Customer Reviews

Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Duke Ellington

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This disc contains a useful pocket-sized version of the early- to mid-period Ellington. The emphasis is on 1930s and 1940s Ellingtonia, a period that found Ellington gradually assembling a peerless band of highly individual, brilliant musicians, and putting together a band-book with songs and arrangements of unparalleled sophistication. By the time Ellington recorded such early-1940s sides as "Koko" he had what is undoubtedly the greatest big band in jazz, with players like Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Jimmy Blanton, Cootie Williams and many others. Jazz has always been strongly identified with the charismatic improvising soloist--Armstrong, Parker, Gillespie--but Ellington's achievement as a bandleader was to balance this fact with a brilliantly adventurous sense of the jazz ensemble and jazz arrangement. He was also notable for how, unlike Armstrong, he both spanned the early history of jazz in his career & remained open to "modern" developments; while Armstrong attacked bebop as incomprehensible "Chinese music", Ellington recorded with musicians like Coltrane, Mingus & Roach, and was a potent influence even on the jazz avantgarde: the link from Ellington to Monk & Mingus to musicians like Cecil Taylor is a direct one (indeed, Cecil Taylor's early recordings contain a number of versions of Ellington and Strayhorn tunes).

This compilation's music can't be argued with: this is essential music. But I'm rather surprised by the failure to represent the later Ellington. This suggests that while Wynton Marsalis's hand is perceptible in many aspects of the Ken Burns project, he wasn't involved here: Marsalis & his critic-supporter Stanley Crouch have been strong advocates for Ellington's later work. I find myself on the whole agreeing with Gunther Schuller's assessment (in _The Swing Era_) that the later Ellington only sporadically matched the heights of his 1930s and 1940s music; yet certainly there's a lot of later music one wouldn't want to miss, & I'm baffled by the exclusions here. I'm sure it's only timing considerations that kept the monumental 15-minute "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" from the 1956 Newport concert off this disc--that's the track that single-handedly reversed Ellington's decline in fortunes through its astonishing extended Paul Gonsalves solo that nearly induced a riot. I am very puzzled, though, at the omission of classic tracks from recordings like _Such Sweet Thunder_ ("Star-Crossed Lovers", in particular), or _The Far East Suite_ ("Isfahan"), or _And His Mother Called Him Bill_ (with Billy Strayhorn's ultra-chromatic swansong "Bloodcount"). Such omissions speak not just to representation of highpoints in Ellington's career, but also to Ellington's ambitions: this compilation ignores Ellington's aspirations to large-scale composition. I might agree that these aspirations didn't always bear fruit (as with Charlie Parker, the 3-minute limitations of old 78s actually seemed to intensify rather than limit Ellington's music); yet they are important to one's sense of Ellington's career & achievement, & deserve representation here.

This collection is a fine introduction to Ellington, focusing on his first two decades of recording with his orchestra. The poor sound quality of the earliest recordings is only "poor" in a relative sense, given the difficulties of recording a large orchestra with the primitive electronic equipment of the 1920s. At least the recordings of "Black and Tan Fantasy," "The Mooche" and "Mood Indigo" do capture the instrumental interplay and timbres that were a large part of Ellington's genius as a composer and arranger. The music in this collection is both sophisticated and earthy, "popular" and "arty" at once - a very difficult feat to pull off, but Ellington was a great entertainer as well as a great composer. There are better Ellington CDs but most are available in packages of 2 or more discs; this is a fine one-disc introduction and a fine jumping-off point for further exploration of the vast Ellington catalog.

I've loved jazz for years, but have never ventured into big band or swing. However, watching Ken Burns' documentary got me interested in Duke Ellington, and I picked up this CD. It's awesome, with great classics like East Saint Louis Toodle-oo, Mood Indigo, Take the "A" Train, and (my favorite cut of all), Solitude. This disc is 74 minutes of jazz genius, and a must have for any collection.

It seems to me that the purpose of the Ken Burns Jazz Series is to document a history of jazz music. If that is true, and this CD is supposed to tell the story of America's greatest composer, then he (Burns) has done an excellent job. While it's not perfect, it does include early performances like "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," "Black and Tan Fantasy," and "The Mooche" that are frequently ignored in Ellington compilations. It also includes some of the best recordings from the Blanton-Webster era, and the performance of "Jeep's Blues" from The 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Although I would have liked to have seen the "Black and Tan Fantasy" with Bubber Miley, The Carnegie Hall version of "Come Sunday," and the 1928 "Black Beauty," as well as maybe a song like "Chelsea Bridge" or "Perdido" to replace "Take it Easy" or "Back Room Romp," I realize that nobody can limit an Ellington CD to 21 recordings and please everybody, and Ken Burns has done a better job on this one than any other I've seen.

Every track on this CD is classic Ellington; unfortunately, it's fairly easy to compile a five-disc set of "essential Ellington," with each of 100 tracks truly deserving the designation "essential." The Burns compilation focuses, as does the series itself, on the early period through the great Blanton-Webster Band. For every item selected from these years, however, three equally superb pieces will have to be left off. My own personal lament is that a few more Billy Strayhorn tunes besides A Train--at the very least, Chelsea Bridge--might have been included. All that said, if you only have a slight acquaintance with this glorious, timeless music and you're looking for more than the nibbles and bites Ken Burns has given you, this is is as good a sampler as any other 20 track CD out there--having, as it does, the band playing across a broad range of song styles and tonalities--and, at the bargain price, actually better than the rest.

This collection is a good introduction to the Duke..but not perfect. I understand how difficult it is to compile a "best of" collection of jazz's greatest composer and bandleader on just one disc, but still, there are a few glaring mistakes.

First off, there was too much material from the twenties and thirties, and not nearly enough from the early forties and from Duke's post-Newport-comeback years. Early recordings like "Back Room Romp", "Creole Rhapsody", "Creole Love Call", and "Take it Easy" can't compare with forties classics like "Chelsea Bridge", "I Got it Bad", and "Perdido". And from Duke's later years I would pick The Far East Suite's "Tourist Point of View", and "...And His Mother Called Him Bill"'s beautiful piano solo "Lotus Blossom". And speaking of beautiful piano solos, the original version of "Black Beauty" is greatly superior to the 1960 one with Ray Nance's cornet.

On the other hand, Columbia did an otherwise great job of this collection. They used recordings from other labels, such as RCA, and the featured renditions of "Sophisticated Lady" and "Satin Doll" are the best ones around. It was also great to hear Johnny Hodges' "Jeep's Blues" solo from Newport.

All things considered, this is really good. I think Duke is the most prolific artist in jazz, so making a one CD compilation that satisfies everyone is impossible. Every song is a masterpiece, specially everything recorded before 1940. I'd actually give it 4.5 stars, because I dont think the inclussion of 'Jeeps Blues' was a good idea. The only track needed from Newport is 'diminuendo in blue', and since that was impossible to include here for time restrictions, they should have gone for something from Far east suite or Such sweet thunder. If you dont have any Ellington, there has never been a better one CD overview than this. Now the sound is surpeisingly good. For some of the blanton-webster tracks, is even better than the latest remastered editions. How do you explain that RCA?

All 22 of the Ken Burns' collections of major artists' works are head and shoulders above similar compilations. The sound quality, the documentation, the selection of material puts all similar "Best Hits of -" "The Ultimate of-" "The Quintessential-" compilations to shame. Unlike the record companies that keep re-packaging a limited selection of their own materials to make a buck, Burns is at least "sincere" in his production of these "microcosms" (though why he included a Herbie Hancock anthology is beyond my understanding).

The "problem" with the Ellington collection is that it's a bit too specialized, too hooked on the music of the 20s and 30s, too lacking in expository commentary about each of the sessions to be a good "introduction" to Ellington's music. Why wasn't "Harlem Airshaft" included? How could he ignore altogether "Such Sweet Thunder" or "The Nutcracker Suite," albums that many experts of Ellingtonia consider his very best material ever. Then there's "Blue Rose," and "A Drum Is a Woman," and "Suite Thursday," and . . . In short, this is the Ellington CD for the semi-experienced, informed listener who wishes to gather some vintage material in a convenient container.

I like having this type of timeless music on my ipod because when it pops up in shuffle it is something different and distinctive from another era. Plus this man was a musical genius, so you need this cd and need it now. I got it on the cheap too, so who's better than me?

This is a fantastic overview of Ellington's music. I wasn't all that familiar with him before this album, although I know a lot of his compositions, as they are of course standards, and have been recorded innumerable times by other artists. So it was really nice to hear the original recordings played by the original composer and band leader. Most of these songs were recorded during the 20's, 30's and 40's, and I was suprised that the sound is as good as it is. I have other cds in the Ken Burn's jazz series, notably Billie Holiday and Lester Young, where the sound is awful with very loud hiss. I was expecting the same here, seeing as a lot of these tracks were transferred straight from the original 78's. But there is hardly any real noticable hiss. Of course the equipment they used in the 20's and 30's isn't up to todays standards, especially for trying to record a big band, but apart from that, the sound is pretty good. The booklet includes photos and an interesting essay. Recommended.