Jazz Articles about Duke Ellington

Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington

by AAJ Staff
March 8, 2004

by John Edward Hasse Da Capo Press, 1995 ISBN 0306806142

Where do you start with Duke Ellington?When Duke launched his career, his contemporaries included James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson and a fresh-on-the-scene Louis Armstrong. When he wrapped things up in 1974, the rock / jazz flirtations of Weather Report and Return Forever were all the rage. That's a huge chunk of musical history, and each and every year of it was touched by his ...

Duke Ellington: Ellington Uptown

by Jim Santella
March 4, 2004

Ellington Uptown was originally released in 1951; several reissues have appeared since. This year’s reissue includes bonus tracks. While the original—with Clark Terry and Louie Bellson, but without Johnny Hodges—has been viewed with contrasting opinions over the years, it remains solid Ellingtonian swing with an emphasis on individual artists. Bellson, Terry, Paul Gonsalves, Betty Roche, Cat Anderson and Quentin Jackson each have plenty of opportunities to characterize the Ellington orchestra the way the Duke had envisioned it. ...

Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington

by AAJ Staff
March 4, 2004

John Edward Hasse Da Capo Press, 1995 ISBN: 0306806142

Where do you start with Duke Ellington?When Duke launched his career, his contemporaries included James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson and a fresh-on-the-scene Louis Armstrong. When he wrapped things up in 1974, the rock/jazz flirtations of Weather Report and Return Forever were all the rage. That's a huge chunk of musical history, and each year of it was touched by his influence.Ellington is the ...

Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington

by AAJ Staff
March 3, 2004

By Stuart Nicholson Northeastern University Press 1999 ISBN-55553-380-8

“Reminiscing in Tempo" is not the definitive biography we might have expected in Ellington's centenary, but it's a valuable book nonetheless.Nicholson, the author of books on Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, has taken the oral biography route. It can be argued that this is easier or lazier than digging into Ellington's life in the context of a thoughtful narrative, but there is a lot ...

Duke Ellington: Far East Suite

by Kurt Gottschalk
January 25, 2004

Duke Ellington's Far East Suite has never enjoyed the accolades lauded upon some of the Maestro's other major works. Black, Brown and Beige and Such Sweet Thunder are in the Ellington canon; Far East, it seems, was left behind.That may be due to its dated Orientalism. It was recorded in 1966, a strange few years when jazz was looking to other cultures for inspiration but not embracing ethnic traditions the way it would in the coming decades (witness, ...

Armstrong & Ellington: The Great Summit

by John Ballon
October 29, 2003

No two musicians defined the first half of the Jazz Century more than Duke Ellington & Louis “Satchmo" Armstrong. Duke was the dashingly elegant mad-genius of composition, a black Mozart who imbued jazz with an emotional sophistication and wit that will never be surpassed. Louis almost single-handedly popularized the art of the solo, liberating jazz from the rigid rules of ensemble playing and giving individual musicians a chance to express themselves. Unmistakable in sound, Satchmo's presence strongly defined every session ...

Duke Ellington: Festival Session

by C. Michael Bailey
October 12, 2003

Two Hundred Fifty-Plus Words on Ellington, Part III.

Festival Session is the third in a trio of remastered and reconfigured Columbia releases to the Legacy imprint. The other two are Ellington Uptown and Masterpieces by Ellington , both worthy of purchase considering the amount of reconstruction and updating the releases have undergone since the 1950s. All three recordings are comprised of old and new songs. Festival Session was recorded following a successful series of festivals the Ellington Band had performed ...