Duke Ellington - A Night with Duke Ellington '2023

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. The Nutcracker Suite: I. Overture
02. The Nutcracker Suite: II. Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)
03. The Nutcracker Suite: III. Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)
04. The Nutcracker Suite: IV. Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)
05. The Nutcracker Suite: V. Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)
06. In A Sentimental Mood
07. Band Call
08. Wives And Lovers (Live At The Cote d'Azur, 7/28/1966)
09. Tingling Is A Happiness (Rehearsal / Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/27/1966)
10. If I Give My Heart To You
11. Stardust
12. Take The "A" Train (Live/Remastered)
13. I Didn't Know About You
14. Satin Doll
15. Clementine
16. Rose Of The Rio Grande (Live At The Cote d'Azur/1966)
17. Everything But You
18. Soul Call (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/29/1966)
19. Things Ain't What They Used To Be (Live; Digitally Remastered)
20. Just Squeeze Me
21. A Little Max (Parfait) (Remastered)
22. Wig Wise (Remastered)
23. Chelsea Bridge
24. Flirtibird (Live At Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI / 1959)
25. Bli-Blip
26. Perdido
27. I'm Beginning To See The Light
28. Frustration
29. Fifi (Live; Digitally Remastered)
30. I Like The Sunrise
31. Such Sweet Thunder (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/28/1966)
32. The Opener (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/27/1966)
33. Lost In Meditation
34. Sweet Georgia Brown (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/29/1966)
35. Cottontail
36. Fleurette Africaine (African Flower) (Remastered)
37. Something To Live For
38. Just Sittin And A Rockin
39. All Heart (Alternate Take 1)
40. V.I.P.'s Boogie (Live In Newport / 1959)
41. Flamingo
42. Self Portrait (Of The Bean)
43. Harlem Air Shaft
44. Let's Do It (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/29/1966)
45. Mood Indigo
46. Ray Charles' Place
47. Caravan
48. You Dirty Dog
49. Day Dream
50. The Matador (El Viti) (Live At The Cote d'Azur/1966)
51. Trombonio-Bustoso-Issimo (Live At The Cote d'Azur/1966)
52. I'm Just A Lucky So And So
53. The Star Crossed Lovers (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/29/1966)
54. 4:30 Blues (Live)
55. The Shepherd (Rehearsal / Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/28/1966)
56. Duke's Place
57. Very Special (Remastered)
58. Stevie
59. All Too Soon
60. Big Nick
61. Half The Fun (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/28/1966)
62. REM Blues (Remastered)
63. The Jeep Is Jumpin'
64. Rockin' In Rhythm
65. Squeeze Me (Album Version)
66. B.P. (Live; Digitally Remastered)
67. Sono
68. Portrait Of Ella Fitzgerald
69. The Trip (Live At The Cote d'Azur/1966)
70. Happy Reunion (Live/Remastered)
71. West Indian Pancake (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/27/1966)
72. Imagine My Frustration
73. The E And D Blues (E For Ella And D For Duke)
74. Madness In Great Ones (Live At Cote D'Azur, France, 7/28/1966)
75. Azure (Live / Instrumental)
76. Black Butterfly (Live; Digitally Remastered)
77. I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues
78. Passion Flower
79. Angelica
80. Take The Coltrane
81. Going Up
82. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
83. Brown-Skin Gal (In The Calico Gown)
84. Mack The Knife (Live At The Cote d'Azur, 7/28/1966)
85. Wanderlust
86. Limbo Jazz
87. Black And Tan Fantasy
88. Money Jungle (Remastered)
89. Laying On Mellow (Live; Digitally Remastered)


 moreEllington was the son of a White House butler, James Edward Ellington,
and thus grew up in comfortable surroundings. He began piano lessons at age
seven and was writing music by his teens. He dropped out of high school in his
junior year in 1917 to pursue a career in music. At first, he booked and
performed in bands in the Washington, D.C., area, but in September 1923 the
Washingtonians, a five-piece group of which he was a member, moved permanently
to New York, where they gained a residency in the Times Square venue The
Hollywood Club (later The Kentucky Club). They made their first recordings in
November 1924, and cut tunes for different record companies under a variety of
pseudonyms, so that several current major labels, notably Sony, Universal, and
BMG, now have extensive holdings of their work from the period in their
archives, which are reissued periodically.

The group gradually increased in size and came under Ellington's leadership.
They played in what was called "jungle" style, their sly arrangements often
highlighted by the muted growling sound of trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley. A
good example of this is Ellington's first signature song, "East St. Louis
Toodle-oo," which the band first recorded for Vocalion Records in November 1926,
and which became their first chart single in a re-recorded version for Columbia
in July 1927.

The Ellington band moved uptown to The Cotton Club in Harlem on December 4,
1927. Their residency at the famed club, which lasted more than three years,
made Ellington a nationally known musician due to radio broadcasts that emanated
from the bandstand. In 1928, he had two two-sided hits: "Black and Tan
Fantasy"/"Creole Love Call" on Victor (now BMG) and "Doin' the New Low
Down"/"Diga Diga Doo" on OKeh (now Sony), released as by the Harlem Footwarmers.
"The Mooche" on OKeh peaked in the charts at the start of 1929.

While maintaining his job at The Cotton Club, Ellington took his band downtown
to play in the Broadway musical Show Girl, featuring the music of George
Gershwin, in the summer of 1929. The following summer, the band took a leave of
absence to head out to California and appear in the film Check and Double Check.
From the score, "Three Little Words," with vocals by the Rhythm Boys featuring
Bing Crosby, became a number one hit on Victor in November 1930; its flip side,
"Ring Dem Bells," also reached the charts.

The Ellington band left The Cotton Club in February 1931 to begin a tour that,
in a sense, would not end until the leader's death 43 years later. At the same
time, Ellington scored a Top Five hit with an instrumental version of one of his
standards, "Mood Indigo" released on Victor. The recording was later inducted
into the Grammy Hall of Fame. As "the Jungle Band," the Ellington Orchestra
charted on Brunswick later in 1931 with "Rockin' in Rhythm" and with the lengthy
composition "Creole Rhapsody," pressed on both sides of a 78 single, an
indication that Ellington's goals as a writer were beginning to extend beyond
brief works. (A second version of the piece was a chart entry on Victor in March
1932.) "Limehouse Blues" was a chart entry on Victor in August 1931, then in the
winter of 1932, Ellington scored a Top Ten hit on Brunswick with one of his
best-remembered songs, "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),"
featuring the vocals of Ivie Anderson. This was still more than three years
before the official birth of the swing era, and Ellington helped give the period
its name. Ellington's next major hit was another signature song for him,
"Sophisticated Lady." His instrumental version became a Top Five hit in the
spring of 1933, with its flip side, a treatment of "Stormy Weather," also making
the Top Five.

The Ellington Orchestra made another feature film, Murder at the Vanities, in
the spring of 1934. Their instrumental rendition of "Cocktails for Two" from the
score hit number one on Victor in May, and they hit the Top Five with both sides
of the Brunswick release "Moon Glow"/"Solitude" that fall. The band also
appeared in the Mae West film Belle of the Nineties and played on the soundtrack
of Many Happy Returns. Later in the fall, the band was back in the Top Ten with
"Saddest Tale," and they had two Top Ten hits in 1935, "Merry-Go-Round" and
"Accent on Youth." While the latter was scoring in the hit parade in September,
Ellington recorded another of his extended compositions, "Reminiscing in Tempo,"
which took up both sides of two 78s. Even as he became more ambitious, however,
he was rarely out of the hit parade, scoring another Top Ten hit, "Cotton," in
the fall of 1935, and two more, "Love Is Like a Cigarette" and "Oh Babe! Maybe
Someday," in 1936. The band returned to Hollywood in 1936 and recorded music for
the Marx Brothers' film A Day at the Races and for Hit Parade of 1937.
Meanwhile, they were scoring Top Ten hits with "Scattin' at the Kit-Kat" and the
swing standard "Caravan," co-written by valve trombonist Juan Tizol, and
Ellington was continuing to pen extended instrumental works such as "Diminuendo
in Blue" and "Crescendo in Blue." "If You Were in My Place (What Would You
Do?)," a vocal number featuring Ivie Anderson, was a Top Ten hit in the spring
of 1938, and Ellington scored his third number one hit in April with an
instrumental version of another standard, "I Let a Song Go out of My Heart." In
the fall, he was back in the Top Ten with a version of the British show tune
"Lambeth Walk."

The Ellington band underwent several notable changes at the end of the 1930s.
After several years recording more or less regularly for Brunswick, Ellington
moved to Victor. In early 1939 Billy Strayhorn, a young composer, arranger, and
pianist, joined the organization. He did not usually perform with the orchestra,
but he became Ellington's composition partner to the extent that soon it was
impossible to tell where Ellington's writing left off and Strayhorn's began. Two
key personnel changes strengthened the outfit with the acquisition of bassist
Jimmy Blanton in September and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster in December. Their
impact on Ellington's sound was so profound that their relatively brief tenure
has been dubbed "the Blanton-Webster Band" by jazz fans. These various changes
were encapsulated by the Victor release of Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train," a
swing era standard, in the summer of 1941. The recording was later inducted into
the Grammy Hall of Fame.

That same summer, Ellington was in Los Angeles, where his stage musical, Jump
for Joy, opened on July 10 and ran for 101 performances. Unfortunately, the show
never went to Broadway, but among its songs was "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't
Good)," another standard. The U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941 and
the onset of the recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians in
August 1942 slowed the Ellington band's momentum. Unable to record and with
touring curtailed, Ellington found an opportunity to return to extended
composition with the first of a series of annual recitals at Carnegie Hall on
January 23, 1943, at which he premiered "Black, Brown and Beige." And he
returned to the movies, appearing in Cabin in the Sky and Reveille with Beverly.
Meanwhile, the record labels, stymied for hits, began looking into their
artists' back catalogs. Lyricist Bob Russell took Ellington's 1940 composition
"Never No Lament" and set a lyric to it, creating "Don't Get Around Much
Anymore." The Ink Spots scored with a vocal version (recorded a cappella), and
Ellington's three-year-old instrumental recording was also a hit, reaching the
pop Top Ten and number one on the recently instituted R&B charts. Russell
repeated his magic with another 1940 Ellington instrumental, "Concerto for
Cootie" (a showcase for trumpeter Cootie Williams), creating "Do Nothin' Till
You Hear from Me." Nearly four years after it was recorded, the retitled
recording hit the pop Top Ten and number one on the R&B charts for Ellington in
early 1944, while newly recorded vocal cover versions also scored. Ellington's
vintage recordings became ubiquitous on the top of the R&B charts during
1943-1944; he also hit number one with "A Slip of the Lip (Can Sink a Ship),"
"Sentimental Lady," and "Main Stem." With the end of the recording ban in
November 1944, Ellington was able to record a song he had composed with his
saxophonist, Johnny Hodges, set to a lyric by Don George and Harry James, "I'm
Beginning to See the Light." The James recording went to number one in April
1945, but Ellington's recording was also a Top Ten hit.

With the end of the war, Ellington's period as a major commercial force on
records largely came to an end, but unlike other big bandleaders, who disbanded
as the swing era passed, Ellington, who predated the era, simply went on
touring, augmenting his diminished road revenues with his songwriting royalties
to keep his band afloat. In a musical climate in which jazz was veering away
from popular music and toward bebop, and popular music was being dominated by
singers, the Ellington band no longer had a place at the top of the business;
but it kept working. And Ellington kept trying more extended pieces. In 1946, he
teamed with lyricist John Latouche to write the music for the Broadway musical
Beggar's Holiday, which opened on December 26 and ran 108 performances. And he
wrote his first full-length background score for a feature film with 1950's The
Asphalt Jungle.

The first half of the 1950s was a difficult period for Ellington, who suffered
many personnel defections. (Some of those musicians returned later.) But the
band made a major comeback at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956, when
they kicked into a version of "Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue" that found
saxophonist Paul Gonsalves taking a long, memorable solo. Ellington appeared on
the cover of Time magazine, and he signed a new contract with Columbia Records,
which released Ellington at Newport, the best-selling album of his career. Freed
of the necessity of writing hits and spurred by the increased time available on
the LP record, Ellington concentrated more on extended compositions for the rest
of his career. His comeback as a live performer led to increased opportunities
to tour, and in the fall of 1958 he undertook his first full-scale tour of
Europe. For the rest of his life, he would be a busy world traveler.

Ellington appeared in and scored the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder, and its
soundtrack won him three of the newly instituted Grammy Awards, for best
performance by a dance band, best musical composition of the year, and best
soundtrack. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his next score, Paris
Blues (1961). In August 1963, his stage work My People, a cavalcade of
African-American history, was mounted in Chicago as part of the Century of Negro
Progress Exposition.

Meanwhile, of course, he continued to lead his band in recordings and live
performances. He switched from Columbia to Frank Sinatra's Reprise label
(purchased by Warner Bros. Records) and made some pop-oriented records that
dismayed his fans but indicated he had not given up on broad commercial
aspirations. Nor had he abandoned his artistic aspirations, as the first of his
series of sacred concerts, performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on
September 16, 1965, indicated. And he still longed for a stage success, turning
once again to Broadway with the musical Pousse-Café, which opened on March
18, 1966, but closed within days. Three months later, the Sinatra film Assault
on a Queen, with an Ellington score, opened in movie houses around the country.
(His final film score, for Change of Mind, appeared in 1969.)

Ellington became a Grammy favorite in his later years. He won a 1966 Grammy for
best original jazz composition for "In the Beginning, God," part of his sacred
concerts. His 1967 album Far East Suite, inspired by a tour of the Middle and
Far East, won the best instrumental jazz performance Grammy that year, and he
took home his sixth Grammy in the same category in 1969 for And His Mother
Called Him Bill, a tribute to Strayhorn, who had died in 1967. "New Orleans
Suite" earned another Grammy in the category in 1971, as did "Togo Brava Suite"
in 1972, and the posthumous The Ellington Suites in 1976.

Ellington continued to perform regularly until he was overcome by illness in the
spring of 1974, succumbing to lung cancer and pneumonia. His death did not end
the band, which was taken over by his son Mercer, who led it until his own death
in 1996, and then by a grandson. Meanwhile, Ellington finally enjoyed the stage
hit he had always wanted when the revue Sophisticated Ladies, featuring his
music, opened on Broadway on March 1, 1981, and ran 767 performances.

The many celebrations of the Ellington centenary in 1999 demonstrated that he
continued to be regarded as the major composer of jazz. If that seemed something
of an anomaly in a musical style that emphasizes spontaneous improvisation over
written composition, Ellington was talented enough to overcome the oddity. He
wrote primarily for his band, allowing his veteran players room to solo within
his compositions, and as a result created a body of work that seemed likely to
help jazz enter the academic and institutional realms, which was very much its
direction at the end of the 20th century. In that sense, he foreshadowed the
future of jazz and could lay claim to being one of its most influential
practitioners. © William Ruhlmann



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