Duke Ellington - Masterpieces (1LP, 33RPM, Mono, Analogue Productions)
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€59,00
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Duke Ellington, piano [click here to see more vinyl featuring Duke Ellington]
Billy Strayhorn (piano). Russell Procope, Paul Gonzalves, Johnnie Hodges, Jimmy Hamilton (saxophone). Nelson Williams, Andrew Ford, Harold Baker, Ray Nance, William Anderson (trumpet). Quentin Jackson, Lawrence Brown, Tyree Glenn (trombone). Mercer Ellington (horn). Sonny Greer (drums). Wendell Marshall (bass). Yvonne Lanauze (vocals).
Written by Duke Ellington (A1, A2, B1, B2), Albany Bigard (A1), Irving Mills (A1, A2, B2), Eddie Delange (B2)
1 LP, gatefold sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Mono
Studio
Record Press : Quality Record Pressings
Label : Analogue Production
Original Label : Columbia
Recorded in New York on December 18, 1950
Remastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound
Originally released in 1951
Reissued in 2021
Tracks:
Side A :
- Mood Indigo
- Sophisticated Lady
Side B :
- The Tattooed Bride
- Solitude
Awards:
TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
Stereophile Records To Die For 2015
Reviews:
"True classic both musically and sonically and a historical work of art you can now own." Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com.
"Among the first recordings arranged and produced to take advantage of the LP's longer playing time, this album was released in 1950 on Columbia Records' classical imprint, Masterworks, with a whimsical cover by Stan Fraydas (author of Hoppy, the Curious Kangaroo) that's reproduced for this edition. (Columbia soon replaced it with an image more "modern" and more mundane.)... Freed from the 78rpm single's three-minute constraint, Ellington could score and record concert-length arrangements similar to those enjoyed by his concert audiences. Three of the four selections, including 'Mood Indigo' and 'Sophisticated Lady,' are familiar Ellington classics stretched and elasticized to luxurious effect. The harmonically saturated, transparent mono sound is astonishing for any era of recording. It's sure to leave you swooning, and wondering how and why recorded sound has since gone so far south." Michael Fremer, Stereophile, February 2015.
“Amazingly, it took Columbia Records until the very end of 1950, two years into the LP era and the transition from disc to magnetic tape recording, to get Duke Ellington and His Orchestra into the studio to cut a long-playing record. For the first time in his recording career, Ellington was able to forego the three-minutes-and-change restrictions in running time of the 78 rpm disc -- he and the band rose to the occasion with extended (11-minute-plus) "uncut concert arrangements" of "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," and "Solitude," augmented with one splendid newer work, "The Tattooed Bride." And it's taken 15 years into the CD boom before Masterpieces By Ellington has been given the treatment that it deserves. Sony Music of Japan reissued this classic recording in 1998, remastered using the company's 20-bit-based Super Bit Mapping digital system, and results are astonishing -- the band sounds like it's in the same room with the listener, and that goes double for the piano and the soloists (including singer Yvonne Lanauze) on "Mood Indigo." Even in this august company, "The Tattooed Bride" is a swinging virtuoso piece that, as everyone present must have known, couldn't possibly have been captured in this manner in any era before this session -- this was also one of the last sessions to feature the classic Ellington lineup with Johnny Hodges, Lawrence Brown, and Sonny Greer, before their exodus altered the band's sound, and so it's a doubly precious piece (as is the whole album), among the last written specifically for this lineup.” AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder
Ratings :
AllMusic : 4.5 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.83
Michael Fremer : Music = 11 / 11; Sound = 11 / 11
Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi + : Recording = 10 / 10 ; Music = 10 / 10
Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound : Music = 5 / 5; Sonics = 4.5 / 5