DUKE ELLINGTON (1899 – 1974)
DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA: Music Is My Mistress - conducted by Mercer Ellington
DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA: Music Is My Mistress - conducted by Mercer Ellington
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As these words were written, Mercer Ellington and his orchestra were riding the crest of a success wave, the like of which he had not celebrated since he inherited the band from Duke 14 years before. The album Digital Duke had won Mercer his first Grammy Award; the orchestra had enjoyed a rare opportunity to sit down, playing for more than four months with the Duke Ellington musical show Sophisticated Ladies in Atlantic City; the band was preparing to go on an extended tour of Japan. The only problem was: after the Grammy victory, what to do for an encore-? Aided by Musical Heritage Society's Jeffrey Nissim and producer Teo Macero, Mercer found the answer in this unique collection. Unlike its predecessor, which consisted entirely of rearranged works out of Duke's old library, here we have a perfectly balanced set comprising more of these earlier pieces (some in their pristine form, others brilliantly updated), along with the first examples in many years of Mercer's own too-often-neglected talent as composer and arranger.
By the late '80s, Mercer Ellington was leading a part-time Duke Ellington Orchestra (he should have used his own name to avoid confusion with the classic band) and doing his best to preserve Duke's legacy. In addition to fresh versions of some vintage tunes (including "C Jam Blues," "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Jack the Bear," and Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing"), this CD contains Duke's obscure "Queenie Pie Reggae" (which features a steel drummer) and a couple of Mercer's originals, including the five-movement (but generally uneventful) "Music Is My Mistress." Among the better-known soloists are trumpeter Barrie Lee Hall (the last significant player to emerge from Duke Ellington's Orchestra), guest pianist Roland Hanna (Mulgrew Miller was the regular pianist at the time), clarinetist Bill Easley, and (on "The Duke's Suite") altoist Kenny Garrett.
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