349.00 PLN

LP-180G 33rpm:

Nr kat.: TLR2204041
Label  : The Lost Recordings

On November 8, 1969, on the stage of the great hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Duke, whose portrait is the poster of the Jazztage Festival which celebrates his 70th birthday, slowly joined his piano. His orchestra is at the orders, adorned with a gleaming section of which some have accompanied him for 30 years, such as Cootie Willams and Cat Anderson. The legendary saxophonists Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges and Russell Procope are also present. In a kind of rattle, the Duke launches "La plus Belle Africaine". A baroque but perfectly mastered mixture of sunny colors captured during a tour in Dakar, launched on the solo saxophone and then taken up with flashes of inventiveness by all or part of the orchestra. The tone is set. Cat Anderson launches into a furious "El Gato" that shakes the audience with its squeaks, its voluntary deconstructions and evokes the revolutionary, fragmentary and unfinished gestures of a Thelonious Monk or a Cecil Taylor. A studied contrast with the gentle continuation of "I Can't Get Started", just before the 43-second parenthesis of "Caravan", set as a mischievous link to the flamboyant "Satin Doll" which masterfully punctuates this concert. In 1973, a few months before his death, Duke returned to Berlin in a formation organized on the basis of his trio (Joe Benjamin on double bass and Quinten "Rocky" White Jr. on drums), joined by Harold Johnson on trumpet, clarinetist and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney - and by his long-time sidekick, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. Duke Ellington gives a central place to his piano, making it both the driving force of the ensemble and its harmonic and rhythmic framework. In this Blues that opens the concert, we hear some Debussy. This is followed by "Take the A train". The Duke likes changes of mood. Only, here and there, touches of discontinuous speech remind us how much the Duke knew how to draw with sagacity from the audacious harmonies of his contemporaries. And then he dares everything. Like offering his band the rhythmic virtuosity of Baby Laurence on tap dance in "Tap Dance". The magic works. The success is total. Two concerts in Berlin, two facets of a poetic universe, two visions of an alchemist who knew how to draw with lightness but also with a mixture of jubilation and authority, in the harmonic sources of all the musics and which make so relevant the formula which he liked: "there are only two kinds of music: the good and the bad". We have had the extreme privilege of resurrecting the best. Duke Ellington, Piano Joe Benjamin, Bass Quinten "Rocky" White Jr, Drums Harold "Money" Johnson, Trumpet Paul Gonsalves, Saxophone Harry Carney, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet *Duke Ellington, Piano, Leader And his Orchestra, Featuring: Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Trumpet Harold Ashby, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Russell Procope, Saxophone Harry Carney, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet Rufus Jones, Drums Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonic Berliner Jazztage, 2.XI.1973 STEREO ℗ 1973 RBB *Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonic Berliner Jazztage, 8.XI.1969 MONO ℗ 1969 RBB Remastered by ℗ & © 2022 The Lost Recordings