Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams, Harold "Shorty"
Baker - trumpets ; Rex Stewart - cornet ;
Joe Nanton, Lawrence Brown - trombones; Juan
Tizol - valve trombone; Johnny Hodges - clarinet,
soprano & alto sax; Barney Bigard - clarinet;
Harry Carney - clarinet, alto & baritone
sax; Otto Hardwick - alto & bass sax;
Duke Ellington - piano; Fred Guy - guitar
; Hayes Alvis, Billy Taylor - bass; Sonny
Greer - drums; Ivie Anderson - vocal.
Collective personnel.
Recorded in New York January - December 1938.
1. Stepping Into Swing Society
2. The Gal From Joe's
3. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
4. Braggin' In Brass
5. Dinah's In A Jam
6. You Gave Me The Gate ( And I'm Swingin'
)
7. Pyramid
8. When My Sugar Walks Down The Street
9. A Gypsy Without A Song
10. Watermelon Man
11. Please Forgive Me
12. Lambeth Walk
13. Prelude To A Kiss
14. Buffet Flat
15. T.T. On Toast
16. Blue Light ( Transbluency )
17. Old King Dooji
18. Boy Meets Horn
19. Mighty Like The Blues
20. Slap Happy
Once again Naxos have come
up with a release that is essential for the
Ellington connoisseur both in terms of cost
and content. What makes this issue even more
fascinating is that the selections were all
recorded during the space of one year. This
conveys a sense both of standard repertoire
and also indicates what the band had to add
in terms of novelty numbers to keep its record
buying public interested.
This is obviously not the
renowned "Webster - Blanton" band of a few
years later, however, it is a swinging professional
outfit at the top of its game. The personnel
had been relatively stable for a number of
years and many of the star performers had
now reached an impressive maturity. Ellington
himself had bythis time achieved a distinctive
and more fluent style of orchestration, gone
are many of the rougher edges inherent in
the idiom of the "Jungle" era . There is a
genuine air of confidence on even the more
trite or commercial numbers.
It is difficult to select
specific tracks as so much of this release
is first class. Harry Carney produces some
excellent flowing baritone solos on "Swing
Society" and "When My Sugar Walks Down The
Street", his pre-eminence on his chosen main
voice is very profound by the time of these
recordings. There are many examples of the
early mature alto stylings of Johnny Hodges;
his later performances perhaps gained a little
more depth of expression on the slow to medium
tempos but his bubbling up-tempo playing is
pure delight. As an extra bonus these sides
are from the time when Hodges still played
his unique soprano as can be heard on "A Gypsy
Without A Song " - surely when he stopped
playing this instrument a few years later
the music had to await the advent of John
Coltrane for its next original exponent.
I cannot leave this disc
without mentioning the wonderful performance
by the whole band, particularly the brass,
on the title track,this must rank as one of
the Duke's minor masterpieces. More like this
please Naxos!
Dick Stafford
CD Reviews
NAXOS JAZZ LEGENDS 8.120706
