JAZZ SIGNATURES - ONE O'CLOCK JUMP: VERY BEST OF

The Far East Suite is an album by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, recorded in New York City on 19 December to 21 December 1966. The nine compositions on the original album were all composed by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (except for one by Ellington).

To coincide with the centennial celebration of the great Duke Ellington, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Wynton Marsalis) returns with a new album of all Ellington compositions, featuring performances by Cyrus Chestnut, Dianne Reeves and Illinois Jacquet. This "live" album was recorded as a companion to a PBS documentary on Ellington (to air May '99), and kicks off the Orchestra's world tour and the release of Jump for Joy, a literary homage to Duke Ellington.

Here we present three interpretations of Mingus's music by three different repertory bands: 1. The Mingus Big Band, which just completed a fourteen-year tenure of Thursday nights at Manhattan's Fez under the Time Cafe, 2. The Mingus Orchestra, distinguished form it's older sibling by it's more exotic instrumentation that includes bassoon, bass clarinet and French horn as well as guitar and 3. The 7-piece Mingus Dynasty, the original repertory band formed in 1979. This album features wonderful compositions from Mingus Big Band and Orchestra Dynasty.

Benny Goodman's jazz clarinet was as finely-tuned and and expertly used as any instrument in the history of popular music, "The King Of Swing" brought the raucous stomp of big band jazz to the masses. "Sing Me A Song (And Let Me Dance)" is a perfect encapsulation of the Goodman ethos. Why sit when you could swing?