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His arrangements of Tchaikovsky and Grieg (from Three Suites) is very amusing, and actually shows off Ellington's mad skillz very well: because you're already familiar with the tunes, you as listener can pay attention to what Ellington does with them.
That said, Black, Brown and Beige (1958) is probably the most fully-realized on Ellington's longer, later works. Worth a listen if only for Ray Nance's violin on "Come Sunday," which is just heart-stopping.
And don't knock greatest-hits comps: for an artist with Ellington's enormous catalog, sometimes they're the only manageable point of approach. The trick is to use the compilation not as an end in itself, but as an overview, a pointer towards the individual works. There's a single-disc overview that came out as a tie-in to Ken Burns's Jazz documentary that's pretty ace, and a more substantial three-disc set from Columbia, entitled simply Duke (which came out in 1999 and appears, sadly, to be out of print) is excellent as well. The thing is to find a set or a comp with good liner notes, and use those as the basis for research (it helps to have a public library with a good recordings collection, too).
Two more things to remember: Ellington's essential sound, his elegance and puckish humor, were the mainstays of his sound--but he was inspired mainly by the players in his orchestra, and wrote specifically for their strengths. The sound and scope of the band changed hugely as players passed in and out--Bubber Miley and later Cootie Williams on trumpet, Juan Tizol on valve trombone, the distinctive saxes of Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, and the aforementioned Ray Nance.
Secondly, when talking about Ellington you can't underestimate the contribution of arranger and composer Billy Strayhorn. Ellington's greatest genius didn't flower until after 1940, when Strayhorn joined the organization. |
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