Search Results for "Duke Ellington"

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – The Popular Duke Ellington (1966/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:14 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy

The Popular Duke Ellington is a studio album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington featuring many of the tunes associated with his orchestra rerecorded in 1966 and released on the RCA label in 1966.

(more…)

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra – Midnight in Paris (1962/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 42:17 minutes | 2,36 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © High Definition Tape Transfers

Midnight in Paris is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded in 1962 for the Columbia label. The album features performances of compositions inspired by or associated with Paris.

(more…)

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Ellington Indigos (1958/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:55 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia Records

Indigos is a seminal Jazz album by big band superstar Duke Ellington, originally released in 1958. Ellington chose a set of easy listening ballads to be performed by his ace Big Band, putting less emphasis on the uptempo and danceable Swing the group was revered for.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Uppsala 1971 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:08 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Storyville Records

In Duke Ellington’s tape collection (“The Stockpile”) were several tapes with concert recordings of the band’s performances on tour. It was a great delight to find a tape box marked “Ellington – Uppsala 9-11-71” in the collection, containing a tape with a concert at the university town of Uppsala, Sweden on Nov. 9th 1971. The second of two concerts in Uppsala that day.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – The Duke: Historically Speaking (1956/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:16 minutes | 503 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

Awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966, Duke Ellington called his music “American music” rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as “beyond” category. He remains one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music and is widely considered one of the 20th century’s best composers and band leaders. Ellington’s reputation has increased since his death in 1974, with thematic repackagings of his signature music often becoming best sellers. Posthumous recognition of his work include a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board. This 1956 session features Ellington and 14 sidemen performing updated recordings of some of the best from Ellington’s career going back to 1926.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Take the A Train (Remastered) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 39:23 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD – Storyville Records

This expertly remastered digital release sees the legendary Duke Ellington and his band present a selection of iconic numbers. Opening with the famous Take the “A” Train, this album sees these renowned musicians perform Satin Doll, New World a-Comin and five other tracks, all of which show Ellington at the top of his game.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Side By Side (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:59 minutes | 918 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Reissues

Although it is billed as a Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges album, Side by Side is a 1959 album mostly under the leadership of Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington’s alto saxophonist for many years. Ellington only appears on three of this album’s tracks. The album places Hodges at the fore, backing him with piano by Ellington or Billy Strayhorn and providing other accompaniment by well-known jazz figures like Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Jo Jones. The album, a follow-up to the popular Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues, has remained perpetually in print.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Recollections of the Big Band Era (1963/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:21 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Featuring familiar titles such as: “Ciribiribin,” and “Auld Lang Syne”, this one-of-a-kind set is beautifully remastered and presented in pristine HD quality. This tribute to the big pop-orchestra bands of Ellington’s heyday stands on its own.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – In Coventry, 1966 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:35 minutes | 724 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Storyville Records

During the year of 1966 Duke Ellington was touring Europe. Duke Ellington’s sacred concerts had many incarnations, more than the three on the commercial records: The First (1965), The Second (1968) and The Third (1973). At concerts Ellington often made changes in the proceedings – left out some numbers, and played others, and altered the succession of numbers played. This was evidenced at Coventry Cathedral on a winter’s Monday, February 21st 1966. The Coventry concert had its centerpiece in “In The Beginning God”, but apart from that it was no ordinary sacred concert: Two numbers, “Come Sunday” and “Tell Me It’s The Truth” would have a vocal on the issued record and in other performances of A Concert of Sacred Music the previous year, but were purely instrumental here – and the two numbers following “In The Beginning God” had no connection to a religious theme. With him on that day in Coventry Cathedral were some highly professional British vocalists, The Cliff Adams Singers and the baritone singer George Webb, giving the performance a special quality, which the band acknowledged by playing on the top of their game. The concert was filmed for TV, and part of it was telecast. Two numbers were regrettably omitted from the TV production, but are on this album, a powerful version of “Light (Montage)” from Black, Brown And Beige, and the above-mentioned “Come Sunday.” The concert also includes a premiere and only performance of a new Ellington composition “Come Easter,” a premiere of another new Ellington piece “West Indian Pancake,” and one of the first performances of a piece which would become an important part of many concerts during the following years, “La Plus Belle Africaine.”

(more…)

Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra – Far East Suite (1967/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:37 minutes | 1,44 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Legacy Recordings

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). Strayhorn died in May, 1967, making The Far East Suite the final album to feature his compositions that was released during his life.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Ellington at Newport (July 7, 1956 – Newport 60th Anniversary Edition) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:05 minutes | 711 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

Ellington at Newport is a 1956 live jazz album by Duke Ellington and his band of their 1956 concert at the Newport Jazz Festival, a concert which revitalized Ellington’s flagging career. Jazz promoter George Wein describes the 1956 concert as “the greatest performance of [Ellington’s] career… It stood for everything that jazz had been and could be.” It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, which ranks it “one of the most famous… in jazz history”. The original release was partly recreated in the studio after the Ellington Orchestra’s festival appearance.

Ellington released a follow-up album also recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport 1958, two years later.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Ellington ’65 (1964/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 32:49 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

Ellington ‘65 is an illuminating eleven-track album of standards from the legendary Duke Ellington. The album is among the very best in his career and highlights some of the most exceptional performances from veteran players like Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope and Lawrence Brown. With blistering horn arrangements, the ensemble delivers passionate and virtuosic performances on songs like “Hello, Dolly!,” “Never on Sunday,” “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” A must have for any music library.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Duke Ellington Presents… (1956/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:59 minutes | 615 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra recorded this album in Chicago, IL on 7 & 8 February 1956 for the Bethlehem label. Ray Nance has vocals on I Can’t Get Started, Jimmy Grissom sings on Everything But You. The Polydor reissues have slightly more adventurous titles, as well as the track listing changed. At the same session, the orchestra recorded another 12 tracks, released as “Historically Speaking – The Duke.”

This unusual set only has four Duke Ellington compositions among the 11 songs. He features a different soloist on most of the songs (which include seven standards not associated with Ellington’s music). There are showcases for trumpeter Cat Anderson, Ray Nance (who sings and plays violin on “I Can’t Get Started”), singer Jimmy Grissom, baritonist Harry Carney, and the altos of Johnny Hodges and Russell Procope, as well as two apiece for clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton and tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. The closing “Blues” gives many of the players an additional opportunity to be heard. Although this set is not essential, the music is quite enjoyable and it is interesting to hear Duke Ellington playing such tunes as “Laura,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Indian Summer.” –AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Berlin 1959 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:27:11 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Storyville Records

What we have here is the welcome memento of Duke Ellington and his band’s 1959 European tour. Berlin’s Sportpalast is not a concert hall and during the cursed Nazi reign often was the site of speeches by Hitler and his fellow criminals, but the hall can be said to have been thoroughly purified by sounds of jazz by the time of this concert.

(more…)

Duke Ellington – Anatomy Of A Murder (From the Soundtrack of the Motion Picture) (1959/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 34:56 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

The 1959 courtroom crime drama “Anatomy of a Murder” was directed by Otto Preminger and adapted by Wendell Mayes from the best-selling homonymous novel written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver.

(more…)