Duke Ellington

STN

sou'wester
I have: Black, Brown and Beige, which is incredible, Far East Suite, which is incredible, and Anatomy of a Murder, which is a great soundtrack but not really a great album. Other than this I am completely in the dark about the man...

On a side note, my dad met him once and said he was a lovely chap.
 

Amplesamples

Well-known member
Caravan is my favourite choon, along with Satin Doll.

I used to play a lot of his stuff in jazz bands at school. Take The A Train is another good one too.

In A Sentimental Mood is good too
 

bnek

Well-known member
i dont have much ellington but:

'afro bossa' is some of my favorite music - i think you would enjoy this if you like the far east suite. the queen suite & the complete elllington indigos i like also.
'piano in the foreground' & 'money jungle' (both trio albums) are really nice too - he was a great pianist w/ a completely unique style.
 

jonny mugwump

exotic pylon
there's a later album with a spoken intro about marshall mcluhan- the Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, i think it's his last- thats's awesome as well...
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
The typical position on Ellington I guess, but personally love all the tracks he put out with the orchestra on RCA around the turn of the 1940s, when he had Jimmy Blanton and Ben Webster in the band. There's countless compilations of it out there, not certain which is the best - my tracks are all on old cassetes I made now.
I admit though, I've not investigated his later, album-orientated stuff as much as I should. I've been hearing that the New Orleans Suite is well worth hearing- anyone here have it and have any opinions?
 

robin

Well-known member
live at newport is incredible,really some of the most raucous jazz i've ever heard,and it was recorded 20 years after his "prime"

also the carnegie hall concerts i've heard are amazing,i bought the three that whatever jazz guide they had in the record shop i was in said were best and they all turned out to be amazing, i think it was 1939,1941 and 1942.

i really like the album with coltrane too
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Ahh yes, Live at Newport, should really pick that up some time. I remember all the talking heads in the Ken Burns Jazz documentary raving about it.
 
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