Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Duke Ellington And Louis Armstrong Performing Ellington's "Mood Indigo". Step Back.
CD Review
In Honor Of The 110th Birthday Anniversary Of Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong &Duke Ellington: The Complete Sessions, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and various side men, Capitol Records, 1990
Those who follow the reviews in this space may have read a response to a commenter that I wrote recently in reviewing John Cohen’s (from the old folk group The New Lost City Ramblers) “There Is No Eye” CD. That CD contained many country blues, urban folk, city blues and rural mountain musical treats (as well as a little tribute to the “beats” of the 1950’s). The gist of my comment was an attempt to draw a connection between my leftist sympathies and the search for American roots music that has driven many of my reviews lately. That said, no one, at least no one with any sense of the American past can deny the importance of the emergence of jazz as a quintessentially American black music form of expression. In short, roots music. And if you want to look at the master, or at least one of the masters (if you need to include King Oliver and Louis Armstrong), of the early years of this genre then look no further- you are home. Duke is in his castle.
Now I am by no means a jazz aficionado. In fact, if anything, I am a Johnnie-come- lately to an appreciation of jazz. More to the point I never really liked it (except some of the more bluesy-oriented pieces that I would occasionally hear like Armstrong’s “Potato Blues” that I was crazy for when I first heard them) as against the other musical genres that I was interested in. Then, with all the hoopla over Duke’s 100th birthday anniversary ten years ago, in 1999, I decided to investigate further. I had to ask someone what would be a good CD of Duke’s to listen to. Naturally this sessions album came up.
Until very recently I never had thought much of the work of Louis Armstrong. Part of this dismissive attitude may have been from being put off by his cringing “Uncle Tom” type roles in movies like “High Society (with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby). It was only when I accidentally listened to his “Potato Blues Album” that I realized that I had been wrong about his music, if not his persona. As for the Duke, since the centenary of his birth in 1999 I have developed an appreciation for his wonderful jazz tone poems, for lack of better term to express these virtuoso works, especially those from the late 1930’s-early 1940’s when he was riding high in the jazz world. Well put these to legends together, any where, any time and you have a big moment in American musical history. Duke with his beautifully controlled use of the piano and Satch with his horn and be-bop, scat voice and you have one version of musical heaven. Highlights here include the classic “Mood Indigo”, “Solitude” and the instrumental “Black And Tan Fantasy”.
CD Review
In Honor Of The 110th Birthday Anniversary Of Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong &Duke Ellington: The Complete Sessions, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and various side men, Capitol Records, 1990
Those who follow the reviews in this space may have read a response to a commenter that I wrote recently in reviewing John Cohen’s (from the old folk group The New Lost City Ramblers) “There Is No Eye” CD. That CD contained many country blues, urban folk, city blues and rural mountain musical treats (as well as a little tribute to the “beats” of the 1950’s). The gist of my comment was an attempt to draw a connection between my leftist sympathies and the search for American roots music that has driven many of my reviews lately. That said, no one, at least no one with any sense of the American past can deny the importance of the emergence of jazz as a quintessentially American black music form of expression. In short, roots music. And if you want to look at the master, or at least one of the masters (if you need to include King Oliver and Louis Armstrong), of the early years of this genre then look no further- you are home. Duke is in his castle.
Now I am by no means a jazz aficionado. In fact, if anything, I am a Johnnie-come- lately to an appreciation of jazz. More to the point I never really liked it (except some of the more bluesy-oriented pieces that I would occasionally hear like Armstrong’s “Potato Blues” that I was crazy for when I first heard them) as against the other musical genres that I was interested in. Then, with all the hoopla over Duke’s 100th birthday anniversary ten years ago, in 1999, I decided to investigate further. I had to ask someone what would be a good CD of Duke’s to listen to. Naturally this sessions album came up.
Until very recently I never had thought much of the work of Louis Armstrong. Part of this dismissive attitude may have been from being put off by his cringing “Uncle Tom” type roles in movies like “High Society (with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby). It was only when I accidentally listened to his “Potato Blues Album” that I realized that I had been wrong about his music, if not his persona. As for the Duke, since the centenary of his birth in 1999 I have developed an appreciation for his wonderful jazz tone poems, for lack of better term to express these virtuoso works, especially those from the late 1930’s-early 1940’s when he was riding high in the jazz world. Well put these to legends together, any where, any time and you have a big moment in American musical history. Duke with his beautifully controlled use of the piano and Satch with his horn and be-bop, scat voice and you have one version of musical heaven. Highlights here include the classic “Mood Indigo”, “Solitude” and the instrumental “Black And Tan Fantasy”.
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