The Great Paris Concert

AMG Review of The Great Paris Concert

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

This set came about, in part, as a result of Ellington's signing to Frank Sinatra's Reprise label in November 1962, with the ending of his exclusive contract to Columbia. Six numbers from the three Paris dates were initially edited and released by Reprise as part of the ten-song Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits, but the bulk of the performances from those shows didn't surface until many years later as The Great Paris Concert on two LPs. For the CD reissue, the two separate releases were merged with the ten Greatest Hits songs appended to the double-LP's contents. The stuff from The Great Paris Concert is raw and largely unedited, and depicts the full Ellington band in extraordinary form, oozing excitement -- from the saxophone showcase on the opener, "Rockin' in Rhythm," the various sections of the band take flight at different points throughout this set, which includes such contemporary numbers as Ellington's theme music for an all but forgotten television series, The Asphalt Jungle, and excerpts from Such Sweet Thunder . Johnny Hodges is showcased in several solos, most notably on "Suite Thursday," a work whose original studio incarnation he missed appearing on; Cootie Williams ("Tutti for Cootie"), Paul Gonsalves ("Cop Out"), Ray Nance ("Bula"), and Cat Anderson ("Jam with Sam") get their own moments in the spotlight. The editing and equalization on the Reprise tracks is considerably smoother and more obtrusive, in terms of closing fades, from that on the Atlantic release, where the sound is rougher and more realistic, and one wishes that original tapes could have been found and the complete 26 numbers from the Paris shows reassembled together in an integrated fashion.