DUKE ELLINGTON - ELLINGTON UPTOWN - SEALED 2016 REMASTER 180g MONO - SHIPS FREE

$

65

Duke Ellington ?– Ellington Uptown - 180g MONO REMASTERED NEW/SEALED - SHIPS FAST & FREE

Label:  Analog Spark ?– ML 4639, Columbia ?– ML 4639

Format:  Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Mono, 180gm 

Country:  US

Released:  2016

Genre:  Jazz

 Even back in the early '50s, Columbia Records took Duke Ellington seriously enough to place this album on its prestigious Masterworks label, heretofore reserved mostly for highbrow classical music and Broadway shows (later in the decade, though, it was retitled Hi-Fi Ellington Uptown and reissued on the pop series with an additional piece, "The Controversial Suite"). Also, this LP explodes the critical line that the early '50s was a relatively fallow period for the Duke; any of these smoking, concert-length tracks will torpedo that notion. The young Louie Bellson was powering the Ellington band at that time, and his revolutionary double-bass drum technique and rare ability to build coherent drum solos are put to astounding use on his self-penned leadoff track, "Skin Deep," which was quite a demonstration piece for audiophiles at the time. Old favorites from the Ellington hit parade are given extended treatments, with singer Betty Roche taking the A-train for a bebop-flavored ride, "The Mooche" spotlighting clarinetists Jimmy Hamilton and Russell Procope, and Ellington's boogie-woogie piano kicking off a super-charged "Perdido" for trumpeter Clark Terry. The centerpiece of the disc is a sharply drawn, idiomatically swinging, probably unbeatable performance of "A Tone Parallel to Harlem" that lays waste to any of the "symphonic" versions that turn up frequently at pop concerts. Another feature of this record is the great sound quality, a benefit of being entrusted to Columbia's best engineers. 

Richard S. Ginell

Tracklist

A1

Skin Deep

A2

The Mooche

A3

Take the "A" Train

B1

A Tone Parallel to Harlem

B2

Perdido

Companies, etc.

• Exclusive Retailer – Barnes & Noble
• Pressed By – Record Technology Incorporated – 25306
• Lacquer Cut At – Sterling Sound

Credits

• Lacquer Cut By – Ryan Smith (2)

Notes

* Originally recorded in 1952 at Columbia Studios in NYC.

* Barnes and Noble Exclusive. 

* Cut from the original mono tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.

* Housed in a Stoughton old style tip-on jacket.

* 180-gram vinyl pressed & plated at RTI.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Barcode: 793018370219