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

1] HAWK TALKS

(Louie Bellson) M.U.S.I.C., ASCAP

(Mass Unity Sounding in Concert)

 

[2] SKIN DEEP

(Louie Belson) M.U.S.I.C., ASCAP

 

BLACK, BROWN & BEIGE

(Edward K. Ellington) G. Schirmer, Inc.

BLACK

[3] Work Song

[4] Come Sunday

[5] Light

BROWN

[6] West Indian Dance

[7] Emancipation Proclamation

[8] The Blues

[9] BEIGE

 

ELLINGTON-STRAYHORN SUITE*

(Louie Bellson) M.U.S.I.C., ASCAP

[10] European Skallyhoppin'

[11] Portrait of Billy Strayhorn

(Harold Danko, Piano solo)

[12] Sketches

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