Duke Ellington Archives - Paul – and some of that Jazz

From the Record Shelves #172 – Parlor Social Stomp – Once, when I was in Paris, I heard that the attendants of the museums held a wild one-day strike, so you could enter without paying. I made a quick visit to the Louvre to have a new look at Mona Lisa (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #156 – A Lonely Co-Ed – The title number of the LP that starts and finishes the record in two different takes is of course impressive and tempting to chose, with its pyrotechnics with trumpets and trombones that make you think about (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #139 – Creole Rhapsody. This classic LP is from an Ellington period 1929-1931 when the trumpet player Bubber Miley, one of the most important members of the band during the Cotton Club era, had left. His replacement Cootie Williams (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #131 – Your Love Has Faded. To some extent Ivie Anderson could compete with Billie Holiday as a singer of sad songs. Especially around 1940. I love her warm voice and sensitive singing on tunes like this. (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #130 – Take Your Time. This trumpet player should not be forgotten. It was in the summer of 1968 that I bought the LP. The holidays from school had just started and when I got home and turned on the record I got a shock because (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #105 – Yellow Dog Blues. Number three in the Cotton Club series includes some oddities in the house bands book. W. C. Handy’s blues has been interpreted by many and here in 1928 it gets the early Duke Ellington treatment (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #91 – Move Over . When I saw this record in the shop, a department store, some day back in 1966 the price was over my budget. But I just had to have it, so I swapped etiquettes with a cheaper one. It was the only time, and I’m a bit shamed, but (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #82 – When the Jazz Band Starts to Play. When I heard about and found records by Portena Jazz Band in the 70s I understood that there was a “hot spot” for early jazz in Buenos Aires, Argentina (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #74 – Somebody’s Been Lovin’ My Baby. This is a good record with a compilation of some of the best female blues singers of the 1920s and with good sound. Most of the singers express anger, desperation and such but (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #47 – Savage Rhythm. The band worked in the shadow of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra under the same manager, Irving Mills who also gave them their name. It’s top class early 30s Harlem jazz that we hear (…) read more and listenread more and listen