Duke Jordan was on the front lines of the bebop revolution as the pianist in Charlie Parker's quintet and later recorded his sole Blue Note album, Flight To Jordan, in 1960 - an exemplar hard bop date featuring Dizzy Reece (trumpet), Stanley Turrentine (sax), Reggie Workman (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.
Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than half a century. Jazz Violin Session was recorded in 1963 but was not released until 1976 on the Atla
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Blue Note Tone Poet Series release. In 1962 Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach recorded Money Jungle, one of the most celebrated jazz trio albums of all time. Generational and stylistic differences between the three created fearless music. The album features some of Ellington's indelible compositions including "Caravan," "Solitude," and a stunning version of "Le Fleurs Africaines (African Flower)."
This 13 track CD contains never before released live recordings from Duke Ellington. Recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York City on July 8th, 1972 and Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Canada on May 25th, 1973, the CD features Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Johnny Coles, Money Johnson, Eddie Preston, Tyree Glenn, Norris Turney, Harry Carney and others.
Two giants together in thrilling performance! This classic, best-selling LP recorded in 1966 premieres on CD (with bonus tracks) as a prelude to the 8-CD boxed set the Complete Ella & Duke at the Cote D'Azur (coming in 1998). Highlights include such familiar favorites as "Mack the Knife," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and "Misty," and the previously unreleased "Jive Jam," "The Trip" and "Things Ain't What They Used to Be."
Duke Ellington's "The Feeling of Jazz" from Black Lion Records, remastered for the first time in decades by legendary engineer, Bernie Grundman. Performed by the 1962 Duke Ellington Orchestra featuring: Cat Anderson, Harold Baker, Aaron Bell, Bill Berry, Lawrence Brown, Roy Burrowes, Harry Carney, Chuck Conners, Buster Cooper, Leon Cox, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, Ray Nance, Russell Procope, and Sam Woodyard.
The Ellington Suites is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington which collects three suites recorded in 1959, 1971 and 1972. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band. Interesting fact: Ellington wrote the Queens Suite for Queen Elizabeth II, who was presented with a single pressing of the recording which was not commercially issued during Ellington's lifetime. This newly re-mastered edition features a previously unreleased bonus track; the only known recording of the Ellington composition 'The Kiss'.
Digitally re-mastered edition of this album from the Jazz great. Duke Ellington was perhaps Jazz music's greatest composer of the 20th century. His importance led to him being asked to provide the musical focal point for the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln on 1 January 1963, freeing all slaves who were living in the 10 states rebelling in the Civil War. Ellington wrote an extended piece which combined newly composed music with well-chosen works from earlier in his career and captured a wide panorama of the black American experience: From Gospel to the Blues. Singer Joy Sherrill was often the focal point, ably assisted by the Ellington Orchestra. Stridently titled MY PEOPLE and featuring an early musical tribute to Martin Luther King, it was released on Bob Thiele's mid-'60s Contact label but failed to sell in large numbers. Thiele reissued it on Flying Dutchman in the early '70s, but this is the first time that it has been reunited with it's original artwork.
2009 two CD collection from the Jazz great. Duke Ellington composed prodigiously, toured the world relentlessly with his peerless big band, and left an enduring legacy, enhanced in the early 1950s by the dynamic drumming of Louie Bellson. This compilation features highlights of his recordings with Bellson. Primo.
The keyboard wiz's five decade career has run the gamut from Cannonball Adderley to Frank Zappa to the California Raisins, but here we have the cream-his pop/R&B hits and funk grooves with Stanley Clarke on bass: Dukey Stick; Reach for It; Sweet Baby; Shine On, plus seven more.
Toward the end of his career, Duke Ellington found himself filling up his calendar when home in New York City, with a residence at the famous Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Plaza. This afforded fans to hear a scaled-down version of his Big Band in the form of an Octet. On this album we present a rare stereo recording of Duke's Rainbow Room Octet as they were captured playing live in New York at the famous Rainbow Room, during the summer of 1967. This is the second of only perhaps two issued live recordings of this rare instrumentation, (the other was featured in a previous release entitled Contrapuntal Riposte, SQU 216) featuring some of Ellington's great sidemen, such as Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson, and Harry Carney. Listen closely as Duke has fun bantering with his band and the fans as well, in this very intimate setting, as he performs for this Rainbow Room radio broadcast, and you will experience some of the most swingingly warm moments ever captured on an Ellington recording.
It is 1969, and the great pianist/composer Duke Ellington was on one of his many arduous European tours. However for the first time we are afforded a snapshot of one of his most intimate club performances ever recorded. The place is Cabaret L'Alcazar in Paris, France, and Ellington and his 'instrument', the Famous Orchestra are in rare form, bringing forth a funky, soulful energy sparked of course by his assistant arranger at the time, Hammond Organ pioneer Wild Bill Davis. The great Johnny Hodges, still within a year of his life's ending, is playing excellently still, showing no signs of slowing down here. The famous celebrity Maurice Chevalier was in the house, even gifting the Duke one of his famous hats. It's a party atmosphere entirely but the music is as consistent and swinging as ever. Luminaries such as Hodges, Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, and Lawrence Brown are all cooking here. This is truly a night to remember, and needs to be heard by Ellington aficionados and music lovers alike.
1969 marked Duke Ellington's 70th year, and in honor of the occasion, Jazz Impresario George Wein sent Ellington and his band out on a European tour, a 70th birthday tour, so to speak. In a brief concert series entitled "Newport to Paris", for the first time on record we have the chance to hear Duke and the band performing live in Paris, and the Salle Pleyel in November, 1969. On this night we hear Duke and his orchestra in rare form, presenting a few of such newly written compositions, featuring luminaries like Cootie Williams, Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, Russell Procope, Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson and more.
As the year 1967 rolled in on Duke Ellington, he found himself overlooking a steep cliff. His writing and arranging partner Billy Strayhorn had taken ill, and would pass on by the end of May of that year, and he, with 16 piece big band in tow, had just embarked on a European tour. The great challenge of Strayhorn being out of action was the fact that now Ellington would once again be tasked with doing the bulk of his writing alone once again, a role he had not had to fully assume since 1937. Now, at the age of 68, he had to set out to compose and arrange a new "book" for touring. In addition to his usual extended pieces, he would generally craft solo numbers which were specially arranged to present his soloists in their best possible light before crowds around the world. On this night in 1967 we hear Duke and his orchestra in rare form, presenting a few of such newly written compositions, featuring luminaries like Cootie Williams, Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, Russell Procope, Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson and more.
