Customer Reviews

Far East Suite

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The previous version 'special mix' sounded preety good to my ears. This one sounds a little better, but you could do with the 'special mix' version. Some alternate takes were not included here, but they put as much as you can in a one CD album. But if you are buying this album for the first time, this is the version to get.

As a classically trained clarinetist, I hate jazz clarinet, as a rule. But I have to make an exception in Jimmy Hamilton's case on Bluebird of Delhi. His sound is brilliant, mature and confident, and his technique is outstanding. He gives the clarinet a good name - in 1966 of all times. That piece is a highlight in a disc full of highlights.

Far East Suite is delightful from start to finish. Forty years later a lot of it sounds like spy music - maybe James Bond theme music, or maybe Las Vegas lounge style - but that's not a bad thing! Tourist Point of View is laid back, showcasing Paul Gonsalves' amazing tenor sax, tasteful as always.

The world class sax work from Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges continues throughout, but in my eyes Harry Carney deserves special notice. From personal experience I can say that it's hard to make a bari sax sound good, much less sweet or sexy. But Carney does all the above, particularly in track 7, Agra. It is a concerto for bari sax that might change your mind about what the instrument can do.

But then Agra leads into Amad, which is so rhythmically compelling it's hard to sit still listening to it. It is a sinuous fluid demonstration of the Duke's ideas of a rhythm section composed of every instrument in his band - with a typically assertive piano line. Lawrence Brown's trombone shines.

Ad Lib on Nippon is tour de force, and contains some absolutely top shelf clarinet work at the end, amongst its other charms.

The seven bonus tracks on this disc are noteworthy. I've listened to the two bonus Bluebirds more than the others. While I can agree with the original choice, the other two are still great. I think Hamilton was a little off his game on track 12, but track 13 is technically excellent. The Duke chose a bit slower tempo though, and Hamilton was perfect, but less adventurous than in the cut which made the final album. Everyone loves to hear the artists perform, but it's also great to listen to them at work, and these bonus tracks are just that.

And for the trumpet fans, there are brains all over the bandstand in this disc, because these guys blow their heads off repeatedly. I'm pretty sure they played some notes that weren't even invented in 1966.

What is the litmus test of good art? It should hold up well-or very well-over time, and one goes back,again and again, to read, or view, or listen, discovering something new each time.
So it is with The Far East Suite, and for those who are not familiar with Ellington's many Suites, a good starting point.
The band was in excellent form, and the songs are ageless. The Strayhorn/Ellington collaborative art form was at its apex.
Time is given to let the musicians stretch, and Hodges even tosses in some blues honking-but everyone is at the top of their game; Gonsalves, Hamilton, Carney, and the unsung hero of the LP, Rufus Jones, who made it swing like mad with outstanding drumming.
By the way, one can now see versions of "Isfahan" and "Agra" on YouTube,allowing another insight to the players; Hodges, as usual, never showing a hint of emotion, Carney with his circular breathing. Amazing players and amazing songs.Mt Harissa, Amad,Blue Pepper..None got much airtime, if at all, but highlights the depth of composition and colour.
One small piece of trivia. Isfahan, (which is pure poetry, and cannot be improved upon) was written by Strayhorn years before the band ever went to the Far East; it was originally called "Elf."
If you don't yet have this, get it, Should be part of everyone's collection of Ellingtonia.

I am in no position to judge Duke Ellington's music, or Far East Suite. I barely have a pinky toe in this master's discography. Anatomy of a Murder and Afro Eurasian Eclipse are what I have started my foray into Duke with in the past year.

When, like me, a lover of rock and free jazz, you get used to instruments sticking out. Mile's wha wha trumpet. Coltrane's sax.
This is why it is a little jarring to work your way into Ellington. Far East Suite is a perfect example.

This subtle and sublime music is based on Ellington's tour of the Far East in the early 1960s, and came out in 1966. These are sublime melodies, with each instrument perfectly balanced with all others in Ellington's band. The music works like soft butterscotch, revealing its flavor gently, from inside its silk surface.

I find the same subtly in the theme of the music, given its name. There are, in fact, many Far Eastern elements throughout this wonderful suite. But they are blended into Ellington's style. He smoothly woos you with each new idea, each invention, like a doctor who you expect to give a needle and then find out he already has. The masters refinement is astounding, and brilliant.

I can't say that I am bowled over. I can't say I am blown out of the water. But that is not what this music is designed for, and if wading into Ellington's massive pool of work is a life long, gentle process, I have an inkling the Duke may have planned it that way.

heard the number amad two weeks ago on internet radioio and life just hasn't been the same. i was determined to get the cd and i did on amz.com and received it several days ago.

why am i sensing a kind of ellingtonian/kentonian flavor here? in some of the numbers, i can just hear (maybe imagining) the big brass arrangements of the kenton style, you know those way out big volume brass sounds kenton evoked so much in his arrangements . no, i'm not implying that anything is amiss, but maybe its just those cultural things that genius big band masters are imbued with via the american experience; no one can deny the cross pollination of musical influences. anyway, this is pure ellington/strayhorn/musicians collaboration at its finest. yet, i just have to wonder about the cultural influences of the places where the band played that is supposed to have influenced this music. to me,it is noticeable that there is just not that much eastern sound/flavor here. in light of the great deal of knowledge and experience we enjoy from eastern music today, i find it quite hard to identify in these compositions the timeless qualities that characterize that part of the world; i think we are presented the impressions of the composers more from what they may have seen, in brief experiences considering the time constraints, rather than what they may have heard or experienced musically at the various localities they visited. there is a very telling remark by jimmy hamilton that the band was so much preoccupied by official commitments rather than interacting with the indigenous peoples. look, let me summarize it thus-harlem went east for a quick minute and brought back some very cool impressionistic souvenirs to deck out an american masters' rendition of "west met east".

please, don't misunderstand me, i love the piece and consider it a great work of american musical art.

reggie/chicago

There's something about this album, especially the opening track that always reminds me of the theme to the old Jonny Quest cartoon. They both try to invoke a sense of adventure and exoticism inspired by far off, and mysterious lands. Granted, comparing Duke Ellington's version to an old cartoon theme is perhaps a bit trite. This is after all one of the finest composers the world has ever seen. And the material here is clear evidence of his right to that stature. There is a subtlety and sexuality that underpins that feeling of adventure and exoticism, especially in a track like Isfahan. But there's also a playful side to this album in a song like Bluebird of Delhi which always conjures the image of a camel conversing with a fliting bird or the hard kick of Blue Pepper. In short this is Duke being Duke in all his greatness, having a whole lot of fun doing it, and expressing it in every note

The Far East Suite I first heard on Dutch radio, back in '67 or '68. The album has been with me for all this time, and every new cd edition seems to improve on the last. This edition caps them all. The sound quality has never been that good. To my ears, it matches the impeccable Japanese LP pressing made 25 or so years ago. This is classical music: it gets better over time, and it was already fantastic when it came out. Just listen to Isfahan, Agra and Ad Lib on Nippon, and you'll understand what made this big band the very best that ever existed. Hats off to RCA for this new and great reissue.

Particularly "Ad Lib on Nippon." I could listen to that piece all day. It's delightfully dynamic and hedonistic.
It's a travesty that the Duke didn't win the Pulitzer for music.

This review is an excerpt from my "So You'd Like To..." guide called, "Explore the Music of Duke Ellington: Part I." Out of the three remastered versions of The Far East Suite (not counting the sonically identical imports) available, this version is the one to get.

After the U.S. State Department tour of the Middle East in 1963 and a visit to Japan in the following year, Duke Ellington and his lifelong collaborator and co-composer, Billy Strayhorn, were inspired by the journey and wrote Impressions of the Far East, later added to and renamed, The Far East Suite. The tense opening movement, "Tourist Point of View," is a great example of Duke Ellington's genius at using his orchestra to musically illustrate pictorial experiences in the most illumilating and understandable presentation. In this movement, Duke Ellington captures the experience of a bewildered traveler in an exotic land. The rhythm section of Rufus Jones' drums and John Lamb's bass expresses the traveler's overwhelmed senses. Without a moment's rest, all of his senses are bombarded with the exotic and the strange as Rufus Jones rides the cymbal at blazing speed and John Lamb relentlessly plucks away on a mysterious current. The rhythm section alone makes for a fascinating listen. While the orchestra as a whole twists mood, the soloists swirl madly as the unfamiliar scent in the air, the ancient city in sight, the aftertaste of foreign food, and the buzzing dialect of the surrounding natives. "Tourist Point of View" is a masterpiece. Jimmy Hamilton's prowess on the clarinet is remarkable, and he is the featured soloist on the frenzying "Bluebird of Delhi" and the concerto-like "Ad Lib on Nippon." Arguably Duke Ellington's best work of the 60's, The Far East Suite is simply not to be missed in the Duke Ellington canon.