The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen
| The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen | ||||
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| Studio album by Duke Ellington | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Columbia , Mosaic | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
10 (LP) / 12 (CD) |
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running time |
44:08 (CD) |
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Studio (s) |
Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York City |
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The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen is a jazz album by Duke Ellington , recorded on April 2nd and 3rd in New York and released by Columbia . In the 1990s, the album was first released on CD, expanded to include two alternate takes . In 2006 a remastered stereo version of the album was released on Mosaic Records .
Music of the album
Although Duke Ellington was still riding the wave of the triumphant success of his Newport appearance in 1956 , he decided in 1958 to reduce his orchestra to the size of a nonet for the current tours , which he - influenced by the enthusiasm for satellites at the time - The Spacemen called. With this formation there was only one recording session in New York in early February 1958. Ellington's ensemble played mostly jazz standards here ; the arrangements saw the trombonists Quentin Jackson , John Sanders and Britt Woodman playing a prominent role as supporters of the soloists.
The material for the Spacemen session included the standard Lied and Early Autumn , both features for clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton (who also arranged the two numbers) and a blues version of the St. Louis Blues with Ellington as the soloist, as well as two versions of the classic Body and Soul with tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves as the soloist, who completely reverses the polarity of the piece and places it on a new harmonic basis, while returning to the original melody in the alternate take .
The band played next to the Strayhorn -Klassiker Take the "A" Train a modified version of Juan Tizols Perdido , the default Midnight Sun , and two versions of Clark Terry's swinging composition Jones , at its second Take drummer Sam Woodyard on New Orleans jazz ajar Shuffle slip shoulder pad sets. Ellington wrote two original compositions for the session, as a feature for bassist Jimmy Woode Bass-Ment and - with Terry as soloist on the flugelhorn - the fast track Spacemen , which borrows most from bebop . The critic Michael G. Nastos described it as Ellington's most peculiar number of this period.
reception
Michael G. Nastos regretted in Allmusic that the Spacemen album was “in many ways the least valued recording in the immense annals of Ellingtonia”; nevertheless it is "highly recommended".
Hans Ruland called the album in his Ellington biography “Duke's first confrontation with bebop recorded on record [...] with a delay of around 15 years. Jimmy Hamilton, Paul Gonsalves and, above all, Clark Terry shone with their solos for these recordings [...] of the shrunken Ellington Band. "The spirit rector of this session was undoubtedly Clark Terry," of his outstanding technique and his wonderful tone - especially on Flugelhorn - here completely at the service of the new message. Unfortunately, Ellington fans didn't want to know about it [...]. "
Ruland particularly emphasized the adaptation of the Al-Jolson swing standard Avalon , on whose " harmonic framework solos far from the melody were blown, to which Sam Woodyard provided a rhythm that pulsed in double time ."
List of pieces
- The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen (Columbia 84407)
- Avalon ( Buddy DeSylva , Al Jolson , Vincent Rose ) - 3:22
- Body and Soul ( Edward Heyman , Robert Sour , Frank Eyton , Johnny Green ) - 4:57
- Bass Ment (Ellington) - 3:03
- Early Autumn ( Ralph Burns , Woody Herman ) - 3:10
- Jones (Ellington, Terry) - 2:55
- Perdido (Drake, Lengsfelder, Tizol) - 2:49
- St. Louis Blues ( WC Handy ) - 5:06
- Spacemen (Ellington) - 2:32
- Midnight Sun ( Sonny Burke , Lionel Hampton , Johnny Mercer ) - 3:38
- Take the 'A' Train (Strayhorn) - 4:59
- Body and Soul (Green, Heyman, Eyton, Sour) - 4:46 (alternate take)
- Jones (Ellington, Terry) - 2:35
- Tracks 1, 2 & 9-11 were recorded on April 2nd, tracks 3-8 & 12 on April 3rd, 1958.
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Hans Ruland: Duke Ellington . Gauting, Oreos
Web links
- Review of the album The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen by Michael G. Nastos on Allmusic (English). Retrieved January 23, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the Mosaic Records edition at All About Jazz ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Review of the album The Cosmic Scene: Duke Ellington's Spacemen by Michael G. Nastos on Allmusic (English). Retrieved January 23, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Hans Ruland, p. 128 f.
