For me it’s interesting to explore the cats that came before modern jazz, to get a deeper sense of where stuff came from. For example, when listening to this lovely album you’ll hear very clearly where Mingus got a lot of his stuff from. I think to fully understand what you are listening to you have to go back to the source and appreciate where it all came from.
Like I mentioned in a previous post, my grandfather on my mothers side was a big Ellington fan, so it’s quite special to discover the music he enjoyed.
This music is outstanding and this copy sounds great. The cats backing Ellington consists largely of unknown names for me at this point, but some of them are very familiar. For example Clark Terry, Paul Gonsalves, Johnny Hodges, Britt Woodman (who Mingus used on some of his sessions) and Sam Woodyard.
The highlights for me on the first side is the wonderfully moody ”Where or When” and also the very moody classic ”Autumn Leaves”, that on this original pressing features vocals on only half of the tune by singer Ozzie Bailey. The violin improvisation here by Roy Nance completes the haunting mood here perfectly.
On the second side we have the beautiful ballad ”Prelude to a Kiss”, composed by Ellington in 1938, covered in fantastic fashion by Archie Shepp on his album ”Fire Music” as well as the second tune ”Willow Weep for Me”.
I recommend this one with all my heart.