Customer Reviews

The Complete RCA Victor Mid-Forties Recordings (1944-1946)

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Not only is he jazz's greatest composer, but Ellington was possibly the greatest of all 20th century composers, rivaling even such legends as Aaron Copland and George Gershwin.

This collection replaces 1988's "Black, Brown, & Beige," a similar 3CD set of his recorded RCA Victor work between 1944 and 1946. Unlike that earlier set, this set compiles everything Ellington recorded in those years for RCA Victor, including a pair of trios and another pair of piano duets with his brilliant collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. Most importantly, this 3CD set has brilliant sound that is astoundingly better than the "Black, Brown, & Beige" set. Rather than using heavy, NoNoise processing, this set uses noise reduction sparingly and tastefully, and most importantly they went to great lengths securing only the finest sources for this set. That means they don't shortchange us with analogue copies of old 78's, a practice BMG/RCA has been notorious for on past box sets.

Of course, the most important thing about this set is the music. It's not at the level of Ellington's early 40's recordings (but then again, few bodies of work can equal those recordings in terms of sustained quality, brilliance, and influence). These years were some of Ellington's toughest in light of constant personnel changes, like the unfortunate departure of Ben Webster and the tragic death of Jimmy Blanton. Nevertheless, this is still an essential Ellington set, collecting some marvelous recordings like "I'm Beginning To See The Light," "Caravan," and most importantly a great studio recording (albeit in truncated form) of his underappreciated masterwork, "Black, Brown & Beige."

There's also ten reinterpretations of Ellington classics here, all of which shed new light on each work. Any Ellington fan who hasn't the money to pick up the giant 24 CD "Centennial" box set should pick this up.

If you have a friend who thinks that Duke Ellington is "Grandpa's Music"...If you have a friend who thinks that Duke Ellington's main importance is as a "great precursor" who influenced Mingus and Monk...If you have a friend who thinks that Duke Ellington is probably a genius, but is too slick for his/her personal tastes...don't buy this set for them! There is a lot of beautiful music here, but few revelations. The Ellington band, heretofore thought of as the home of rugged individual miscreants, magically held together by a psychological genius of a svengali, becomes "professional". Professional in the way that Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Jimmy Lunceford are professional. How does the Ellington band announce its return to the recording studio, after the two-year recording ban? With a healthy blast of Hollywood Dixieland! (I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues). Followed by some sub-Ben Webster tenor, and then proceeded by some expert arrangements (Strayhorn, I assume) of charming Mainstream vocal pop. There are excellently played, not quite second - rate, not quite first - rate features for the stalwarts (Blue Cellophane for Laurence Brown, Mood to be Wooed for Johnny Hodges). Lots more nice enough vocals, but since Duke has basically given their arranging up to Strayhorn, none of those delicious bits of craziness that made Thirties ephemera like Carnival in Caroline, You Gave Me The Gate (and I'm Swinging) and Swingtime In Honolulu unforgettable. A fabulously relaxed trio performance of Jumpin' Room Only is one of the modest highpoints of this set - looks like Duke's real instrument might have been the piano after all! If ever the adjective "overripe" was justified by Ellington/Strayhorn's work, it applies to the Perfume Suite. Strayhorn may be a genius, but generally speaking, he's not my kind of genius! Except for the endearingly cutiepie Dancers In Love, this is one of my least favorite Ellington suites. We are dangerously close to the Easiest side of Easy Listening here, and it makes me want to get funky and pull out my Claude Thornhill discs! The more salubrious side of Strayhorn's influence on Duke comes to the fore in the two - piano Tonk, which, although it is like a Harlemite version of An American In Paris with its oh-so-clever and sophisticated and polite bitonality, is still some kind of minor masterpiece. Rockabye River sounds like Eddie Sauter arranging for the Ellington band, with its self - conscious reframing of key Ellington tropes (the growl, the smear, the lope), similar to what Sauter did with Goodman, recasting Sing Sing Sing in Benny Rides Again. Transbluency modernizes Creole Love Call and Blue Light, without the frissons. The band, especially on disc 3, plays in a hellified fashion, and with all of the beautiful playing (some of the conventionally best playing in the whole Ellington band's career) it sometime feels churlish not to totally embrace this set. But listen to, say Gathering In A Clearing, and then compare it to 1931's Echoes of the Jungle. The "modernization" is fine, but the lack of magic, of "aura", makes me nearly desperate. Everything is so professional and calculated and well-played. Don't worry, the magic comes back - but MUCH later...