Historically Speaking - The Duke (Remastered 2014) Duke Ellington

• 1East St. Louis Toodle-O (2014 Remastered Version)03:29
• 2Creole Love Call (2014 Remastered Version)03:46
• 3Stompy Jones (2014 Remastered Version)03:52
• 4The Jeep Is Jumpin' (2014 Remastered Version)02:25
• 5Jack the Bear (2014 Remastered Version)03:19
• 6In a Mellow Tone (2014 Remastered Version)02:53
• 7Ko-Ko (2014 Remastered Version)02:17
• 8Midriff (2014 Remastered Version)03:51
• 9Stomp Look and Listen (2014 Remastered Version)02:40
• 10Unbooted Character (2014 Remastered Version)04:16
• 11Lonesome Lullaby (2014 Remastered Version)03:16
• 12Upper Manhattan Medical Group (2014 Remastered Version)03:06
• Total Runtime39:10

Info for Historically Speaking - The Duke (Remastered 2014)

1956’s ‘Historically Speaking’ was released on the jazz independent Bethlehem, and saw the great Duke Ellington revisiting some of his earliest compositions. Recorded in February 1956 with a crack backing band, it contains some of his loveliest arrangements and melodies, including the beautiful ‘Lonesome Lullaby’.

"Historically Speaking" features Duke with 14 sidemen playing tunes associated with him from 1926 to 1956. Duke Ellington Presents features the Duke spotlighting some of his many soloists such as the legendary Paul Gonsalves, Ben Webster and of course Johnny Hodges among many others. Ellington 55 features old and new tunes given a modern treatment and including a battery of new soloists.

"The mid-50s is generally considered a low point in the career of Duke Ellington and his band. Critics were critical of the fact that Duke was not creating much new material, but instead was re-recording many of his hits from the past. This probably wasn’t all Duke’s fault as record companies at this time were big on re-recording older popular music with the new high fidelity sound in hopes getting a few more consumer dollars out of some old favorites. In February 1956 Duke entered the Bethlehem label studios and cut enough material to make two records; “Duke Ellington Presents” and “Historically Speaking, the Duke”. Although these records may not have been the most forward thinking project Ellington could have come up with at the time, removed from that time period and taken on their own merit, these records hold up well as excellent recordings of Duke’s band in full swing.

The supposed gimmick behind “Historically Speaking” was that Duke was going to re-record these numbers in modern high fidelity sound, but with the original arrangements intact. As the record unfolds though, there are definitely some changes and modernizations here and there and not all of the arrangements are faithful to the originals, which is probably no big deal either way. One of the most interesting aspects of this record is that the tunes are presented in chronological order which allows you to follow Duke’s musical development from sophisticated blues in the late 20s to increasingly abstract melodies and arrangements in the mid 50s.

All of the tunes on here are excellent with “The Jeep is Jumpin” getting top honors for pure groove and a great funky melody. For uptempo numbers, the band rocks out on “Ko-Ko“ and “Stomp Look and Listen“. “Jack the Bear” has a clever arrangement that has the band hitting gradually building crescendos on the down beat. This effect will definitely grab your attention the first time you hear it. Closing numbers “Lonesome Lullaby” and “Upper Manhattan Medical Group” show Duke’s band at their most sophisticated with abstract scores that rival a concert-hall orchestra. To hear the band’s ensemble work at its best, listen to the rapid fire syncopated horn riffs that back the soloists on “Stomp Look and Listen”. All of the band is excellent on here, but possible top honors go to Johnny Hodges virtuoso alto sax and Jimmy Hamilton’s snake-charmer clarinet, which at times floats on top of the bands muscular punch.

To recapitulate, this record may have seemed like a step backwards in the mid 50s when everyone was leaning towards the big changes right around the corner in the 60s, but removed from those times and taken on its own merits today, this is simply an excellent recording of one of jazz’s finest ensembles ever, maybe not at their peak, but still better than most.” Jazz Music Archives

Duke Ellington, piano
Cat Anderson, trumpet
Willie Cook, trumpet
Ray Nance, trumpet
Clark Terry, trumpet
Quentin Jackson, trombone
Britt Woodman, trombone
John Sanders, valve trombone
Jimmy Hamilton, clarinet, tenor saxophone
Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone
Russell Procope, alto saxophone, clarinet
Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone
Harry Carney, baritone saxophone
Jimmy Woode, bass
Sam Woodyard, drums

Digitally remastered

Duke Ellington
called his music 'American Music' rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as 'beyond category. He remains one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music and is widely considered as one of the twentieth century's best known African American personalities. As both a composer and a band leader, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackaging of his signature music often becoming best-sellers. Posthumous recognition of his work include a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia.

Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said 'His music sounds like America.' Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was most certainly one of a kind that maintained a lifestyle with universal appeal which transcended countless boundaries.

Duke Ellington is best remembered for the over 3000 songs that he composed during his lifetime. His best known titles include; 'It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing', 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Mood Indigo', “Solitude', 'In a Mellotone', and 'Satin Doll'. The most amazing part about Ellington was the most creative while he was on the road. It was during this time when he wrote his most famous piece, 'Mood Indigo'which brought him world wide fame.

Duke Ellington's popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theatre and soundtrack composers to come. While these compositions guarantee his greatness, what makes Duke an iconoclastic genius, and an unparalleled visionary, what has granted him immortality are his extended suites. From 1943's Black, Brown and Beige to 1972's The Uwis Suite, Duke used the suite format to give his jazz songs a far more empowering meaning, resonance and purpose: to exalt, mythologize and re-contextualize the African-American experience on a grand scale.

Duke Ellington was partial to giving brief verbal accounts of the moods his songs captured. Reading those accounts is like looking deep into the background of an old photo of New York and noticing the lost and almost unaccountable details that gave the city its character during Ellington's heyday, which began in 1927 when his band made the Cotton Club its home. ''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone. But what is gone returns, its pulse kicking, when Ellington's music plays, and never mind what past it is, for the music itself still carries us forward today.

Duke Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and is buried in the Bronx, in New York City. At his funeral attended by over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, 'It's a very sad day...A genius has passed.'

" class="ng-binding ng-scope">Duke Ellington And His Orchestra

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