Duke Ellington

Nobody is sure about just what a "Mooche" actually is much less why this was chosen. However, we do know that Duke Ellington was always experimenting with composition. In this one, "The Mooche" made use, for the first time, the use of the human voice as another instrumental coloring to the already full orchestral pallette. Baby Cox was the vocalist on two record sessions. As with many shadowy characters in jazz, nothing is known about when she was born or died, what her l... MORE

The Duke died on this date in 1974. His recorded work is so vast and sprawling that it's just about impossible to take it all in - but just plunge in anywhere and take a gulp, it's all great - this is from 1968's Latin American Suite

Duke Ellington has the reputation for being a brilliant composer but his performing on the piano gets only a slight mention. Ellington, in his composition “Passion Flower,” shows the heavy influence of the two D’s (Claude Debussy and Frederick Delius) in this work of great but elusive beauty.

Duke Ellington has the reputation for being a brilliant composer but his performing on the piano gets only a slight mention. Ellington, in his composition “Passion Flower,” shows the heavy influence of the two D’s (Claude Debussy and Frederick Delius) in this work of great but elusive beauty.

Hello to one and all. I am in the Ch-Hi Jazz bands 10:30 jam and Lunch Jazz. I play trombone, and Baritone Saxophone.

Our Blue America guest today is Rabbi Dennis Shulman from northern New Jersey. He joins us at 2pm (EDT) over at Firedoglake to answer questions for a couple of hours. He's a really remarkable guy. I got him to talk a little about his opponent, New Jersey's most reactionary congressman, Republican Scott Garrett. "Garrett is is a social conservative who has an 87% voting record with George Bush. The 13% is more conservative than Bush... on issues of immigration, on issues of... MORE

crash, i never met you, but i feel like i know you. i knew we were kindred spirits when you blogged about your excitement for the new bad brains record. i was excited too. you, nine_six and i shared a laugh over some benny hill videos. it reminded me of a better time in my life. the thing this community has taught me is that we all have things in common no matter where or who we are. most of all we have the shared love for music in it's many forms. i downloaded this... MORE

did this a while back with Cowgirl in the Sand realized i had 8 different versions of Blood Count, the last tune Billy Strayhorn wrote before he died in 1967 of cancer. it's powerful, poignant, wistful, melancholy, angry, passionate...in short, the blues, beautifully played on the Duke's tribute to strayhorn by the great Johnny Hodges, several additional versions to follow in the comments.

This album, or at least the Mobile Fidelity SACD, has become somewhat legendary amongst the audiophile cognoscenti. It, and the original Columbia CD, have been out of print for several years, and copies are selling for well over $100 on eBay. Most of the album was recorded in one late night session in 1959. it's a relaxed, swinging date, not as well known to the general public as some of the suites, etc. The cut here features what i thought was a trombone intro, but in... MORE

If my memory isn't being its usual traitorous rapscalliony self, I seem to remember that Costco had Christmas stuff in August last year. I remember this because I distinctly remember thinking, "DAMN, it's only August." So in an effort to open your parachutes early so you don't smack the pavement in late November and say, "Aw, hell, the holidays are here," I give you a Christmas tune. But this is no ordinary Christmas tune. This is a Duke Ellington-reworked Christmas tune. ... MORE

...If you’ve relegated Duke Ellington’s body of work to your Ken Burns incidental music file and consider his contributions to jazz to be a relic like, say, the Rosetta Stone, to be acknowledged as important but now rendered useless to the language because the lexicon has moved past wherever it was previously—if you park your car in that garage, then I’d suggest you pick up a copy of New Orleans Suite which was released in 1971…This LP is one of the swingin-est efforts fro... MORE