Tuesday, March 21, 2000
Discs show why Duke was a king
BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For most recording artists, a three-CD set featuring almost four hours of music would be major overkill. For Duke Ellington, it barely scratches the surface.
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THE DISC
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DUKE ELLINGTON
The Duke: The Essential Collection — 1927-1962
Columbia/Legacy; 4 stars
$39.98 CD; no cassette
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The Duke's official centennial was 1999, but Columbia, which owns the rights to most of the finest Ellington recordings, has bided its time, releasing this 66-track set this month. Accompanied by a well-annotated and illustrated booklet, it's the single best and most reasonable (in length and price) of the Ellington collections available.
The set covers each of Mr. Ellington's three tenures with Columbia, and each gets its own CD.
The first finds him as the young, ragtime-influenced, jazz-band pianist/leader. This is Ellington as King of Jungle Music, his tunes filled with growling trumpets, moaning saxes and its leader's stride-style piano (displayed best in the 1928 version of “Black Beauty”).
It all sounds incredibly archaic, but it was quite innovative in its day. On 1928's “The Mooche,” guitarist Lonnie Johnson, (who moved between jazz and blues and had a No. 1 R&B hit on Cincinnati's King Records in 1948 with “Tomorrow Night”) solos on a new invention, a National brand acoustically amplified resonator guitar. The 1932 take on “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),” sung by Ivie Anderson, features Wellman Braud's slapping bass, another new sound back then.
Disc 1 continues through other early Ellington delights. Pieces like “Showboat Shuffle” are aural art deco — all sleek, aerodynamic lines ornamented by unexpected curlicues.
There's the keening heartbreak of “In a Sentimental Mood” and the exoticism of “Caravan.” But there's also the easy strut of “In a Jam.” As the '30s move into the '40s, the swing gets smoother and more solid, as shown in “Tootin Through the Roof.” The first disc ends with 1942's “Sophisticated Lady,” showcasing Johnny Hodges' poignant, graceful alto sax.
That recording caps one of the Ellington band's most vital periods, which, unfortunately for this set, was primarily documented on another label. The group's 1940-42 Victor recordings included the first collaborations with Mr. Ellington's virtual alter-ego Billy Strayhorn and featured innovative bassist Jimmy Blanton, whose powerful technique helped reinvent the Ellington rhythm section.
At the same time, in Ben Webster the band found a tenor sax player with a romantic ballad genius equal to Johnny Hodges'.
For that, the hard-core collector will have to pick up the three-CD set The Blanton-Webster Band (RCA). The Columbia set backtracks, including Ellington-Strayhorn classics in later versions.
The story here resumes after a musician union's recording ban expired in the late '40s (historical authenticity extends to the design of the CD labels, each of which reflects the era covered). The '47-52 period was a low point for the Ellington band, however. Turnover was high, and even Mr. Hodges temporarily left. So it's not surprising that this is the weakest of the three CDs.
The final Columbia era, 1956-62, is filled with classics. The disc opens with Mr. Hodges back in the band for the group's comeback performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. He plays his feature “Jeep's Blues,” displaying the alto style that was pretty much the only alternative to Charlie Parker's bop.
A few months before Newport, the Ellington band teamed for an LP with a hot young pop singer, as Columbia hoped to manufacture the comeback that Newport brought about naturally. “Blue Rose” is the title song to the album with Rosemary Clooney, featuring Maysville's favorite daughter in masterful, wordless improvisation over that wonderful band.
The disc also includes plenty of Ellington hits — “Mood Indigo,” “Satin Doll,” “C Jam Blues,” “Perdido,” “Things Ain't What They Used to Be” (the last by Duke's son Mercer).
But there's also “Come Sunday,” featuring gospel great Mahalia Jackson, from the major Ellington work Black, Brown and Beige. “Flirtibird” comes from Mr. Ellington's soundtrack to the film Anatomy of a Murder.“Midnight in Paris” was written for the movie Paris Blues. “Asphalt Jungle Theme” was composed for the TV series of the same title.
The set's last piece is “Battle Royal,” pitting the Ellington orchestra against Count Basie's hard-swinging band. It's recorded in the severe stereo of the day — the Ellington band comes out of your right speaker, the Basie group from the left.
Then it's time for Mr. Ellington to have his say, in a short recording made for radio stations: “I want to thank you playing our sounds, and tell all your lovely listeners that we do (pause) love them madly.” It's a fitting end, as even Mr. Ellington's speech has its own strong rhythm and musicality.
Dozens of CDs flooded the market last year in honor of the Ellington Centennial, including RCA's exhaustive 24-CD set. Despite its gaps, this collection was worth the wait.
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