Francis a & Edward K

Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, duke Ellington Frank Sinatra | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002K9R
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,629 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Follow Me

2. Sunny

3. All I Need Is The Girl

4. Indian Summer

5. I Like The Sunrise

6. Yellow Days

7. Poor Butterfly

8. Come Back To Me

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and Timeless, March 2, 2002

By 

gary w jensen (Falls Church, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francis a & Edward K (Audio CD)

One of Sinatra's very best efforts. As great as some of the Capital swingers are, they are clearly dated to the time period in which they were recorded, whereas this album has a timeless quality. This is also true of his collaborations with Count Basie and Antonio Carlos Jobim, but as fine as those recordings are, they aren't as elegant sounding as this record.

The recordings are tasteful and restrained throughout, except for the overly frentic "Come back to me" that closes the record. The opening cut "Follow me", is majestic. "Sunny" is given a blues treatment, complete with a "growl" trumpet, and the arrangement elevates an otherwise mediocre composition to grandeur. "Indian Summer" is one of the most beautiful songs Sinatra ever recorded. The elegant simplicity of "I like the sunrise" is timeless. "Yellow days" and "Poor buterfly" are perfectly executed.

Sinatra was in fine voice and the orchestra, though restrained, played with sensitiviy and good taste - especially the soloists. There are only eight cuts, but the band stretches out, and the solos are stunning and fully realized, instead of the little snippets on the 2 to 3 minute cuts on his other albums that leave you begging for more. Only "Come back to me" misfires - The arrangement is too fast and doesn't fit in with the album's sound, although the lyrics are fantastic.

It's too bad this album so underrated and overlooked, because, frankly, it puts his other, more popular swingers like "Come Swing With Me", "Sinatra and Swinging Brass", and "Sinatra Swings", to shame.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "What?--No Satin Doll?", February 10, 2002

By 

"franksoprano" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francis a & Edward K (Audio CD)

The Sinatra-Ellington album (coyly entitled "Francis A & Edward K," which might actually have hurt sales) was puzzling for two reasons: it contains only 8 songs and there's only one Ellington tune contained--the hymnal "I Like The Sunrise."

The album would have seemed a perfect opportunity for Sinatra to explore some Ellington classics which he had never recorded--"Sophisticated Lady" "Satin Doll" and "Solitude" come immediately to mind..Sinatra echews these and other titles in favor, for example, of Bobby Hebb's innocuous 60's hit "Sunny". I know that Sinatra was never a fan of the songbook concept, as Ella was, for example, but in this case he was working with the composer.

Word has it there were problems at the sessions...The Ellington band did not rehearse the charts ahead of time and the musicians could not sight read (as Basie's sidemen could)so arranger Billy May had to call in a few ringers to get the sessions completed--pianist Jimmy Jones actually fills in for the Duke a few times.

"Francis A & Edward K" has its moments, though-- Johnny Hodges' brilliant solo on "Indian Summer" and Sinatra's incredible performance of "Poor Butterly" which finds him singing the song in full three times and doing it differently each time out.

The most dissapointing thing about "Francis A and Edward K" is thinking about what it might have been.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a Swingin' Summit Meeting, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Francis a & Edward K (Audio CD)

Yes it's hard to believe that the swinging Ellington Band and the best vocalist around can't connect and make sparks happen in the studio. The great Billy May wrote Ellington-like arrangments to really mediocre songs of the day. Not only were the songs mediocre the Ellington band didn't take the time to learn the arrangments and play them ala Ellington. The bands soloists are outstanding as usual; listen to Hodges on "Indian Summer", but the band just isn't "in the groove" to make the singer a swinger. Sinatra recorded with the band in the studio in real time and the great indifference to the arrangemets and the recording effect him in a personal way. His pitch is off as well as his great phrasing-listen to "Come Back to Me". Maybe the Chairman and the Duke should have done an Ellington Songbook album with Duke writing the arrangements. Maybe then the musical Summit Meeting would have been a truly swingin' event.