The Great Paris Concert

Occupation

The Great Paris Concert is a jazz album by Duke Ellington, recorded between 1 and February 23, 1963 live at the Paris Olympia. After parts of the recordings already published at the end of 1963 Reprise Records, a live album was released under this title in 1973 with most pieces of the concerts at Atlantic Records. In 1989, the recordings of both publications in a revised edition with Atlantic were combined.

The Paris Concerts

In the liner notes of the album Stanley Dance spoke about the deep connection with Ellington Paris; Already in 1930 he had accompanied Maurice Chevalier there. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he performed at the Palais de Chaillot. In 1960, he had worked eight weeks in Paris, when he helped the movie Paris Blues. The great success of the first two Ellington concerts early 1963 prompted the organizers to schedule two additional appointments with the Duke Ellington Orchestra three weeks later.

The program at the four evenings included, in addition to the classic band repertoire as Do not Get Around Much Anymore, Perdido or Rockin ' in Rhythm, jazz standards like All of Me and Jimmy McHughs On the Sunny Side of the Street also two longer works, on the one Suite Thursday, which had its premiere in 1960 at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on the other hand A Tone parallel to Harlem. New in the repertoire at that time was also written by Ellington theme song for the TV series The Asphalt Jungle (1960) and The Star- Crossed Lovers on the Shakespearean Suite ( 1958), the featurete Johnny Hodges.

To match the concert with Kinda Dukish, the Ellington plays piano trio and immediately goes into Rockin ' in Rhythm, which uses the entire orchestra begins. With this and the following numbers all soloists are exposed to them specifically to the body of written pieces - the clarinet solo has only the co- composer Harry Carney, followed by the plunger trombone Lawrence Brown and the Wah -wah trumpets of Cootie Williams and Ray Nance. The following three pieces, On the Sunny Side of the Street, All of Me and The Star- Crossed Lovers make Johnny Hodges in the foreground. After the Theme from "Asphalt Jungle" are two features for Cootie Williams, which very slowly played Concerto for Cootie (1940 ) and Tutti for Cootie of 1960.

The then played Suite Thursday - named after John Steinbeck's sentimental novel Sweet Thursday from 1954 - who wrote Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, consists of the four parts of Misfit Blues, Schwiphti ( swifty ) ), Zweet Zurzday and Lay -By, the latter with a violin solo by Ray Nance. [A 1] [A 2]

The concert continues with Juan Tizols classic Perdido, it turns out in the Ellington Jimmy Hamilton and Paul Gonsalves, who also play the unison introduction. Especially for Hamilton Strayhorn wrote the composition The Eighth Veil; it follows The Rose of Rio Grande with Lawrence Brown as the main soloists. Cop Out is another vehicle for individual improvisation, here by Paul Gonsalves; in the following Bula announcing Ellington as a gutbucket Bolero, dominate clarinets and trumpets stuffed the mood.

Jam with Sam presented as a gallery of all the band soloist, presenting Ellington name. After Happy-Go- Lucky Local, one of Ellington's railway land, which comes from the Deep South Suite ( 1946) and here's a feature for Cat Anderson represents [A 3], it follows that with 14 minutes the longest piece of the concert, the Tone Parallel to Harlem (also Harlem Suite), a self- commissioned work that Ellington had in 1950 written for the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, initially created as a concerto grosso for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra [A 4] and first on the album Ellington Uptown appeared. It unfolds a panorama of Harlem ( night) life, " a colorful picture of life in a city within a city ," said Stanley Dance:

According to Collier, the Harlem Suite " chock full of wonderful moments, [ ... ]:

In the pieces that were attached to the CD release as a bonus track, dominates the classic band repertoire; Do not Get Around Much Anymore played here in a newly arranged version without vocals, while in Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me Milt Grayson is the Bandvokalist. The following three pieces Announces Ellington vintage oldies to, Black and Tan Fantasy (1927 ), Things Is not What They Used to Be ( 1941) and Pyramid of 1938. Suite From Ellington Black, Brown and Beige (1943 ) dates the song the Blues, the back Milt Grayson sings. After Echoes of Harlem, came back into the band's repertoire, as Cootie Williams returned to the orchestra, followed by Satin Doll, the - written in 1953 - with its catchy melody was one of the hits of the Ellington orchestra during these years.

Edition history

Up to four pieces all the material on the album was recorded during three concerts at the Paris Olympia; only Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me, Things Is not What They Used to Be and Satin Doll came from previous concerts of this tour in 1963. Do not Get Around Much Anymore is a studio shot.

Six pieces that were recorded at the concerts in Paris in 1963, first appeared in November 1962 Frank Sinatra's Reprise label to which Ellington was changed after his contract expires at Columbia. This was the ten pieces comprehensive compilation of Duke Ellington 's Greatest Hits (RS 6234 ). The majority of the other recordings appeared in 1973 on the double LP The Great Paris Concert ( SD 2-304 ). Publish in CD form in 1989, the tracks on the Greatest Hits LP with the recordings of the double album on a double CD (Atlantic 7567-81303-2 ) were combined.

Reception

Bruce Eder wrote in Allmusic Album, the second highest rating (4 ½ Stars ) received: The recordings on The Great Paris Concert were rough and largely unedited, the Ellington band but in exceptional shape. He also points out that the issue of the recapitulation pieces softer and more intrusive is during which the Atlantic publications are rougher and more realistic in tone; was therefore to be hoped that the original tapes of these recordings would be found, so as to obtain a complete edition of the Paris concerts in a built-in version.

Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the album the second highest rating of 3 ½ stars ( "Great! Very nearly. " ) And pointed out that the quality of this album is not so much in the solo performances of Ellington's musicians, but in the ensemble, which is screw up in unforeseen heights. The suite Thursday was an unexpected gem; Also worth highlighting are the versions of Rose of the Rio Grande and the Asphalt Jungle theme.

Tracks on the album

Other pieces on the CD edition from 1989

  • All compositions are, unless otherwise specified, by Duke Ellington.
Record label Genre Lawrence Brown (musician) Singing Olympia (Paris) Trocadéro Perdido (song) Such Sweet Thunder James Lincoln Collier Black and Tan (film) Columbia Records Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) Irving Mills Dorothy Fields Harry Warren James "Bubber" Miley Creole Love Call Mercer Ellington Irving Gordon Jimmy Forrest
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