Track Listing

1. Boo-Dah
2. U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group)
3. Blood Count
4. Smada [#]
5. Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note
6. Rain Check
7. Midriff [#]
8. My Little Brown Book [#]
9. Lotus Blossom
10. Snibor
11. After All
12. All Day Long
13. Lotus Blossom [#]
14. Day Dream
15. Intimacy of the Blues
16. Charpoy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #156919 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Special 24bit K2 Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork.

Amazon.com
This 1967 tribute to Duke's right-hand man and "Take the 'A' Train" composer Billy Strayhorn is one of the Ellington band's truest late-period masterpieces. Blowing out the back doors with their tears, the group rumbles through the likes of "Blood Count" and "Day-dream," with their leader also contributing an immensely touching solo-piano version of "Lotus Blossom." --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Find this record and buy it
This is my favorite Ellington album, and the fact that he put it out when he was 67 years old is perhaps un-equalled in the history of recorded music. Billy Strayhorn had just died, and the band played his greatest compositions with tremendous urgency and freshness. I own around 200 jazz cd's. and this is one of the five greatest. This is utterly indispensable music. If you have a jazz collection and you do not have this, you are missing out on a true classic.

Possibly the Greatest Big Band Recording Ever
My very first Duke Ellington LP, and one of my first jazz recordings, was the original version of this. It opened up new horizons for me the first time I listened to it, and it has satisfied me time and time again over the intervening thirty-five years, revealing new aspects over time.

Billy Strayhorn was an extraordinary composer of songs in the jazz idiom, one who, as did Jerome Kern and George Gershwin, brought an extensive knowledge of harmony and the classical repertoire to his work. The songs on this CD swing; at times, they swing very hard. What sets them apart from many others of the same vintage is the depth that the unusual harmonies give them. What sets these performances apart is the commitment and emotion that the giants in Ellington's band brought to these sessions. Aaron Bell and Steve Little, the bass player and drummer on most of these cuts, are absolutely outstanding, as are Clark Terry on flugelhorn in Boo-Dah and John Sanders on valve trombone in Rain Check.

The real star among the musicians, though, is Johnnie Hodges, who shines in Blood Count, After All, and Day-Dream, among others. Blood Count established itself as my favorite song on the LP the first time I heard it, and I have never found it necessary to revise that opinion. It starts out sounding like something from a film noir detective movie from the 1950s, but quickly transforms itself into something truly unique in the annals of jazz.

Ultimately, though, it's pointless to look for a favorite here. My own opinion is that all the cuts on the original LP are just about uniformly excellent; the previously unreleased tracks aren't quite as good. They're simply a bonus. With or without them, this is one of the great jazz recordings, and a truly fitting tribute to a giant of a songwriter who really ought to be far better known.

words don't quite do this justice
But I'll try. Take a stack of superb Strayhorn compositions/arrangements, add discordant twists from Ellington's piano and from the band (almost certainly at Duke's behest), collective grief at Strayhorn's early demise (he was barely fifty), and a band rich in great musicians. Johnny Hodges is the ballad player nonpareil and has plenty to play on this record. Jimmy Hamilton's clarinet decorates many of these tracks in a way Ellington had not often tried. And the Duke drives it all home on the piano; he is the master of meaningful dissonance. Nothing cute here, just a fearlessly emotional and rich recording.