Ellington, at the piano

[A Lark Ascending]

Been enjoying Ellington as piano player over the last few days. MG made a comment that he preferred him as a piano player to his orchestral persona (or something to that effect...sorry, MG, if I've misunderstood you).

I know 'Money Jungle', 'In the Foreground', the Pablo 'Big 4' and finished off this month's e-music downloads with the Strayhorn duets and 'Piano Reflections'. And, obviously, there are lots of isolated things in smaller forms across the catalogue (I dearly love 'New World a-Comin'').

Favourites? Recommendations? Observations? Reactions?

(sorry if there is already a Ellington piano thread - couldn't find one)

Bev

Edited August 31, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[Shawn]

This is a nice intimate recording. Ellington either solo or with bass/drums backing.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Shawn

[kh1958]

This One's for Blanton (Pablo), with Ray Brown.

The Piano Player (Storyville)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The first one I came across was Back to back - Verve. That's with Johnny Hodges and I know you specified no horns, but this is the one where Duke really got through to me as a piano player. They play "Weary blues" and Duke's actually imitating Avery Parrish, Erskine Hawkins' pianist and the composer of "After hours" - but he's pulling stuff down from the outermost reaches of the galaxy!

The other one not mentioned that I like (again a horn on board) is Duke & Trane - Impulse.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks all.

Was looking at the Whitney today. Will put it into my 'saved for later' box. The Pablo and Storyville too.

I have the two you mention MG - know the Trane one very well but haven't listended to the Hodges enough - will rectify.

*****************

There are two sides to Ellington's piano I really like:

1. That very hard style where he bangs out sparse notes on the piano (C Jam Blues, Great Times [which seems like a variation of C Jam)). Stan Tracey seems to have really taken to that.

2. His ballad style - sometimes this gets a bit schmaltzy with all those florid runs; but at other times it's almost like Debussy or Ravel (I seem to recall early critics comparing him to Delius!).

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

2. His ballad style - sometimes this gets a bit schmaltzy with all those florid runs; but at other times it's almost like Debussy or Ravel (I seem to recall early critics comparing him to Delius!).

A lot of the "Foreground" album always reminded me of Debussy. Not "Summertime" of course

MG

[Chuck Nessa]

Haven't seen mention of the Fantasy trio record:

[A Lark Ascending]

Many thanks; noticed that on e-music. Will put on hold.

[Michael Weiss]

Two cadenzas in "Reminiscing in Tempo"

[JSngry]

This is a nice intimate recording. Ellington either solo or with bass/drums backing.

Yes. I find that one to be quite "transcendental"...there's a "zone" thing going on, at least how I hear it.

[medjuck]

There are, of course, the original duets with Blanton on RCA as well as a couple of duets and solos on CBS

which iirc are in the Mosaic small groups box. Great stuff.

[JSngry]

Never cared all that much for the Capitol trios, though.

[Kalo]

Ellington was a fine, underrated pianist, it's true. But there's no way that his bandleading and composing was in any way inferior: in plain fact, he was the best in that arena, no contest.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ellington was a fine, underrated pianist, it's true. But there's no way that his bandleading and composing was in any way inferior: in plain fact, he was the best in that arena, no contest.

I'm sure you're right, but I do prefer his piano playing to his bandleading. Possibly this is because I'm not sufficiently well educated musically to get what's really happening with the band.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Ellington was a fine, underrated pianist, it's true. But there's no way that his bandleading and composing was in any way inferior: in plain fact, he was the best in that arena, no contest.

I'm sure you're right, but I do prefer his piano playing to his bandleading. Possibly this is because I'm not sufficiently well educated musically to get what's really happening with the band.

MG

Don't the soloists stick out for you, MG? I'm probably less musically educated than you, but that got me from the start.

Though I found the 50s to 70s Ellington orchestras rather harder to take to for a long time. I think it's that post-40s 'big band' sound that I've always had to suspend my disbelief towards. To my ears the 20s-40s band was less prone to fill in all the spaces. I'm probably quite wrong but just sounds more fleet-footed to me.

There is something special about hearing the piano in the more scaled down situations.

[mikeweil]

This one is nice too:

All the solo etc. stuiff scattered over various RCA sessions, including the duets with Blanton, was collected on this CD:

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ellington was a fine, underrated pianist, it's true. But there's no way that his bandleading and composing was in any way inferior: in plain fact, he was the best in that arena, no contest.

I'm sure you're right, but I do prefer his piano playing to his bandleading. Possibly this is because I'm not sufficiently well educated musically to get what's really happening with the band.

MG

Don't the soloists stick out for you, MG? I'm probably less musically educated than you, but that got me from the start.

Oh yes, but those are the soloists, not Ellington. Or am I thinking of this wrong?

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Oh yes, but those are the soloists, not Ellington. Or am I thinking of this wrong? MG

I'm probably not quite understanding you.

Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Oh yes, but those are the soloists, not Ellington. Or am I thinking of this wrong? MG

I'm probably not quite understanding you.

Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists?

That's right. I like quite a lot of the Webster/Blanton band stuff - but mostly the commercial things like "Main stem" (though the duets are wonderful). And I love the "Road band" CD from 1957, because the band sounds so mellow and juiced. But a lot of Ellington's orchestral stuff is just too much for me to get. Well, y'know I'm really an R&B fan

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Oh yes, but those are the soloists, not Ellington. Or am I thinking of this wrong? MG

I'm probably not quite understanding you.

Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists?

That's right. I like quite a lot of the Webster/Blanton band stuff - but mostly the commercial things like "Main stem" (though the duets are wonderful). And I love the "Road band" CD from 1957, because the band sounds so mellow and juiced. But a lot of Ellington's orchestral stuff is just too much for me to get. Well, y'know I'm really an R&B fan

MG

Ah, I understand now. You'd have been one of those people crying 'Judas' when he first started recording pieces that took up more than one side of a 78 in the early 30s!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Oh yes, but those are the soloists, not Ellington. Or am I thinking of this wrong? MG

I'm probably not quite understanding you.

Are you saying you're not completely taken by Ellington's arranging? The orchestral bits rather than his own playing or the spaces he left for the soloists?

That's right. I like quite a lot of the Webster/Blanton band stuff - but mostly the commercial things like "Main stem" (though the duets are wonderful). And I love the "Road band" CD from 1957, because the band sounds so mellow and juiced. But a lot of Ellington's orchestral stuff is just too much for me to get. Well, y'know I'm really an R&B fan

MG

Ah, I understand now. You'd have been one of those people crying 'Judas' when he first started recording pieces that took up more than one side of a 78 in the early 30s!

I doubt it. It's not the length; it's that there's stuff in there that goes past me.

MG