Symphonic Orchestra & Concert Jazz Band - Symphonic Duke - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Aera - Craving Within [COMPACT DISCS] UK - Import date 03/08/2019

This is a re- of the Jazzhaus/SWR music bestseller 101703. Upon nearing the age of seventy, Duke Ellington was looked upon as the great historical figure of African American music, honored with academic degrees and appearing on the front pages of renowned magazines. Still, he had to and wanted to perform as much as he could and therefore toured the world with his orchestra, from Japan to North Africa to South America and Eastern Europe. During his travels, he was able to stop off in Stuttgart in March 1967 to present a colorful mixed programme made up of a few tried-and-true pieces and many lesser-known compositions. By Ellington's standards, it was a modern concert, exuberant in mood and at times mischievous in arrangements, which allowed some shrill coloring. And it also showed that even an ultimately traditional jazz orchestra in the rocky sixties could develop enough charisma to enthrall an audience like that in the Liederhalle. The revolutions were now being made by others, but Duke Ellington remained the brilliant master of the grand musical gesture.

Duke Ellington's musical works are seemingly well documented; the likelihood of finding a good, unreleased Duke Ellington recording is slight at best. When Grönland Records called and told me they had found exactly that in Conny Plank's estate and asked me if I wanted to give it a listen, I felt pretty honored, and excited. The music of Duke Ellington is - in my worldview - to Jazz what Bach's oeuvre is to classical music THE great benchmark, or - to raise it up onto an even higher pedestal - the Old Testament, the alpha and omega. With both Bach and Ellington, you can sit down at a piano simply to go through it building chords and something great always happens. This music is so rich, and it is virtually indestructible.