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Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington Live at the Alhamabra
by David Rickert
The success of Ellington’s appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 reinvigorated his career and once again made him a world-wide concert draw at a time when many other big bands were struggling to find work. His appearance at the Alhambra two years later has been circulating in bootleg form for years and is finally available on CD. Although the recording quality isn’t great (blame the poor acoustics of the concert hall), it still captures a lively Ellington band ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington, et al.: 1969: All-Star White House Tribute to Duke Ellington
by Charlie B. Dahan
Duke Ellington celebrated his 70th birthday on April 29, 1969 as a guest of President Richard Nixon at the White House. In addition to receiving the distinguished Medal of Freedom, Ellington witnessed an all-star tribute concert featuring many of the day’s great jazz musicians in their prime, which until now, was lost. Recently a cassette belonging to then White House advisor Leonard Garmet found its way to Blue Note Records and the label enlisted Malcolm Addley and the National Archives ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington: Duke Ellington 1969: All-Star White House Tribute
by Jim Santella
A big band with Gerry Mulligan and Milt Hinton at the bottom, Paul Desmond and Clark Terry at the top, and an all-star cast in the middle makes this previously unissued session quite special. At the end, Duke Ellington sits down at the piano and performs a solo improvisation that he dedicated to Mrs. Pat Nixon. The President awarded Ellington the Medal of Freedom that day. It was the maestro's 70th birthday: April 29, 1969. Preserved on tape and broadcast ...
Continue ReadingLouis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit/Complete Sessions
by Jim Santella
A collector’s item, The Great Summit places two fathers of jazz together in the studio with a small ensemble. It was Louis Armstrong’s all-star band with guest pianist Duke Ellington, and 1961 marked a gradual turning in both artists’ careers. In time, both would use their instruments less often, as matters turned toward other paths. Armstrong’s trumpet was still sparkling full and bright with his distinctive phrasing. Trummy Young and Barney Bigard made ideal sidekicks. Three of the 17 numbers ...
Continue ReadingLouis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit: The Complete Sessions
by C. Andrew Hovan
After already leading his illustrious band for many decades, Duke Ellington saw fit to engage in a number of extracurricular activities during the early part of the ‘60s. All of these endeavors proved to be quite successful, including Impulse dates with John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins and the celebrated Money Jungle with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. As distinguished a pianist as he was a composer, the windfall that came with these sidebars was a better chance to hear Duke ...
Continue ReadingLouis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit: Complete Sessions
by Mark Corroto
Jazz fans are a lot like sports fanatics. Just as we would turn out to see the now seventy year-old Arnold Palmer shoot over par or Willie Mays play in an old timers game, we cherish the recordings of elder jazzmen. In 1961, the sixty-somethings Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong got together for two days of recording. The great innovators wrote no new chapters in jazz history, created no controversy, and played nothing we hadn’t heard before (almost). It was ...
Continue ReadingLouis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Complete Sessions
by AAJ Staff
Could it be that two of the greatest geniuses contributing to the development of jazz music were born a mere year apart? Yes, it could be. No, it may not be. Well, it depends on the legitimacy of a birth and the authenticity of records. Louis Armstrong, not knowing his actual birth date and unabashedly proud of his native country, asserted that he was born on July 4, 1900. A baptismal certificate discovered years after that assertion shows ...
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