Tag: Duke Ellington
From the Record Shelves #333 – Azure – Bunny Berigan’s big band is not considered one of the best ones of that era, and I’ve always found their music a bit sad. Maybe it’s a reflection of the bandleader’s unhappy existence at the time. But they had their good moments, such as this one (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #308 – The Gal from Joe’s/Riding on a Blue Note – I had the chance to hear Cootie Williams in Copenhagen sometime at the end of the 70s. He and Russell Procope were playing with a Danish group, including the fine tenor sax man Jesper Thilo (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #289 – She’s Just My Size – I was lucky to be able to hear the two most famous big bands in the world when I was very young. Duke Ellington and Count Basie had in common total control over their orchestras (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #284 – The Terror – On the label, it reads “Marvin Smoley and his Syncopaters.” Many record collectors coming across this very hot record may have scratched their heads wondering who this obscure band leader was. In fact, he wasn’t one (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #247 – Troubled Waters – When this LP just came out in the middle of the 1960s, I borrowed it from a friend and recorded it on reel-to-reel tape. Now I have a well-kept copy that used to belong to the American Library at Stockholm University (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #225 – New Orleans Lowdown – Now I’m back with the early Ellington. The French release of all his recordings in chronological order reached twelve volumes, and I’m lucky to have them. Here you get all the versions of the masterpieces (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #223 – Easy to Love – Another thing that came with the CD was the possibility to present an original digitalized album and often, as in this case, there was space for two LPs. “Wilbur De Paris Plays Cole Porter” was the title of this Atlantic LP (…) read more and listenread more and listen
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