Customer Reviews

Original Ellington Suite

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This "throwaway recording session" is one of the greatest jazz finds in years and a true gem. In 1959 Chico Hamilton recorded and released "The Ellington Suite" with Buddy Colette, Jim Hall, Fred Katz, Carson Smith and Paul Horn. But very few know that the same suite was recorded some months earlier by quite a different group with Eric Dolphy on saxophone, clarinet and flute, and then never released. The tapes were lost but a close-to-mint vinyl test pressing was found in a used record bin in Brighton England in 1995!! This CD is taken directly from that test pressing. You'd never know it. The sound is wonderful and the music is sublime. Covering several well-known Ellington pieces such as In a Mellotone, In a Sentimental Mood, I'm Just a Lucky So and So, I'm Beginning to See the Light and It Don't Mean a Thing, Chico Hamilton and company swing lightly but convincingly. The highlight, of course being the many wonderful solos by Dolphy. This belongs in the collection of any fan of Dolphy, and of course Chico Hamilton.

This CD might also serve to bring Chico Hamilton to light for those (including me) who have so far not been familiar with his work. Following this purchase I quickly obtained a copy of Reunion (with most of his original quintet featuring the same instrumentation as on the Ellington Suite), Man from Two Worlds featuring Charles Lloyd and Gabor Szabo from 1963 and 1962 sessions and his latest offering from 1999, a hard swinging, Timely. There is no doubt about it, Chico Hamilton may be one of the most underrated band leaders in jazz given that only a small fraction of his recorded output is currently available on CD. I recommend you not only pick up the Ellington Suite but check out everything else that Chico has done before it disappears as well. As Ellington said, "I'm beginning to see the light!"

I don't agree with some reviewers who wrote about this session.But,OK,CHico Hamilton's music was too advanced fourty five years ago for some ears (that's why this session was never released),and maybe it's still to advanced for some people.
I'd like to start this way:
- the sound quality isn't awful;it's a very correct one,so maybe some guys have to wash their ears before writing dumb things.
- Nate Gershman,the cello player,isn't a jazz musician and so,was not supposed to play like Red Mitchell or Oscar Pettiford.Chico Hamilton loved to interpolate classical things into jazz themes,and he was not the only one to do that.
- The reason why this session was never released is clearly explained into the booklet if you read it completely.It was no live recording.This was the first recording of Chico's Ellington suite,with Gershman,John Pisano on guitar,Hal Gaylor on bass and Eric Dolphy on clarinet,alto and flute;this was done August 22,1958.But it was never issued because Dolphy's music didn't satisfy Pacific Jazz,and the suite was recorded again with Buddy Collette replacing Dolphy.Please note that the second recording isn't really a suite,but only a succession of themes by Duke.In the first version,each theme is related to the following,forming a real suite.
Dolphy sounds too parkerish in this record ? Well,where do you think he comes from??? Charlie Barnet ??? It's as stupid as reproaching Zoot Sims to sound like Pres,or Pharoah Sanders to sound like Trane,or David Murray to sound like Ayler.
The fact is that this record is one of the best tributes to Duke Ellington ever recorded.Chico Hamilton chose magnificent tunes (I'm particularly pleased he chose "day dream" ,"azure" and "I'm just a lucky so and so").The arrangements are great,and Dolphy's solos,on flute,clarinet and alto,are majestic ones.Here is one of the highlights from the Pacific Jazz collection,even if it was rejected at the time of its recording.A real treasure.

This is one of the best performances of Duke's music ever recorded. It sounds so modern and non-tiring that it's hard to resist repeated plays. Especially because of Eric Dolphy.
Among many things it is also a reply to those who think Dolphy was a second-tier instrumentalist.
Even though the sound is somewhat below the usual standards, it's a blessing this cd exists at all. It doesn't sound *bad*, sometimes there are vinyl-like background noises, but it's not something to really mind, imo.

Grab it while it's still in print!

I grew up with the "reunion" version of Hamilton's "Ellington Suite," the one with Buddy Collette, Paul Horn, Jim Hall, Fred Katz and Carson Smith. It was one of my favorite albums and I wore it out before I turned 18. It then disappeared. Some years later, I got World Pacific's Hamilton Quintet sampler, and that had a couple of snippets from the Dolphy version. I was intregued, especially by Dolphy's extensions of Parker's alto style. So when I saw this reissue, I bought it.

One value of this reissue is to hear Dolphy in a formative stage of his musical development, ready to take off, learning how to bend and shape notes and phrases and already finding his distinctive rhythmic style. The other value is to hear Hamilton's chamber-jazz arrangements of these pieces, the same arrangements as the reunion group used on its LP. They are sensitive, with interesting instrumental interplay and color. Otherwise, this CD is a disappointment to me. Nate Gershman, in particular, is no Fred Katz, and not only has no sense of jazz phrasing but is consistently flat and has other serious intonation problems. If you can get your hands on the reunion version, compare Katz' solo on "Daydream", the cello feature, with Gershman's. Where Katz is fluid, passionate, lyrical, dynamic, Gershman is polite and somewhat stiff. As good a guitar player John Pisano is, I miss Jim Hall's harmonic richness in this music. And there is no doubt Carson Smith did a better job of anchoring the group than Hal Gaylor.

The sound is remarkably good considering its source. However, it is clearly a demo mix and many details get lost (one major example: Hamilton's mallets on cymbals in "Azure," which are all but inaudible).

Pacific Jazz would do all of us a favor by releasing a 2 CD set with both versions.

Duke Ellington's music was an inspiration for a host of very different younger musicians (Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Wynton Marsalis, to name but a few) and this tribute, discovered decades after it was recorded, is absolutely welcome in my jazz collection.
It would be easiest to describe it as a some sort of a cool jazz record (with a classical-tinged cello toning the swing heath down), but there's so much hidden fire in Eric Dolphy's alto-sax, flute and clarinet playing, but also in John Pisano's (guitar) and Hal Gaylor's (bass) playing, with Chico ancoring the proceedings very effectively, so I'll restrain from trying to label it.

It's subtle, it's pretty, it's swinging, it's modern, it's kinda dukeish.
I reccommend it.

Rediscovered only a few short years ago (see the critical review for that remarkable story), this 1958 all-Ellington program must rank as Eric Dolphy's finest work with his original bandleader Chico Hamilton, and thus an essential addition to the discographies of both men. With the reedsman featured on alto saxophone, flute and B-flat (rather than his usual bass) clarinet, THE ORIGINAL ELLINGTON SUITE announces the arrival of a unique jazz talent unchallenged to this day as the standard-bearer of all multi-instrumentalists. As always, Hamilton's distinctive reeds/guitar/cello/bass/drums arrangements fall alternately just within and just without the mainstream of classic jazz, with results so consistently tasteful and moving that the label's decision not to release this beauteous session at the time of its recording is as puzzling as it is outrageous. Dolphy's introductory alto sax wail on "In a Sentimental Mood" is reason enough to own this disc, but then again so is every other moment here. I only hope the Duke himself had a chance to hear it; he certainly would've been more than impressed.

Whether in the studio (In Hi FI) live, or on film (Sweet Smell of Success) the Chico Hamilton Quintet of the 1950's was a swinging, innovative, and exciting group. This release is a worthy addition especially made powerful through the contribution made by Eric Dolphy.

Whilst the recordings on this CD may be of historical significance, they are not very inspiring to listen too. The overall sound and recording quality could best be described as flat. While this is not a bad CD, it is not one that I'd recommend for the average jazz fan. Overall, to my ears this was a disappointment.

I'd been trying to acquire some jazz cello for my record collection. The easiest thing to find is free jazz, but I'm not especially interested in that (although I did enjoy in concert the cellist with Gary Hemmingway). According to the Grove Dictionary of Jazz, a number of bassists doubled on cello shortly after the initial bebop period, but I wonder, since they were really bassists, if they tended to play pizzicato. My best bet appeared to be the Chico Hamilton group from the late fifties, which included two cellist in succession: Fred Katz and Nate Gershman. Unfortunately, very few of Hamilton's recordings from this period are now in print...so when I came across this disc at Borders listing Nate Gershman on cello, I snapped it up.

Well,

1) It only tells you inside that this was a rejected studio performance. (I assumed it was live, and that that was why it had been "previously unreleased".) It only tells you inside that the CD was made using a forty-two year old vinyl disc bought from a used record store, with who knows how many previous owners. The recording quality is awful.

2) Nate Gershman never plays anything close to what I consider jazz. This is more or less a sort of "jazz with strings" record, and the cello represents the "strings" (it has four: A, D, G, and C). In other words, his playing here is not the slightest bit comparable to the violin playing of Stephan Grappeli (sp.?), Joe Venuti, Jerry Goodman, Jean-Luc Ponty, or Regina Carter.

3) Eric Dolphy plays sax here very much in a Charlie Parker mode, and I find the admixture of Ellington-like Ellington tune arrangements and Parker-like bebop soloing disconcerting. If I want to hear Parker, I can listen to Parker. If I want to hear Ellington, I can listen to Ellington. Dolphy at this point IS a very good alto saxophone player, don't mistake me. He's just barely competent on flute (which he plays on three cuts), however. He also plays clarinet on two cuts, but like the cello, this is mostly to add color to the arrangements; he never lets loose on clarinet.

4) The jewel case was broken when I opened it.