Long out-of-Print Duke Ellington Recording to be Re-Issued

The long-out-of print album A Morning in Paris, by Sathima Bea Benjamin, featuring Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Abdullah Ibrahim as pianists, will finally be re-issued, first digitally on October 16, 2007; then in CD format in late January 2008.

Originally recorded in 1963 and produced by Duke Ellington for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label, A Morning in Paris was ultimately not released, and ultimately the tapes were believed to be lost. However, the session's engineer, Gerhard Lehner, had made his own copies of the tapes, which were then discovered by noted jazz author David Hajdu, and the album was finally released in 1997.

For the sessions, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Abdullah Ibrahim took turns on the piano bench for the tracks, and were in turn joined by Svend Asmussen on pizzicato violin, and South Africans Johnny Gertze on bass and Makaya Ntshoko on drums.

Featuring new liner notes and new artwork, A Morning in Paris will finally be made available again, and will also be available in digital format for the first time ever. Audiences will again have a chance to hear Ellington with Sathima Bea Benjamin, described by Robin D.G. Kelley in Jazztimes as “South Africa's greatest jazz singer and one of the best the world has ever known."