RECORD REVIEWS by Eric Myers ______THE POPULAR DUKE ELLINGTON, Duke Ellington & His Orchestra (RCA VPL17329) Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 1980 ______THE POPULAR DUKE ELLINGTON, Duke Ellington & His Orchestra (RCA VPL17329)
his album consists of re-arrangements or re-settings of some of the most popular and well-known Ellington standards. Although there is no T recording date specified, the cover notes were written by Leonard Feather in 1966, so we can assume that this disc was recorded in the same year. Take The A Train, I Got It Bad, Perdido, Mood Indigo, Black and Tan Fantasy, Solitude, Sophisticated Lady, Creole Love Call and other compositions on the disc are well-known in their original form to Ellington aficionados. But Ellington continually rewrote his scores throughout the band's long career, so
1 that the music was always growing, rather than standardised. Therefore, the music on this disc cannot be considered an aberration. Take The A Train, for example, begins as a swinging piano chorus in waltz time, before the Duke takes the traditional first chorus himself in four/four. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) was originally an Ivie Anderson vocal; here, it is a lovely vehicle for the vintage alto saxophone of Johnny Hodges.
I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) is a lovely vehicle for the vintage alto saxophone of Johnny Hodges (above)...PHOTO CREDIT LEE TANNER
Anyone who was non-plussed by the style of Cootie Williams when that aging trumpeter played in Sydney earlier this year, would find his solos on this disc revealing. He has a beautiful, fat tone on the instrument, but does not exhibit the easy, improvisatory style one might expect. Rather, he has a sparing, primitive style, employing simple blues phrases, painting tentative colours against the orchestral background, instead of articulating lines which flow evenly. Still, his playing here is a good representation of the style which he could only hint at during his recent Sydney performances, particularly in Take The A Train, Black and Tan Fantasy, and in the one original written for this session called The Twitch. This disc also captures Duke Ellington himself in a mood which, I think, is uncharacteristically extroverted, playing rich, florid and sometimes quite aggressive piano.
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