Unreleased Conny Plank session with jazz-legend Duke Ellington!

[mjzee]

Let me know what you want to say, and I'll add them.

[l p]

Let me know what you want to say, and I'll add them.

i want to say that on April 27 of that year duke was in nyc recording parts of the new orleans suite.

and that here, he is unknowingly reviewing the same take, one with vocal and one without.
Afrique
"The second take features a duet between a reserved, probing tenor saxophonist and Ellington, who takes an arch, minimalist approach to the song. The third rendition features vocalese, big organ swells from Davis, and an abstract tenor saxophone solo."

[clifford_thornton]

There seems to be little connection between these recordings and the synth pop that Plank produced in the ’80s, but in the live, you-are-in-the-studio sound of these tracks with Duke it is easy to see the influence that these sessions had on Plank’s work with Mr. Eno.

Okay.... 

[mjzee]

Let me know what you want to say, and I'll add them.

 

i want to say that on April 27 of that year duke was in nyc recording parts of the new orleans suite.

and that here, he is unknowingly reviewing the same take, one with vocal and one without.
Afrique
"The second take features a duet between a reserved, probing tenor saxophonist and Ellington, who takes an arch, minimalist approach to the song. The third rendition features vocalese, big organ swells from Davis, and an abstract tenor saxophone solo."

 

 

OK, posted.

[ReminiscingInTempo]

Hi to all! I'm new on this forum!
This CD arrived on my mailbox just this morning.

I'm disappointed in lack of complete credits and session info, too.

Uncredited soloists will mystify?

One would think that it wouldn't be too hard to tell the difference between Paul Gonsalves and Harold Ashby!

Then I read this sentence on liner notes:

“Alerado” is a straightforward swing number, it features Wild Bill Davis on the organ, and, most notably, Cat Anderson on the trumpet, who provide a foundation for striking concepts of sonority and solo performance.

I'm pretty sure that the soloist is NOT Cat Anderson and that's not a trumpet. Most probably the soloist is Fred Stone at the flugelhorn.

[JSngry]

Thanks!

First, there's no excuse for any informed critic not being able to distinguish between Paul Gonsalves & Harold Ashby, nor in being not able to identify Norris Turney as the usual Ellington fl(a)utist...pretty much ever, but especially during this time. Don't yet have the record, but same for the saxophone and trumpet solos (especially iof it's Cootie,). But those first three, yeah, c'mon.

Everything else stems from this:

The brevity of this album notwithstanding, it makes a solid argument for reevaluating the late phase of Ellington’s work.

That's a casual at best Ellington listener speaking there. Late Ellington is damn near endless, and certainly endlessly fascinating. Nothing to really "reevaluate", but plenty to consider - if you get to it in the first place!

Then, I would take issue with this:

The brevity of this album notwithstanding, it makes a solid argument for reevaluating the late phase of Ellington’s work. On his live recordings of this period, he is the stereotypical aging master cranking out the hits, but his studio work tells a substantially different story.

No, no, no, no, no. And hell no. What he fuck "live recordings of this period" are we listening to, and how many of them have been edited to only include the hits medley and the vocals? That's  a seriously mistaken statement.

And then...

He also probed the connections between jazz and American vernacular music in his “New Orleans Suite” (Atlantic, 1970)...

Ok, but that's kind of like saying that taking a shower is probing the connections between the body and the body...in other words, the only thing he was probing was himself. Putting it that way sort of implies a distance/degree of seperation that simple wasn't there.

If I wanted to get pissy about things, I would throw this in as one giant BFD:

In addition, recordings like “The Far East Suite” (Bluebird, 1967) and “The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse” (Fantasy, 1971) reveal Ellington’s pioneering efforts to blend jazz and international sounds. Finally, the latter recording also displays an Ellingtonian take on rock.

But in fairness, this was also noted on the liner notes and contemporaneous reviews, so, let it slide, apparently it "matters".

Finally, as a simple, honest, disagreement as to essence:

During the final years of his life, jazz was quickly changing, but a close look at Ellington’s studio work shows that he was staying ahead of the times.

I would argue that Duke was not staying ahead of his time, that he was keeping up with his times, and within his highly personalized languages (timbral, harmonic, and rhythmic). This is important to me, because for me, Duke is eternal, no matter what happened, is happening, or will happen, Duke is relevant, not just for tools but for attitudes, skills of both perception and transference of perceptions into multi-layered/multi-level expression. To reduce that to was he or was he not "up with the times" is to misunderstand the whole thing, really. But again, honest disagreement, perhaps.

So...this, for them, and again, thank you.

[mjzee]

Thanks, Jim.  Could you perhaps edit this so the WSJ web software won't reject it (re "fuck" and the like), and just tidy it up a little?  Then I'll post.  Or I can edit it, just let me know.

[JSngry]

First, there's no excuse for any informed critic not being able to distinguish between Paul Gonsalves & Harold Ashby, nor in being not able to identify Norris Turney as the usual Ellington fl(a)utist...pretty much ever, but especially during this time. Don't yet have the record, but same for the saxophone and trumpet solos (especially if it's Cootie,). But those first three, yeah, c'mon.

Everything else stems from this:

The brevity of this album notwithstanding, it makes a solid argument for reevaluating the late phase of Ellington’s work.

That's a casual at best Ellington listener speaking there. Late Ellington is a nearly endless affair, and certainly endlessly fascinating. Nothing to really "reevaluate", but plenty to consider - if you get to it in the first place!

Then, I would take issue with this:

The brevity of this album notwithstanding, it makes a solid argument for reevaluating the late phase of Ellington’s work. On his live recordings of this period, he is the stereotypical aging master cranking out the hits, but his studio work tells a substantially different story.

No, no, no, no, no. And again, no. What "live recordings of this period" are we listening to, and how many of them have been edited to only include the hits medley and the vocals? That's  a seriously mistaken statement.

And then...

He also probed the connections between jazz and American vernacular music in his “New Orleans Suite” (Atlantic, 1970)...

Ok, but that's kind of like saying that taking a shower is probing the connections between the body and the body...in other words, the only thing he was probing was himself. Putting it that way sort of implies a distance/degree of separation that simple wasn't there.

If I wanted to get petty about things, I would throw this in as one giant "Big Deal":

In addition, recordings like “The Far East Suite” (Bluebird, 1967) and “The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse” (Fantasy, 1971) reveal Ellington’s pioneering efforts to blend jazz and international sounds. Finally, the latter recording also displays an Ellingtonian take on rock.

But in fairness, this was also noted on the liner notes and contemporaneous reviews, so, let it slide, apparently it "matters".

Finally, as a simple, honest, disagreement as to essence:

During the final years of his life, jazz was quickly changing, but a close look at Ellington’s studio work shows that he was staying ahead of the times.

I would argue that Duke was not staying ahead of his time, that he was keeping up with his times, and within his highly personalized languages (timbral, harmonic, and rhythmic). This is important to me, because for me, Duke is eternal, no matter what happened, is happening, or will happen, Duke is relevant, not just for tools but for attitudes, skills of both perception and transference of perceptions into multi-layered/multi-level expression. To reduce that to was he or was he not "up with the times" is to misunderstand the whole thing, really. But again, honest disagreement, perhaps.

So...this, for them, and again, thank you.

There, cleaned up for Wall Street, where the language is as pure as the Capitalism, no doubt.

 

[xybert]

Hi to all! I'm new on this forum!
This CD arrived on my mailbox just this morning.

I'm disappointed in lack of complete credits and session info, too.

Uncredited soloists will mystify?

One would think that it wouldn't be too hard to tell the difference between Paul Gonsalves and Harold Ashby!

Then I read this sentence on liner notes:

“Alerado” is a straightforward swing number, it features Wild Bill Davis on the organ, and, most notably, Cat Anderson on the trumpet, who provide a foundation for striking concepts of sonority and solo performance.

I'm pretty sure that the soloist is NOT Cat Anderson and that's not a trumpet. Most probably the soloist is Fred Stone at the flugelhorn.

Welcome to the board!

[l p]

here are the timings

 

http://www.junodownload.com/products/duke-ellington-his-the-conny-plank-session/2827919-02/

 

 Alerado (take 1) - (3:55) 
 Alerado (take 2) - (3:57) master? 
 Alerado (take 3) - (3:23)  
 Afrique (take 1) - (7:06)
 Afrique (take 2) - (5:26)  master
 Afrique (take 3 - vocal) - (5:24) master with vocal (probably overdub rather than erraced)

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by l p

[mjzee]

Jim: Their comments have a max of 999 characters.  You'll need to edit further.

[l p]

here's a more knowledgeable review

http://ehsankhoshbakht.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/listening-to-duke-ellinton-conny-plank.html

 

[JSngry]

Let's just say that the reviewer does not appear to have been adequately prepared to write a reasonably informed and/or particularly insightful review and leave it at that. Details available on request.

[mjzee]

Let's just say that the reviewer does not appear to have been adequately prepared to write a reasonably informed and/or particularly insightful review and leave it at that.

Done.