When Ellington went into the studio in 1950 to record the longer tracks on this LP, his orchestra was a bridge between its late-1940s configuration (the 5-man trumpet section) and its mid-1950s personnel. The sax section had settled into the form it would have for most of the ensuing two decades (old-timers Hodges and Carney and newcomers Procope, Hamilton and Gonsalves); the trombone section had long-timer Lawrence Brown as well as Tyree Glenn and newcomer Quentin Jackson; and the drummer was still Sonny Greer, who had anchored the rhythm section since the beginning. Greer would retire at the end of the year, Hodges would defect for two years, Brown and Glenn would leave; Louis Bellson and Cat Anderson would join up and Ellington would begin to re-form. Ellingtons orchestra from 1953 on would be a great, swinging and sensitive one, but it would not make the same lush sound that this one did.

The arrangements and orchestrations all bear the hallmarks of Ellingtons collaboration with Billy Strayhorn in the late 1940s: they are lush, symphonic, impressionistic, and densely (and adventurously) harmonic. Mood Indigo, in particular, is a 15-minute tone-poem with shifting colors and key relationships as Ellington and Strayhorn bring the melody through a wide variety of guises, from Glenns wah-wah trombone solo to Shorty Bakers lyrical waltz to orchestral and piano passages which do homage to the influence which Ravel and Stravinsky had on both of them. Great solos abound here and on the other tracks, most notably from Hodges, Brown, Hamilton, Gonsalves, Carney, trumpeters Baker and Ray Nance, and (most probably) Billy Strayhorn on piano, especially in Mood Indigo

The Tattooed Bride is the only new piece from the original Masterpieces by Ellington LP, and it is a beauty. The others of the original tracks Sophistocated Lady and Solitude are not laid out as inventively in their harmonics or structure. Of the group, Solitude is perhaps the weakest, but this is a relative term. Ellington would go on to pen many more extended, symphonic works, but none would have quite the multicolored, impressionistic tone-pallate that these do. And Strayhorns presence would not be as pronounced in those future works as it is here: the orchestration and harmonies in particular bear his mark. These are masterpieces indeed: great works of art by two of our greatest composers/orchestrators, and played by one of the greatest orchestras in Afro-American music. Andrew R. Weiss

• Mono recording
• 180 gram LPx1 gatefold sleeve
• Recorded December 19th 1950

PPAN ML4418 -Artist-Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

• Internal ID: JIT
• Format: Vinyl
• Format Detail: LP Black
• Handling Note: **Please allow an additional 5 business days for this item’s shipment.**
• Genre: Jazz