Duke Ellington and His Orchestra & Mahalia Jackson
Release Date: 01 October 2016
Label: Pure Pleasure Records
Packaging Type: Gate Fold Vinyl
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 5060149622414
Description
180g audiophile vinyl reissue, double LP, mono recording, remastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London.
"Black, Brown, & Beige is Duke Ellington's musical representation of the African American experience in the United States. It is arguably The Maestro's greatest work. The triumph of telling so important a story so well through music alone makes Duke Ellington's Black, Brown, & Beige a masterpiece...and Jazz's, highest achievement in long form. Whether you perceive it as a three movement symphony or accept Ellington's own personalized terminology "Tone Parallel," Black, Brown, & Beige matches conceptually and in artistic content the musical continuity of Western Classical's greatest names in their lengthiest works. Ellington premiered the work at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, at Duke's first performance on that illustrious stage...The piece de resistance: a sacred text, by Duke himself, a text sung by the best known African-American religious singer in history, Mahalia Jackson. There is no doubt that it is the presence and performance of Mahalia Jackson which secures a home in the pantheon for this recasting of Black, Brown, & Beige, a work that already resided there.
And Duke Ellington pulled off this coup with one hand tied behind his back, or without the services of his right hand man. Overlooked over the years since the album Black, Brown, & Beige was recorded in February 1958 is the absence of Johnny Hodges (Hodges did a gig with Strayhorn in Florida during this period), the Ellington band's premier soloist." - Phil Schaap
Tracklisting
Nina Simone
Archie Shepp & Mal Waldron
The Descendants Of Mike & Phoebe
Lyman Woodard Organization
Lonnie Liston Smith
Nat King Cole
David Murray
John Stubblefield
Tom Smith
Klaus Gesing, Ana Pilat, Latvian Radio Big Band
Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider
Danish Radio Big Band
Hackney Colliery Band
Etienne Charles & Creole Orchestra
Peter Vuust & Aarhus Jazz Orchestra
