Ellingtonia 2000

The Ellington-associated melodies included on Thank You, Duke! were composed over a 40-year period (from the late 1920’s “Mood Indigo” to Billy Strayhorn’s mid-60’s “Isfahan”) but there is no sign of age in any of the timeless themes, certainly not in this interpretation. Benny Golson performs warm versions of “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and ” Mood Indigo” with an all-star trio (pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Carl Allen), bringing an arranger’s sensibility to his well planned renditions. Billy Taylor (a close friend of Ellington’s for 30 years) interprets a sensitive “In A Sentimental Mood.” The innovative pianist Joanne Brackeen plays “Sophisticated Lady” solo and “Come Sunday” with a trio, extending Duke’s ideas and creating fresh new music. One of Arkadia’s most significant new discoveries, T .K. Blue (Talib Kibwe), performs the beautiful “Day Dream” on alto with a quartet and takes “Chromatic Love Affair” as a soprano-piano duet with veteran Randy Weston. The Joe Henderson Project, an impressive unit with pianist Eric Reed, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, trumpeter Terell Stafford and drummer Carl Allen, pays tribute to the great tenor by playing “Isfahan,” a song that Henderson usually uses to begin each of his performances. Tenor-saxophonist Harold Land’s project with a string section arranged by Ray Ellis yielded his lyrical version of “In A Sentimental Mood.”

Don Sebesky
A Joyful Noise/A Tribute To Duke Ellington
(BMG)
by Ricky E. Miller

This album, a follow up to Sebesky’s previous Grammy award-winning tribute “Remember Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans”, is a recasting of Ellington’s music with Sebesky’s own orchestral palette. Joyful Noise features new Sebesky arrangements of seven Ellington favorites: “Mood Indigo,” “Creole Love Call,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Caravan,” “Warm Valley,” “Take the Coltrane” and “Satin Doll,” as well as a new transcription of “Ko-Ko.” Completing the album is an original triptych dedicated to Duke, the “Joyful Noise Suite.”

Joining Sebesky on Joyful Noise is a band that features the cream of New York’s jazz scene, including trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, alto saxophonist/clarinetist Phil Woods, bassist Ron Carter, trumpeter Tom Harrell and guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli. The rhythm section is comprised of pianist Jim McNeely and bassist Dennis Irwin of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and drummer Dennis Mackrel of the Manhattan Symphony Jazz Orchestra.

C-Jam All Stars
diminuendo, crescendo and blues
RCA Victor

Recorded for the Bertelsmann Book and Record Club in Munich during a sell-out European tour in 1958, this extremely rare album captures two of Ellington’s most important soloists, trumpeter Clark Terry and tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, in a relaxed jam session of standards, originals and Ellington staples. Never before available in any format outside the original Club LP pressing, the album features the two leaders at their ebullient best, supported by the ace Ellington rhythm section of Jimmy Woode and Sam Woodyard, as well as Munich-based pianist Carlos Diernhammer. The album includes “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” “I Cover the Waterfront,” “C-Jam Blues,” “Evad,” “it Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Autobahn,” “Willow Weep for Me,” “Hildegard,” “Ocean Motion” and “Jivin’ with Fritz.”