Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra: Fargo, North Dakota, November 7, 1940, Deluxe Golden Anniversary Edition

Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Vintage Jazz Classics
• ASIN: B000008ATO
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,188 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some Listening Skills Required, October 30, 2010

By 

Johnny Hodges (Clark Fork, ID United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra: Fargo, North Dakota, November 7, 1940, Deluxe Golden Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

I presume you already have Never No Lament the Blanton-Webster Band. If not, click on the link and go buy it. It is the widely acknowledged peak of the best band ever. This here is the only live recording of the BW band, but the sound is quite rough. Recorded by an amature using a single microphone, some of the solos and most of the vocals are so far off-mike they're hard to hear. It's not like your in the club listening, it's more like you're standing outside. Some of the performances are incomplete while the "engineer" swaps blanks on his direct-to-disk recorder.

Most of us who are fond of music from this era have developed the skill of listening through the imperfections to lock onto the music. If you can do that, you'll get to hear how this supreme orchestra played in a live performance. Everything is a lot looser, with solos more in the spirit of the moment than striving for the immortal. And some titles not considered part of the Ellington canon such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ko-Ko", "Stardust", "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "St. Louis Blues", even a snippet of "God Bless America".

The music hear is so good that soon you may forget the recording imperfections. Hey, the studio Blanton-Webster is not without its (lesser) flaws either. And if you lay out all that money for such an artifact as this, then you too, brother, are a fan.