CD1
1. Lush Life
2. Just-A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
3. Passion Flower
4. Take The “A” Train
5. Strange Feeling
6. Day Dream
7. Chelsea Bridge
8. Multi Colored Blue (also known as Violet Blue)
9. Something To Live For
10. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
11. Tonk
12. Johnny Come Lately
13. In A Blue Summer Garden
14. Tonk (Pianistically Allied)
15. Drawing Room Blues
16. Tonk
CD2
1. Something To Live For
2. Grievin’
3. Johnny Come Lately
4. Take The “A” Train
5. Mid-Riff
6. My Little Brown Book
7. Day Dream
8. Bugle Breaks
9. Metronome All Out
10. I Don’t Mind
11. After All
12. Kissin’ Bug
13. Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
14. Clementine
15. Paradise
16. Passion Flower
17. Satin Doll
18. Newport Up
19. What Else Can You Do With A Drum?
20. Blood Count
CD3
1. Take The “A” Train
2. Chelsea Bridge
3. Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
4. Lush Life
5. Isfahan
6. Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
7. Satin Doll
8. Take The “A” Train
9. Blood Count
10. Take The “A” Train
11. Johnny Come Lately
12. Satin Doll
13. Chelsea Bridge
14. Take The “A” Train
CD4
1. Everything Is Copasetic
2. Hip
3. Blue House
4. Hipper-Bug
5. Pretty Girl
6. Anatomy Of A Murder
7. Swing Dance
8. Feet On The Beat
9. Matinee
10. Jo
11. Flame Indigo
12. Fol-De-Rol-Rol
13. Tiffany
14. Orson
15. Lozit
16. Pomegranate
CD5
1. The Intimacy Of The Blues
2. Paris Blues
3. The Star-Crossed Lovers
4. Chelsea Bridge
5. Portrait Of A Silk Thread
6. Day Dream
7. Lotus Blossom
8. Blood Count
9. Upper Manhattan Medical Group
10. Chelsea Bridge/Star-Crossed Lovers/Day Dream
11. Passion Flower
12. Three And Six
CD6
1. No One Knows
2. Lotus Blossom
3. Ballad For Very Tired And Very Sad Lotus Eaters
4. Rain Check
5. Snibor
6. Noir Bleu
7. The Star-Crossed Lovers
8. Something To Live For
9. After All
10. Multicolored Blue
11. Mid-Riff
12. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
CD7
1. Smada
2. Depk
3. Jazz Festival Jazz
4. Intimacy Of The Blues
5. All Day Long
6. Balcony Serenade
7. Snibor
8. Strange Feeling
9. The Kissing Bug
10. Newport Up
11. My Little Brown Book
12. Mid-Riff
13. I’m Checking Out, Goom Bye
14. Rain Check
DVD
1. Take The “A” Train
2. Mid-Riff
3. Chelsea Bridge
4. Passion Flower
5. Satin Doll
6. Medley: Lush Life/Solitude
7. Take The “A” Train
8. Satin Doll
9. Take The “A” Train
Collective personnel
Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Wallace Jones, Ray Nance, Harold Baker, Shelton Hemphill, Al Killian, Francis Williams, Taft Jordan, Cat Anderson, Clark
Terry, Roy Eldridge, Herbie Jones, Mercer Ellington, Jan Oosthof, Ruud Breuls, Peter van Soest, Erik Veldkamp, Mike Booth, Jan Hollander, Bill Berry, Ed
Mullens – Trumpet
Ack van Rooijen, Rolf Ericson – Trumpet, flugelhorn
Joe Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol, Tyree Glenn, Quentin Jackson, Claude Jones, Britt Woodman, John Sanders, Vic Dickenson, Buster Cooper, Chuck
Connors, Martijn Sohier, Ilja Reijngoud, Hansjørg Fink, Ben van Dijk, Leon Cox – Trombone
Barney Bigard, Chauncey Haughton – Clarinet
Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges, Sax Mallard, Russell Procope, James Spaulding, Hans Meijdam – Alto sax
Albert Beltman – Alto sax, clarinet
Jimmy Hamilton, John Ruocco, Ken Peplowski – Tenor sax, clarinet
Ben Webster, Al Sears, Johnny Griffin, Paul Gonsalves, Budd Johnson, Jesper Thilo, Toon Roos, Ab Schaap, Erik Nordström, Harry Allen – Tenor sax
Lennart Åberg – Tenor sax, soprano sax, flute
Bob Rockwell – Tenor sax, soprano sax
Harry Carney, Hans Ulrik – Baritone sax
Nils van Haften – Baritone sax, clarinet
Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Johnny O’Neal, Camille de Ceunynck, Art Tatum, Duke Jordan, Kenny Drew, Tommy Flanagan, Horace Parlan, Cedar Walton, Mary
Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Teddy Wilson, Rob van Bavel, Rob Madna, Bobo Stenson, Jan Zirk, John Horler, Keith Ingham – Piano
Kjeld Lauritsen – Hammond organ
Steve Nelson- Vibes
Fred Guy, Doug Ramey, Max Schultz, Per Gade, Jacob Fisher, Phil Lee, Chris Flory – Guitar
Gøran Klinghagen – Electric guitar
Billy Taylor, Michel Gaudry, Jimmy Blanton, Alvin “Junior” Raglin, Joe Schulman, Wendell Marshall, Dewey Sampson, Tony Vaes, Jens Melgaard, Jimmy Woode,
Major Holley, Sam Jones, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Milton Suggs, John Lamb, Hugo Rasmussen, Frans van Hoeven, Jan Voogd, Dan Berglund, Jesper
Lundgaard, Kjell Jansson, Alec Dankworth, Dennis Irwin, Aaron Bell - Bass
Sonny Greer, James Martin, Charlie Pauvels, Ole Streenberg, Sam Woodyard, Eddie Locke, Billy Higgins, Al Heath, Drashear Khalid, Svend-Erik Nørregaard, Ed
Thigpen, Erik Ineke, Egil Johansen, Esben Bach, Keith Copeland., Magnus Gran, Chuck Riggs, Aage Tanggaard - Drums
Paris String Quartet - Strings
Paris Blue Notes, Al Hibbler, Delta Rhythm Boys, Marie Ellington, Joya Sherrill, Ozzie Bailey, Rose-Marie Åberg - Vocals
Writing about Duke Ellington’s music, Martin Williams said “Perhaps we shall never know in detail who has contributed what to the Ellington book from the
day Strayhorn joined him”. We know some of the pieces that Billy Strayhorn definitely wrote, including Lush Life, Day Dream, Chelsea Bridge and Take the “A” Train. But his contribution to the Ellington band’s oeuvre is unclear because the Duke usually insisted on Strayhorn’s works being
credited jointly to Ellington & Strayhorn. This has often been interpreted as the Duke trying to take credit for what Billy wrote, but it may also have
been a sign that Ellington recognised the fact that Strayhorn’s contributions were virtually indistinguishable from those of Ellington. Besides, the Duke
was only too aware of the need to make money to keep a big band going – something he achieved for more than 50 years. The proceeds from royalties for
compositions were an essential part of the payment Duke needed for such a demanding objective.
At any rate, it is good to have the spotlight turned on Billy Strayhorn by such a boxed set as this. Billy seldom gets close attention, and he generally
seemed happy to stay in the background, especially as Ellington paid all the expenses of Strayhorn’s lush life. I was excited to see this generous
collection, as I anticipated that it would clarify Stray’s contribution to Ellington’s music, in Billy’s multiple roles as composer, arranger and pianist
(and celeste-player!). I expected that the set would include And His Mother Called Him Bill, the tribute album consisting mainly of Strayhorn’s
compositions that Duke’s orchestra recorded shortly after Billy died in 1967. But it is not here. Neither are many of the tracks which Strayhorn recorded
as a pianist with some of the Ellington small groups or the albums he made with Johnny Hodges (e.g. Duke’s In Bed and Not So Dukish).
In fact Billy is only heard playing the piano on the first and second CDs and the first track of the DVD. Most of the other recordngs are by non-Ducal
groups. This offers a chance to hear various ways of interpreting some of Strayhorn’s compositions, but it means that several tunes are over-exposed. For
example, there are four versions of Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’, four of Passion Flower and Mid-Riff, and no fewer
than eleven of Take The “A” Train (including four on CD3 and three on the DVD).
The first CD consists of ten tracks recorded in Paris in 1961, featuring Stray at the piano with Michel Gaudry on bass in half the tracks and a rather
unnecessary string quartet or vocal group in five more. There are also six piano duets between Strayhorn and the Duke. Billy comes across as a delicate
pianist, decorating the music discreetly but not excessively. At times he sounds remarkably similar to Ellington (e.g. at the start of Take The “A” Train), and the duets with Ellington display the symbiosis that existed between them.
CD2 has the whole Ellington orchestra performing Strayhorn compositions, with Stray joining the Duke at the piano on more than half the tracks. These
recordings illustrate how Strayhorn, like Ellington, wrote pieces specifically for particular members of the orchestra. Thus Joe Nanton is featured in Johnny Come Lately, Rex Stewart in Bugle Breaks, Lawrence Brown in After All, and Harry Carney in Paradise.
With excitement making them sound like screaming bobby-soxers, the audience greets Johnny Hodges rapturously for his solo on Day Dream. The
recording quality of these mostly live tracks is variable, but it’s good to hear Sonny Greer more clearly than he often is on studio recordings. He even
gets to play a drum solo on Metronome All Out.
The remaining four CDs contain performances of Strayhorn compositions by various musicians. CD3 includes 14 tracks, each by a different small group or
soloist, from such Ellingtonians as Clark Terry and Ben Webster to modernists like Duke Jordan and James Spaulding. However interesting Strayhorn’s
writings are, one may feel sated by the aforementioned four versions of Take The “A” Train, plus two each of Chelsea Bridge andJust A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’. This compilation might have done better to have included several Strayhorn compositions from the album And His Mother Called Him Bill but which are inexplicably not here.
If this makes the listener yearn for less familiar works by Billy, CD4 supplies 16 little-known pieces performed by the Dutch Jazz Orchestra. The sax solo
by tenorist Toon Roos on Hipper-Bug is very much in the style of Stan Getz, while the stumbling flugelhorn solo by Ack van Rooijen has hints of
Clark Terry. This collection would have benefited from the inclusion of more of these unfamiliar works, many of which were discovered comparatively
recently by Walter van de Leur.
CD5 is titled “Billy Strayhorn played by Scandinavians”. It opens with a Ducal connection: a group led by saxist Lennart Åberg and including trumpeter Rolf
Ericson, who played for Duke’s orchestra in the early 1960s. They are heard on the first seven tracks of this CD. Rolf contributes a nice solo to The Intimacy Of The Blues, and pianist Bobo Stenson dispels memories of his avant-garde playing with some sensitive work on Paris Blues
and Chelsea Bridge. This CD includes several rarities such as Portrait Of A Silk Thread and Three And Six. The latter is
mis-titled as “Three And One” in the sleeve-notes: it contains an elegant tenor solo by Erik Nordström (matching the delicacy of Johnny Hodges’ original
solo) and a scintillating piano solo from Jan Zirk. There is also an interesting juxtaposition of what might be called Billy Strayhorn’s swansongs: Blood Count and Upper Manhattan Medical Group.
The sixth CD comprises a tastefully understated session by a quartet led by reedman Ken Peplowski. Ken is an excellent exponent of the clarinet as well as
the tenor sax, and he is discreetly backed by his colleagues, especially guitarist Phil Lee. The unpretentious approach works particularly well in the
tracks where Peplowski is simply accompanied by Phil Lee or pianist John Horler or bassist Alec Dankworth, though they also work well together as a
quartet.
CD7 features a quintet led by tenorist Harry Allen. You can hear the influence of Paul Gonsalves in Harry’s swirling phrasing, although one can also hear
hints of Stan Getz and Scott Hamilton in his playing. The hallmark of many of these tracks is Harry Allen’s taste for easy swing – from the up-tempo Jazz Festival Jazz to the mid-tempo Kissing Bug.
We finally encounter Billy Strayhorn in person on the DVD, where he appears as piano soloist with the Ellington band on the opening Take The “A” Train (a 1965 appearance in Copenhagen). Paul Gonsalves appears to be asleep, although he wakes up in time for the closing bars! This
is the last we see of Strayhorn. Other notable tracks include Mid-Riff featuring Lawrence Brown, and Passion Flower with Johnny Hodges’
alto soaring magically. Tracks 5 to 7 are not by the Ellington orchestra but by small groups. Track 5 has the ebullient Clark Terry leading a quartet in
which bassist Jimmy Woode grimaces with the pain (or the pleasure) of creation with a highly inventive bass solo. The Delta Rhythm Boys are similarly
inventive in their vocal version of Take The “A” Train. The DVD closes with yet another interpretation of “A” Train, this time with Ray
Nance soloing gloriously muted and then open. It is always educative as well as amazing to see film of Duke’s ensemble and the way the musicians appear to
be half-asleep until they are called upon to perform the most wonderful jazz in the world.
This compilation doesn’t solve the question of exactly how much Billy Strayhorn contributed to the Ellington oeuvre. Perhaps the most that can be said is
that Billy was complementary to the Duke, and that he may have expanded Ellington’s horizons. The boxed set comes in a sturdy box, with each CD in a
cardboard sleeve. Brian Priestley contributes comprehensive sleeve-notes, although I could have done without his mentions of the times he was “privileged”
to attend some concert or event. There are also a generous number of photographs. But in a set devoted to Billy Strayhorn, I still wish that Stray himself
could have been more on display in his many capacities.
Tony Augarde
www.augardeBooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Storyville 1088614
