously remastered
to achieve a level of clarity heretofore unheard, are just a small
fraction of the more than 2000 compositions bearing the name Edward
Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Duke Ellington: The Duke -- The Essential
Collection (1927-1962), released in honor of the Maestro's centennial,
contains many of his most successful works -- artistically and
commercially, or both.
Ellington (1899-1974) wrote or collaborated on 57 of the items here.
They range in tone from "The Mooche" to "I Like The Sunrise," and from "C
Jam Blues" to "Prelude To A Kiss." Sharing the spotlight with the music
is the orchestra that brought the notes and chords and bass lines and
rhythms to brilliant life, the foremost continuing jazz (a term Ellington
disliked) ensemble in all of music. With its stellar cast of players --
Bubber Miley, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown, and the piano
player, himself, to cite but a handful --the orchestra, as arranged by
Ellington or his principal collaborator and fellow great composer, Billy
Strayhorn, has been likened to a nonpareil theatrical troupe in the hands
of a master director.
The analogy is surely fitting, as far as it goes, but the Ellington
Repertory Company could, and did, change the dialogue, or even the plots,
each night. Here, though, the classic texts and scenes, performances and
directives are preserved for as long as the human spirit is able to be
profoundly moved in many ways.
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Track Listing:
[Complete Personnel and recording
information is listed in the box set
booklet.]
DISC 1 (1927 - 1940)
1) Hot And Bothered ra | wav
7) Stomp, Look And Listen
2) East St. Louis Toodle-Oo ra | wav
3) Black And Tan Fantasy
4) Black Beauty
5) Ring Dem Bells
6) The Mooche
7) It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) ra | wav
7) Stomp, Look And Listen
8) Slippery Horn
9) Saddest Tale
10) Showboat Shuffle
11) In A Sentimental Mood ra | wav
7) Stomp, Look And Listen
12) In A Jam
13) Caravan
14) The Gal From Joe's
15) Braggin' In Brass
16) I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
17) Battle Of Swing
18) Prelude To A Kiss
19) Slap Happy
20) Old King Dooji
21) Portrait Of The Lion
22) Country Gal
23) Little Posey
24) Tootin' Through the Roof
25) Sophisticated Lady ra | wav
DISC 2 (1947 - 1952)
1) Hy'a Sue
2) Lady Of The Lavender Mist
3) Antidisestablishmentarianismist ra | wav
4) Golden Cress
5) Sultry Serenade
6) Maybe I Should Change My Ways ra | wav
7) Stomp, Look And Listen
8) On A Turquoise Cloud
9) Three Cent Stomp ra | wav
10) Don't Get Around Much Anymore
11) Progressive Gavotte
12) I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
13) I Like The Sunrise
14) Snibor
15) Creole Love Call
16) The Tattooed Bride ra | wav
17) Brown Betty
18) Primpin' For The Prom
19) Monologue (Pretty And The Wolf)
20) Take The 'A' Train ra | wav
DISC 3 (1956 - 1962)
1) Jeep's Blues ra | wav
2) Solitude
3) Blue Rose
4) The Star-Crossed Lovers
5) Mood Indigo ra | wav
6) Dancers In Love
7) Come Sunday ra | wav
8) Satin Doll ra | wav
9) Flirtibird
10) Perdido
11) C Jam Blues ra | wav
12) Things Ain't What They Used To Be
13) Happy Go Lucky Local
14) Something To Live For
15) Creole Blues (excerpt from "Creole Rhapsody")
16) Dance Of The Floreadores (Waltz Of The Flowers)
17) Lotus Blossom
18) A Midnight In Paris
19) Asphalt Jungle Theme
20) Battle Royal
21) Duke Loves You Madly (spoken)
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Featured Artists
Include:
TRUMPET
Cootie Williams
Bubber Miley
Louis Metcalf
Jabbo Smith
Rex Stewart
Shorty Baker
Ray Nance
Cat Anderson
Clark Terry
TROMBONE
Juan Tizol
Tricky Sam Nanton
Lawrence Brown
Tyree Glenn
Quentin Jackson
Britt Woodman
John Sanders
SAXOPHONES
Harry Carney
Johnny Hodges
Ben Webster
Barney Bigard
Otto Hardwick
Jimmy Hamilton
Al Sears
Russell Procope
Paul Gonsalves
BASS
Jimmy Blanton
Oscar Pettiford
Wellman Braud
Wendell Marshall
Jimmy Woode
Aaron Bell
DRUMS
Sonny Greer
Louie Bellson
Sam Woodyard
Jimmy Johnson
VOCALS
Baby Cox
Ivie Anderson
Kay Davis
Al Hibbler
Betty Roche
Rosemary Clooney
Mahalia Jackson
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