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The Complete Sessions |
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| Styles: |
Jazz - Labels - EMI |
| Media: |
Audio CD |
| Release Date: |
17 July 2000 |
| Label: |
Emi |
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| UPC Catalogue No: |
724352454624 |
| Amazon Sales Ranking: |
10417 |
| Number of Discs: |
2 |
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Description |
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The Great Summit between Armstrong and Ellington produced a long-valued one-CD set and now this 2-CD Complete Sessions. It also instigated a later summit, Count Basie and Duke Ellington's tandem showdown, First Time. On its own, though, The Great Summit needs no later chapters to justify its celebrated standing in jazz annals. This was and is terrifically important music, Ellington in grand form between recording the Paris Blues soundtrack and cutting ace sessions like Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington & John Coltrane in late 1962. For his part, Armstrong was on leave, as well, resting up between ceaseless tours as a bona fide jazz superstar and veteran. So Ellington and Armstrong join hands, backed by the latter's band (Trummy Young on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Mort Herbert on bass, and Danny Barcelona on drums), tackling 17 of Duke's tunes. Armstrong's sweet, rolling vocal growl gives the tunes endless hugs, just as his band both cuts plump solos and then backs way off so Ellington can throw down alternately swinging and unapologetically modernist solos himself. What distinguishes this two-CD set from the originally issued, one-CD Complete Session is the second disc, "The Making of the Great Summit". What's that worth? Well, it's a fan's dream, with studio chatter, with myriad false starts and several alternate complete takes ("In a Mellow Tone," "Duke's Place," and "Drop Me Off in Harlem"). Pure gold if you love Duke and Louis separately--unalloyed platinum if you love them (or just the thought of them) together. --Andrew Bartlett |
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Tracks |
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| 1 |
Duke's Place |
| 2 |
I'm Just a Lucky So and So |
| 3 |
Cotton Tail |
| 4 |
Mood Indigo |
| 5 |
Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me |
| 6 |
Beautiful American |
| 7 |
Black and Tan Fantasy |
| 8 |
Drop Me off in Harlem |
| 9 |
Mooche |
| 10 |
In a Mellow Tone |
| 11 |
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) |
| 12 |
Solitude |
| 13 |
Don't Get Around Much Anymore |
| 14 |
I'm Beginning to See the Light |
| 15 |
Just Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me) |
| 16 |
I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) |
| 17 |
Azalea |
| 1 |
In a Mellow Tone |
| 2 |
I'm Beginning to See the Light |
| 3 |
Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me |
| 4 |
Drop Me off in Harlem |
| 5 |
I'm Just a Lucky So and So |
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