1. Limbo Jazz
2. Mood Indigo
3. Ray Charles' Place
4. Wanderlust
5. You Dirty Dog
6. Self-Portrait (of the Bean)
7. The Jeep Is Jumpin'
8. The Ricitic
9. Solitude
10. The Star-Crossed Lovers
11. Just Squeeze Me
12. Perdido
13. Satin Doll
14. Take the “A” Train
Duke Ellington – Piano (tracks 1-9)
Coleman Hawkins – Tenor sax
Ray Nance – Cornet, violin (tracks 1-9)
Johnny Hodges – Alto sax (tracks 1-9, 13)
Harry Carney – Baritone sax, bass clarinet (tracks 1-9)
Aaron Bell – Bass (tracks 1-9)
Sam Woodyard – Drums (tracks 1-9)
Randy Weston – Piano (track 10)
Wilbur Little – Bass (track 10)
Roy Haynes – Drums (track 10)
Clark Terry – Trumpet (track 11)
Tommy Flanagan – Piano (tracks 11, 13)
Major Holley – Bass (track 11, 13)
Dave Bailey – Drums (track 11)
Rex Stewart – Trumpet (track 12)
Tyree Glenn – Trombone (track 12)
Claude Hopkins – Piano (track 12)
Billy Bauer – Guitar (track 12)
Arvell Shaw – Bass (track 12)
Cozy Cole – Drums (track 12)
Roy Eldridge – Trumpet (track 13)
Eddie Locke – Drums (track 13)
Hank Jones – Piano (track 14)
George Duvivier – Bass (track 14)
Shelly Manne – Drums (track 14)
This album became a classic as soon as it was released as an LP in 1963. It is even more desirable now that five bonus tracks have been added. It begins as
it means to go on: with good humour. The humming noises filling the gaps in Limbo Jazz come from drummer Sam Woodyard and they set the relaxed
tone for nearly 79 delightful minutes. The tune has an informal Latin-American atmosphere, like the numbers on Duke’s Afro-Bossa album.
Coleman Hawkins gets to interpret the Ellingtonian classic Mood Indigo with his customary grace. He shows a more forceful side in Ray Charles’ Place. And he is strongly featured in Self Portrait (of the Bean), a piece which starts as if it is going to be Ferdy
Grofé’s On the Trail.
The CD’s back cover has a nice photo of Duke standing behind Hawk and Hodges as they commune together in harmony. You can sense some of the Hawkins magic
brushing off on Hodges when Johnny plays The Jeep is Jumpin’ in a rather more flowing style than he often adopted in this tune, which was one of
his regular features. Hodges co-wrote it with Ellington, as he did Wanderlust, a glorious tune which was the signature tune for Humphrey
Lyttelton’s BBC radio jazz programme for many years. It lets us enjoy the richly gruff tone of Harry Carney’s baritone sax. And isn’t that Lawrence Brown’s
trombone which solos so eloquently? He isn’t listed on the sleeve, although he is mentioned in the sleeve-notes.
The informality of the session is notable in The Ricitic, which seems almost like free improv. It is by a quintet consisting of Hawk, the rhythm
section, and Ray Nance on violin. Nance is idiosyncratic, while Hawkins mixes the swirling with the fragmentary. The session with Ellington’s men ends with Solitude, which might have been composed specially for Coleman’s warm-toned tenor.
The five extra tracks pick some plums from Coleman’s interpretations of Ellington tunes, recorded between 1955 and 1962. In Perdido, Hawk plays
about with the beat, crossing bar-lines and reminding us how comfortably he found playing with the beboppers. Satin Doll is a long performance
(eleven minutes) enhanced by another swirling Hawkins solo, and a Johnny Hodges solo which stays quite close to the melody - but whose brilliance lies in
the subtle tweaks he gives it. Major Holley adds a hum-along bass solo.
The early sixties was the time when recording sessions paired Duke Ellington not only with Hawkins but also with Louis Armstrong, Charlie Mingus & Max
Roach, and John Coltrane. I have reviewed all the other albums on this site and, thankfully, this one is less awkward than the Coltrane disc. But it was
probably destined to be better, as both Duke and Hawk were brilliant creators who clearly understood one another.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Essential Jazz Classics EJC 55646
