Duke Ellington: Black, Brown & Beige - Louie Bellson & His All-Star Orchestra with Clark Terry, conducted by Maurice Peress

Duke Ellington Black. Brown & Beige liner notes

Having been present at the Carnegie Hall premiere of Black, Brown and Beige (I was hired by Duke to do promotional work for him), I can relate very closely to this brilliant reincarnation for which Louie Bellson and Maurice Peress deserve much credit. A slight correction: the work was not performed only once in its entirety. Actually, it was previewed the night before Carnegie Hall, when we heard it at a high school in Rye, New York. At that time Duke acceded to a suggestion that the heart-on-sleeve patriotism of "Black, Brown and Beige fighting for the red, white and blue" be eliminated. The entire work, but for that deletion, was performed at Carnegie Hall, then a week later in Boston, and I believe once more about a month after that. Subsequently, as Mr. Peress states, he only used excerpts. I always regretted that he was unnecessarily discouraged by the reviews of music reporters, who in those days knew absolutely nothing about jazz and were not qualified to criticize him. I am delighted that a half century later, with this splendid recording, a masterpiece will take on an entire new lease on life. - Leonard Feather