Duke Ellington - Blues In Orbit

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I'm not an expert on his albums from this period, and I understand this is considered a lesser one in some ways, but I think it's great, with really concise, tight, and emotional performances of great tunes, and the sound is excellent for something from the 50s. Violin on "C Jam Blues" is nice.

― Sundar, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 03:48 (eighteen years ago)

I know someone who loves this. I own a Columbia LP from around the same time by "Duke Ellington's Spacemen" called The Cosmic Scene.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 04:17 (eighteen years ago)

Though lately what I've been playing is the 1963 studio sessions on Volume Four of The Private Collection.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 06:42 (eighteen years ago)

I've never understood why 40's Ellington is considered the apogee. He did great albums all the way through to the end. Ellington Uptown in Hi Fi is another great one from this period, extended rethinkings of some of his standards.

― bendy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 11:17 (eighteen years ago)

I agree with Bendy - Ellington records are reliably mind-blowing no matter when they're from. But there is that "everybody's ON, and everybody's excited about it" feeling in the 40s stuff that gives way to seasoned expertise, and it's always the former quality that generates more excitement I think

― J0hn D., Tuesday, 8 May 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago)

ah I love Blues in Orbit, bought it on vinyl when I was just a lad.

also dig Ellington Uptown from this period and my fave Jazz Party.

I think Duke's early 40s band is esteemed at least in part because of the players inc Jimmy Blanton bass and Ben Webster on tenor.

from the 60s ....And His Mother Called Him Bill, a Strayhorn tribute, is well worth investigating.

― m coleman, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago)

oh and ELLINGTON INDIGOS when you're feeling blue...just put it on.

― m coleman, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

I picked up a bunch of the Private Collection years ago, and there's lots of amazing stuff on there. "Ad Lib on Nippon", on volume 8 is great. Volume 10 has a good C Jam Blues, but the huge, crawling live take of "Such Sweet Thunder" is one of my all time favorites. Also, there's budget live album I found at Costco (Things Aint' What they Used to Be) that has an amazing "La Plus Belle Africane". His longer suites in the LP era really fascinate me. I've read plenty about how he was one of the first artists to compose for directly for 78s, but he really understood the advantages of new mediums and technologies all through his career. Like faking the Newport Concert!

― bendy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

Isn't Ellington in Space really just Sun Ra?

joek, this sounds great.

― Oilyrags, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

I haven't heard this one, but I agree that later period Ellington is for the most part really fantastic. One that I've really been digging lately is "...and His Mother Called Him Bill," the tribute to Strayhorn from 67 or 68. Beautiful recording, ridiculously heartfelt playing and amazing songs -- some more obscure numbers included here.

I dunno, everytime I get on an Ellington kick, I start to think that I should just devote my life to listening to him.

Haven't heard any of those Private Collection things -- what's the deal there? Where can you get them? They sound cool.

― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

Private Collection was a 10 disk series assembled out of sessions that Ellington kept around for his own reference. He recorded constantly, often without the intent of releasing it. They're about half live recordings and half studio recordings. There's a box set, but the discs I've got where late-80s single disc releases. They aren't rough drafts at all, more like withheld Prince albums.

― bendy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, it's not good to disregard any periods of Ellington. Afro-Eurasian Eclipse must be one of his very last, and it'll do your head in. And "The Queen's Suite" too--!

I keep wanting to get Ellington Uptown. I really like the other one from the same time, Masterpieces By Ellington I think it's called.

― Jon Lewis, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

I love later period ellington but you have to realize what was great about the '30s/'40s stuff was that it was really his stride, and the moment where the band was at the height of both commercial and critical popularity ... sort of like saying "i love 'what a wonderful world', whats wrong with later-period louis armstrong??" when his reputation was built on the hot 5's and 7s (except i think louis' fall off was way more pronounced, Ellington never really 'fell off' per se - just stopped being the leading edge).

anyway latter-day ellington i really like his 70th birthday party album and far east suite is untouchable

― deej, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:46 (eighteen years ago)

But at least some of that late stuff is very much new directions for him, right? Afro-Eurasian is pretty much a funk record and not a particularly light one at that...

― Jon Lewis, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:57 (eighteen years ago)

Masterpieces is great -- a bunch of extended versions of the classics. Though I'm not nuts about the vocalist he has during that time...

Thx for the info on the Private Collection. Seems like fun stuff, and not too pricey on Amazon either. Anybody listened to the Sacred Concert stuff from the 70s? That's another thing I've never heard. There's so much!

― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

far east suite is untouchable

otm. it's an absolutely fearsome record, probably my favorite music of his.

on the whole "the 40s were his apogee" thing...if ellington thought that, he would have stopped. every time he was asked what his favorite piece of his was he said, "the one coming up tomorrow."

― Lawrence the Looter, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

i just mean in the sense that his significance to the wider world of jazz was more central at that point ... not that he didn't have arguably greater albums later

― deej, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:48 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, no one's going to deny that it's the 30s-40s material that Ellington will be remembered for primarily -- that's him creating a whole musical vocabulary ... but the work that came in the wake of it is sometimes more interesting -- in his later period he really had nothing to prove to anyone, so he could've just coasted. But up until the end he really seemed to be as in love with making music as ever. Anyway, it's great great great to be able to have recordings from every phase of his career. Makes me pretty glad to be alive.

― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 18:54 (eighteen years ago)

I dunno, everytime I get on an Ellington kick, I start to think that I should just devote my life to listening to him.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. I've got that Centennial box and I just know I haven't spent nearly enough time with it. You could really spend a very joyous lifetime teasing out the variations among all the different arrangements and recordings of his key pieces.

Anybody else collect those Carnegie Hall discs? I have three of them so far. The one "extended suite" I've become obsessed with over the last year-plus or so is Black, Brown, and Beige. I have two versions on Carnegie discs plus the two versions on the expanded Columbia reissue of the original lp, and it's just fascinating the way the piece differed every time.

and yeah Ellington Uptown -- love that totally heavy fanfare opening to "Skin Deep". known to Chicago radio listeners for years as the intro to Dick Buckley's sadly defunct three-hour radio show.

― Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

deej I think "signifigance" is more of a commerical/cultural construct than an artistic one

― J0hn D., Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:54 (eighteen years ago)

In some sense yeah but i think you can see his centrality to jazz of the 30s/40s as being an artistic centrality - jazz went in a lot off different directions after and he no longer held the same position

― deej, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:18 (eighteen years ago)

Anybody else collect those Carnegie Hall discs? I have three of them so far. The one "extended suite" I've become obsessed with over the last year-plus or so is Black, Brown, and Beige. I have two versions on Carnegie discs plus the two versions on the expanded Columbia reissue of the original lp, and it's just fascinating the way the piece differed every time.

isn't there one of those with parts of the far east suite? can you direct me to which one?

bb&b is tremendous. duke was constantly working through various aspects of it.

― Lawrence the Looter, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 02:39 (eighteen years ago)

blues in orbit is awesome

suite for new orleans is probably my favorite of his though

― Dr J Bowman, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 07:51 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, the New Orleans record is another prime (very) late one.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 22:16 (eighteen years ago)

I'm about to go to bed, playing New Orleans Suite loud. Wild Bill Davis' organ is the, er, wild card here. Awesome record.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Saturday, 12 May 2007 08:55 (eighteen years ago)

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