Daryl Sherman - Jane Stuart

Daryl Sherman Mississippi Belle (Audiophile ACD 342)

One of the most entertaining of musicians, Daryl Sherman has a fully deserved worldwide reputation as a fine jazz pianist and singer. On this, her latest CD (released late December 2011), she delves into a trove of music with which she is wonderfully familiar, the songs of Cole Porter. For many years, Daryl has played and sung regularly at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; what’s more, she has done so seated at the piano Cole Porter had in his suite when he stayed there, a Steinway given to him by the hotel. This CD is subtitled ‘Cole Porter in the Quarter’, that being, of course, the French Quarter of New Orleans, which is not only home to Audiophile Records but also where Daryl has often chosen to perform, particularly after Hurricane Katrina. Among the songs Daryl sings here are the familiar, which include Let’s Do It, Rosalie, Get Out Of Town, You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To and From This Moment On, and some that are less so, including Ours, Tale Of The Oyster, Use You Imagination and Looking At You. To her interpretations of all the songs, Daryl brings her unmistakable charm and wit, cloaking everything in her superb musicianship. Daryl’s instrumental collaborators here are clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Tom Fischer and bassist Jesse Boyd. The always admirable New Orleans-based singer, Banu Gibson, joins Daryl for By The Mississinewah. This is lovely stuff, a CD that will have very wide appeal.

Jane Stuart Don’t Look Back (Jane Stuart Music JSM 002)

Jane Stuart’s debut CD was 2007’s Beginning To See The Light, which won the Blue Chip Award for “Best Jazz Vocals” from the International Association of Jazz Educators. By now very much appreciated for her live performances, sometimes solo and sometimes as leader of her band, Airtight, in the New York and New Jersey area, Jane has built upon her very good start in the tough world of jazz singing and her new CD shows just how far she has come. This is a mature and confident performance, and her repertoire shows the breadth of her musical appreciation; among the songs here are Cole Porter’s Experiment, Dave Frishberg’s Wheelers And Dealers and You Are There (co-composed by Johnny Mandel), Lennon and McCartney’s Eleanor Rigby and I’ll Follow The Sun, Rodgers and Hart’s I Didn’t Know What Time It Was and an especially attractive version of the Gershwin classic, Summertime. Jane’s accompanists are pianist Rave Tesar, tenor saxophonist Frank Elmo, bassists Kermit Driscoll and Sue Williams share tracks and drummer Rick De Kovessey (who is her husband). Also on hand are percussionist Emedin Rivera and background vocalists Orlando Quinones and Paige Sandusky. There are also guests in the very welcome form of guitarist Dave Stryker and saxophonist Dick Oatts. This is a singer who deserves your attention.

Bill Berry

Hot ‘n’ Happy

One of the outstanding big bands of the 1970s, Bill Berry’s LA Band was rich in talented soloists, powerful in execution, and dedicated in its approach. Sadly, it was barely recorded although many off-air and private recordings exist and I count myself lucky in having several of these. Officially, only two albums were released, Hello Rev (Concord Jazz CJ CCD 4023) and the almost impossible to find vinyl, Hot 'n' Happy (Beez 1), the latter on Bill Berry’s own label. The CD incarnation of Hello Rev is therefore a ‘must have’ for all lovers of big band jazz at its fiery best. Soloists include Blue Mitchell, Cat Anderson, Jack Sheldon, Jimmy Cleveland, Tricky Lofton, Richie Kamuca, Marshal Royal and Dave Frishberg. This album almost matches the awesome experience of hearing the band live.

I heard the band live just once, at Carmelo’s, a Los Angeles jazz club. That night, the band included Sheldon, Cleveland, Kamuca and Frishberg, as well as Pete and Conte Candoli, Bob Efford, Jack Nimitz, Monty Budwig and Frank Capp among a truly star-studded personnel. If only more of my memories were made of evenings like this.
Bill Berry also led small groups and they have fared a little better in the CD age. Of these Shortcake (Concord Jazz CJ CCD 4075) also abounds in distinguished soloists, including Marshal Royal, Lew Tabackin, Bill Watrous and Dave Frishberg and additionally is marked by ingenious and witty charts. In the 1990s, Bill Berry and his wife Betty organized the Pacific Jazz Party, a richly rewarding trans-oceanic collaboration between musicians from America and Japan. The fine mainstream set, Jazz Party (Jazz Cook JCCD 1003) is one result of this meeting of musical minds. Cornetist Bill co-leads with his counterpart, clarinetist Eiji Kitamura, and they are joined by tenor saxophonist Sam Sadigursky and a pulsating rhythm section that draws from both countries: pianist Kotaro Tsukahara and the veteran bass and drums team of Ray Brown and Jake Hanna. Then there is Live at Capozzoli’s (Woofy WPCD 54), which was recorded during a late 1990s Las Vegas club date. The uncommon front line of Bill’s cornet and Jack Nimitz’s baritone saxophone lend interesting textures to a nice selection of numbers, most of which are standards.

Bill Berry's death, in November 2002, brought to an end a personal friendship that existed between us since the late 1970s. I miss Bill but count myself lucky to have known him and to have heard him play many times live, with various small bands and that never-to-be-forgotten occasion with his mighty big band. At least, we still have the records, all of which exemplify something Bill once observed: “You can be 100% serious about music, and still have fun.”

Illinois Jacquet

Although he became especially well known for his fiery work with Jazz At The Philharmonic, where his playing reflected his breakthrough with Lionel Hampton in the early 1940s and his solo on Flying Home in particular, Illinois Jacquet was a thoroughly accomplished tenor saxophonist with a richly varied repertoire.

He was born in Boussard, Louisiana, on 31 October 1922, but was raised from the age of one in Texas and would thus later be welcomed by those who established what became known as the ‘tough Texa’ style of playing the tenor saxophone. Jacquet was born into a very musical family, his father, Gilbert, leading a band that included Illinois’s brothers Julius, Linton and Russell; he boys’ sister and their mother were also accomplished musicians. While still at school, he danced as a member of the Jacquet Brothers dance team and also played drums. Later, he switched instruments, taking up alto and soprano saxophones. As early as 1938, while still at school, Jacquet sat in with various visiting bands, including that led by Milt Larkins. After graduating from high school, he left Texas to look for musical work in California. There, he worked with Floyd Ray and chanced to meet Nat Cole and was introduced to Lionel Hampton who was in the process of forming a band. Hampton happened to want a tenor player and offered Jacquet a job on the condition that he switch to tenor. Jacquet set out to master the instrument and in 1941 became a key figure in Hampton’s entourage. The recording session that produced the legendary Flying Home was on 26 May 1942. Jacquet’s solo was outstanding and became so inextricably intertwined with Hampton’s composition that it was later integrated into the number and Jacquet’s successors were expected to use it as the basis for their own solos. Deceptively simple, the riff-based solo set a standard and helped establish Jacquet as a major figure in jazz.

In 1943, Jacquet joined Cab Calloway, staying for about a year before moving on to play with various small bands and also to lead his own group in which brother Russell appeared as did Charles Mingus. A brief but telling appearance in the 1944 Gjon Mili-Norman Granz film, Jammin’ The Blues, was followed by regular dates with Granz’s Jazz At The Philharmonic and he was also with Count Basie’s band. Much of his mid-1940s to mid-1950s work is presented on The Illinois Jacquet Story on Properbox Records. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Jacquet toured with his own small groups and with JATP, becoming in the process a welcome figure on the international jazz club and jazz festival circuits. In some ways, his time with JATP, while valuable and lucrative, was somewhat limiting to his enormous talent. On the JATP bandstand he acquired a reputation as a wild man of the tenor, performing honks and high-note squeals on up-tempo rafter-raising numbers and while these demonstrations of his remarkable technical ability cannot be denied, they were always balanced with exquisite ballad performances as can be heard on many live and studio recording sessions, several on Verve Records, not only in these years but ever afterwards.

Meanwhile, Jacquet continued to form his own groups for club dates, tours and recording sessions, along the way working with many leading jazz instrumentalists and singers. His recordings included the very popular Robbins Nest and Black Velvet. He made a brief instrumental departure by playing bassoon in a jazz context and also from time to time he returned to the alto saxophone on which he displayed his admiration for Charlie Parker. For several years through the late 1960s and into the following decade, Jacquet fronted a trio with Milt Buckner and Jo Jones and worked also with Slam Stewart and Buddy Rich. From time to time he would return to Hampton for concert appearances, and he also worked in several all-star ensembles. His European tours with a Texas Tenors band, along with Arnett Cobb and Buddy Tate, was very well received by audiences and critics alike.

After having been artist-in-residence at Harvard in the early 1980s, Jacquet formed a big band for occasional concerts and recording sessions, including Atlantic Records’ Jacquet’s Got It!. He continued to form occasional big bands through the 1990s, a time when he was also a regular visitor to European jazz festivals. A fine example of the Texas tenor style, indeed one of the prototypes of the genre, Jacquet should not be overlooked by those who seek to delineate the history of the tenor saxophone in jazz. He was an important transitional figure in the development of the instrument, retaining a lifelong affinity for the blues while keeping himself attuned to the changes taking place in the bop and post-bop periods of jazz. An admirer of Charlie Parker and Lester Young, he successfully became his own man and set standards for others to follow. Late in life, Jacquet was a dignified on-stage presence as an elder statesman of jazz, while his playing always impressively combined the earthy swing of his Texan upbringing with the melodic grace of an impassioned balladeer. In all that he played, Jacquet sought and found the emotional heart of the material, playing solos that are intense in their fire and rhapsodic in their elemental command. And throughout his career, at the warm heart of his playing there was always the blues.

In 1991 came the release of Arthur Elgort’s documentary film, Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story, which captures all that was good about this exceptional musician.

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet, died in New York City on 22 July 2004. Of his playing on that 1942 version of Flying Home, he would remark, ‘God bless my solo.’ To which his many fans might well chorus, ‘Yes indeed!’

The foregoing has been adapted from a piece written a few years ago for Jazz Journal.

Benny Carter - Part 2

Despite his deep involvement in writing for films and television, in the 1950s, and shrugging off a 1956 heart attack, Benny Carter still found time to play with Jazz At The Philharmonic and to form and lead bands for residencies, short tours, and recording sessions. Notable among these recording dates were Aspects, 1961’s influential Further Definitions album, on which he was joined by Coleman Hawkins, Phil Woods and Charlie Rouse, and 1966’s Additions To Further Definitions, with a band that included Mundell Lowe and Teddy Edwards. This music has can be found on a Decca Records release. The musicality and musicianship Carter possessed endeared him to singers and he wrote arrangements for a wide range of jazz and jazz-influenced pop singers, among them Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, Mel Tormé and Sarah Vaughan.

 

The 1970’s saw Carter’s re-emergence as a concert and touring artist and he made numerous national and international tours, playing jazz clubs and concert halls, and making many albums. In 1987, he teamed up with John Lewis and the occasionally-assembled All-American Jazz Orchestra for concerts dedicated to performing works written especially for big bands. To this repertoire, Carter contributed a major long work, Central City Sketches, rehearsing, conducting and playing solo alto at its premiere. Also in 1987, Ken Mathieson commissioned Carter to compose a suite for a big band for the Glasgow Jazz Festival. In 1989, his 82nd birthday was honored by a concert at New York's Lincoln Center at which some of his songs were sung by Sylvia Syms and Ernestine Anderson. He celebrated his 85th birthday with a concert at Rutgers University, premiering two new suites written especially for the occasion: Tales Of The Rising Sun Suite and Harlem Renaissance Suite. In 1997, a special concert was held in honor of his 90th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl at which a new composition by John Clayton was played. Dedicated to Carter, the three-part suite was entitled, very appropriately, Maestro. The concert could not, though, be held on Carter’s actual birth day; instead, it was held two days earlier because on his birthday the indefatigable maestro had a gig in Norway. In May 2000, the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra premiered two of Carter's new works, Time To Remember, memorializing President John F. Kennedy, and Again And Again, a ballad performed by alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton. The occasion was a concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, remembering the city’s Central Avenue jazz scene, at which Maestro was reprised.

As a soloist, Carter’s fluent playing on alto saxophone and the liquid sound he created made him kin to his near-contemporary, Johnny Hodges, and between them they effectively ruled the world on that instrument until the arrival of Charlie Parker. Although less well known, his clarinet playing was similarly rich and flowing. All these comments can be applied just as readily to his trumpet playing. Very few musicians double on reeds and brass; of those few that do, it is hard to think of any who achieve this with such apparent ease as Carter. Bill Berry recalled an appearance with Carter in Tokyo who was, as usual, playing alto that night. Someone in the audience requested that Carter play trumpet. Although he did not have his own trumpet, and as far as anyone knew had not picked one up in years, Carter borrowed Berry's cornet and played with the perfection of someone who was in daily practice. Carter’s playing skills never deserted him, as can be heard on many recordings from late in his life, among them a set at New York’s Iridium Club released by Nimbus.

Carter’s composing blended silky melodies with vibrant swing. Among his compositions are Blues In My Heart, which is one of the most recorded of his instrumentals, When Lights Are Low, also extensively recorded as an instrumental and as a vocal, with lyrics by Spencer Williams, Blue Star, Devil's Holiday, Dream Lullaby, Blue Interlude, Lonesome Nights, Doozy, which defies anyone not to swing when playing it, Symphony In Riffs, which was also the title of a 1995 video release, and he also wrote Kansas City Suite for Count Basie's band in the 1960s. As composer and arranger he ranks with Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Edgar Sampson, and a handful of others as an important architect of swing era big band concepts. His writing for the saxophone section was perhaps the most instantly recognizable element of his arranging talent. The gorgeous, flowing, seemingly simple yet decidedly complex sound he created was just one of the many joys that this remarkable man brought to jazz.

Fortunately, Carter attracted the biographer he merited and in 1982 Morroe Berger, brought out his two-volume biography, Benny Carter: A Life In American Music, written in collaboration with Ed Berger and James Patrick, which fully documents the life of this amazing musician. Except, of course, in 1982, Carter still had two decades of music making ahead of him.

The official Benny Carter web site, run by Ed and Laurence Berger, should not be missed by anyone interested in the life and career of this extraordinary man. Carter died on Saturday, 12 July 2003, leaving behind an incomparable musical legacy. We shall not see his like again.

In 2011, singer Deborah Pearl released, Souvenir Of You, an album of songs for which she wrote lyrics to compositions by Benny Carter. This very interesting CD is reviewed elsewhere on this Blog. Also in 2011, Ken Mathieson teamed up with Alan Barnes and Woodville Records to re-explore Carter’s Glasgow Suite, recording the work with Mathieson’s 8-piece Classic Jazz Orchestra, along with several other Carter compositions and arrangements. In so doing, they demonstrated not only their own musical skills but also the durability of the music of Benny Carter.

 

Regina Carter

Jazz violin has a long and wonderful tradition. It also has a history of misunderstanding and over the years there has been much wrong-headed criticism from those who believe that a musical instrument carries an in-built repertoire outside of which it should not be allowed to stray. Even a cursory glance at the reality of the violin in jazz shows otherwise. In the earliest days of jazz, when it vied for popularity with other musical forms, the violin was a commonplace sight on the bandstand. Indeed, dance bands in turn-of-the-century New Orleans were frequently led by the violin and it was chiefly a matter of the volume at which instruments such as the trumpet could be played that edged the violin’s softer sound onto the sidelines. The skill and sheer musicality of the players of the violin in those far-off days cannot be seriously questioned. After all, New Orleans was a major centre for classical music in the USA and few if any other cities could claim to have three opera houses, which provided work for numerous classical players of whom the violinists were logically the majority.

Despite the technical limitations on the violin in those pre-electric days, some musicians persisted with the instrument and through the years there have been several fine exponents, some of whom, had they played a more ‘acceptable’ instrument, must surely have found greater support from audiences and especially from critics who really should have known better. Consider some of these names and reflect for a moment on the extraordinary music they have left us: Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, Claude Williams, Eddie South, Emilio Caceres, Stéphane Grappelli and Svend Asmussen. The latter two enjoyed careers of many decades (Asmussen still playing as he approaches his 95th birthday in 2012) and hence found themselves playing alongside violinists such as Jean-Luc Ponty and Billy Bang.

Continuing the tradition of these artists is Regina Carter, a musician of extraordinary skill who is thoroughly steeped in the history of jazz violin yet is simultaneously aware of and responds to all of the many changes that jazz has undergone in the past hundred years. Consider just three of her records:-

I’ll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey

On this Verve Records album, Carter delves into the rich repertoire of the 1920s-1940s, playing popular and show tunes, among them the two songs that make up the album title, as well as Little Brown Jug, You Took Advantage Of Me, There’s A Small Hotel and St. Louis Blues. In so doing, Carter pays loving tribute to her mother, Grace Carter, who was the first important influence on in her career. The songs are played with a lively contemporary take on the small group style of jazz of the period they reflect. Carter’s musical companions here are Xavier Davis, piano, Matthew Parrish, bass, Alvester Garnett, drums, with guest vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Carla Cook, alongside Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet, and Gil Goldstein, accordion.

(Verve Records B0006226-02)

Freefall

On this album, also a Verve Records date, Regina Carter plays in a duo with pianist Kenny Barron and from the first phrases it is vividly apparent that this is a true meeting of minds attuned to all that is good in jazz. Carter observed of this date that she and Barron approached the music as though they were having conversations; in this case. The dialogue just happened to be played not spoken. The music here is drawn largely from the jazz palette, with pieces by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and Johnny Hodges as well as compositions by the duettists themselves. The result is music that is interesting, ingenious, and always beautifully played

(Verve Records 314 549 706-2)

Reverse Thread

For her 2010 album with E1 Records, Regina Carter turns to folk music from Africa, applying to tried and tested melodic themes a thoroughly contemporary jazz feel. With her inspired touch, Carter is able to blend the violin’s clear voice with some traditional instrumental sounds of Africa. In this she is aided in particular by Yacouba Sissoko, kora; also on hand are Will Holshouser and Gary Versace, accordion, Adam Rogers, guitar, Chris Lightcap and Mamadou Ba, bass, and Alvester Garnett, percussion. The music, while it might often be unusual to non-African ears, has about it an atmosphere that will be recognized by most of those who hear it. Among the titles are Hiwumbe Awumba, Juju Nani, Mwana Talitambula and Un Aguinaldo Pa Regina. This is a delightful record, filled with moments that prompt reflection and admiration and always underline Regina Carter’s astonishing musical skill.

(E1 Music 2090)

Benny Carter - Part 1

Part 1

Benny Carter's long life started out inauspiciously. Born on 8 August 1907, in a neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, known as San Juan Hill, almost from birth Bennett Lester Carter was faced with tough choices. In those days, San Juan Hill was home to many who made careers in crime; it was also a district where young men could, if they chose, make music. Benny Carter was one of several who chose to take a talent for music into the world of jazz. Among his cousins were Theodore ‘Cuban’ Bennett, a widely respected (although unrecorded) trumpeter, and Chicago-born clarinetist Darnell Howard. A near-neighbor was another trumpeter, James ‘Bubber’ Miley, who gained fame with Duke Ellington’s orchestra. Other neighbors were saxophonists Rudy Powell and Russell Procope and trumpeter Bobby Stark. When Carter was aged 13, he acquired a trumpet from a pawnshop, but unable to master the instrument in the couple of days he allowed for the endeavor, he went back and exchanged the trumpet for a C-Melody saxophone. This time he achieved quicker command and with the assistance of tuition from Harold Proctor and Lt. Eugene Mickell Sr., within two years he was sufficiently proficient to be made welcome when he sat in with bands in Harlem, which is where he moved with his family in 1923. With trumpeter June Clark's band, he made the switch to alto saxophone, and he then played with various bands, including those led by Billy Fowler, Lois Deppe, Earl Hines (where he played baritone saxophone), Horace Henderson, James P. Johnson, with Duke Ellington as a substitute, Fletcher Henderson, then joined Charlie Johnson's band at Smalls Paradise. He made his recording debut with Johnson, in 1928, and it is pertinent that on the date the band played two of Carter's arrangements.

A year later, Carter was leading his own band. He had rejoined Horace Henderson’s band in 1928, and when the leader quit and despite Carter’s youth the musicians chose him as leader. The following decade saw him alternating between leading a band and working as sideman and arranger the bands of Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb, and he was musical director of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. Although often overlooked, during the 1930s, Carter’s band was very highly regarded among musicians who considered it to be an unparalleled academy of musical learning. These ‘students’ in the early 1930s included pianist Teddy Wilson, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, trombonists Dicky Wells and J. C. Higginbotham and drummer Sid Catlett. Among the bands for which he wrote charts were Chick Webb (his arrangement of Liza is especially notable), Teddy Hill, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Carter had meanwhile mastered the trumpet and his instrumental arsenal included alto, C-Melody, tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet, trombone and piano.

Carter traveled to Europe in 1935, joining Willie Lewis in Paris and then spent the next three years over there, playing also in Denmark and the Netherlands. In this same period, he commuted frequently to London where he worked as an arranger for the BBC dance orchestra led by Henry Hall. During these years, he made a number of very good recordings with multi-national bands that included musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt.

In 1938, he returned to the USA, a country now in the grip of swing fever, and formed another band with which he held a two-year residency at the Savoy Ballroom. Inevitable perhaps, but the musicality of Carter’s band, allied as it was to the unassuming dignity of his personal bearing, proved detrimental to popularity. During the big band era he had only one hit, Cow-Cow Boogie, a novelty trifle sung by Ella Mae Morse. His small group work during this period included spells with the Chocolate Dandies and the Varsity Seven. Much of Carter’s music from the 1930s through into the 1950s can be heard on a release by Proper Records. Popular acclaim aside, Carter was about to launch himself into a distinguished career in the motion picture industry.

From early in the 1940s, Carter worked in Los Angeles as an arranger, composer and orchestrator in film studios, undertaking and very effectively completing tasks for which he was often not credited. Hollywood was not yet comfortable with granting on screen credit to black musicians, however accomplished they might be. By the late 1940s, Carter’s film studio work consumed most of his time and energies, and as the next two and more decades passed he also worked extensively in television. His film work, off-screen and on, began with Stormy Weather in 1943 and continued through Edge Of Doom (1950), 1951’s An American In Paris, A View From Pompey’s Head (1955),The Sun Also Rises (1957), Too Late Blues, Town Without Pity (both 1961), State Fair (1962), A Man Called Adam (1966), Buck And The Preacher (1972), and 1975’s TVM, Louis Armstrong-Chicago Style among a very long list. On television, he worked on several popular series, including scoring many episodes of M Squad, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Banyon, and Name Of The Game.

Duke Ellington

Somewhere to start?

Fortunately for us all, very nearly everything recorded by Duke Ellington has been reissued over and over again. So much is available that newcomers to the magical musical world of this remarkable man are bound to be daunted. Cutting down the list of available albums to just three is a crazy task, doomed to failure and one that is bound to raise dissenting voices. But ... here goes. Actually, I’m cheating a little because none is a decades-wide compilation, rather they show the Ellington band in three important and somewhat different lights and thus offer intriguingly varied glimpses of one of the finest bands ever to grace jazz.

The first of these CDs is The Blanton-Webster Band (Bluebird 5659), which comes from a short but highly productive and creative period in Ellington's life. He was of course always productive and creative, but this period, 1940-42, was astonishing even by his own high standards. Several of the band's members had already spent long periods as Ellingtonians: Harry Carney, Johnny Hodges, Sonny Greer; others were relative newcomers, notably Jimmy Blanton and Ben Webster, whose contributions were of such importance that their names were ever afterwards appended as identifiers for this brief era. Nothing is weak or wasted, even the alternative versions included here add to our knowledge and understanding of and delight in the band. But is it the real Duke Ellington?

The second album, Duke Ellington At Newport 1956 (Columbia Legacy C2K 64932), marks the turning point in public awareness of the band; that evening designed by an alchemist when everything went right. Its centrepiece is, of course, the roaring Paul Gonsalves solo that bridges the two parts of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, even if this had the unfortunate effect of tying the saxophonist to a roof-raising role despite his being one of the most rhapsodic of Ellington's players (Webster and Hodges notwithstanding). Yet, in a way, what this album gives us, while an immensely enjoyable and true view of the band (this reissue gives us everything, including studio remakes), might also be something other than the real Duke Ellington.

If that sounds a little negative, it should perhaps be mentioned that it was Johnny Hodges who raised the question I have left hanging over the foregoing pair of truly marvelous sets of music and cast doubts upon the continued assertion from most critics and fans that these two albums are archetypal Ellington. What Hodges said was: ‘If you never heard Ellington play for dancing, then you never heard Ellington.’ It was a casual remark made to a friend but is worth thinking about, if only because Hodges was notoriously reticent and therefore anything he said is likely to have at least some truth in it. Of course, if he was accurate in what he said, then almost no one living today really heard Ellington; that’s because pretty nearly everyone around today has heard Ellington only on record or in the concert hall. And that is what the two foregoing albums are. In the case of The Blanton Webster Band we hear Ellington in the recording studio, bound by the three-minute side and, despite the glories that abound, affected as were almost all jazz musicians by the relative coldness of the setting. While Ellington At Newport was not really a concert hall, it did have that same general ambiance, albeit considerably livelier than most.

This is why the third album, The Duke At Fargo 1940 (Storyville 8361), is so special. This is a dance date, recorded with commendable foresight, by Jack Towers and Dick Burris, and with remarkably good sound considering the time and circumstances. Despite some minor technical shortcomings, this set captures that free floating spirit of an organization that was not only a great jazz band but was also a great dance band. The band's personnel is pretty much the same core of musicians as for The Blanton-Webster Band and many of the solos taken are on par with, or sometimes superior to, those on the studio dates. Over everything, though, hangs that indefinable ‘something’, an atmosphere that makes it possible to detect a glimmer of what it was that prompted Hodges to make his remark.

Having cut down the list of available Ellingtonia from hundreds to just three, I will not go further and try to choose between them and recommend just one album. Each of these is important, valuable, and in its own way a superb example of the extraordinary alchemy that was the Duke Ellington band. Bearing in mind that many might argue persuasively, with or without fanaticism, that it was the greatest band of them all, then even the impecunious newcomer would be justified in buying all of them.