That is a good album and and it is well recorded too. It was originally released as the 'Popular Duke Ellington' on the RCA label. It was recorded a few months before Billy Strayhorn's death in May 1967 and was subsequently overtaken in importance and popularity by Duke's tribute to his longtime friend and music soul mate:
"To appreciate the greatness of the Masters is to keep faith in the greatness of humanity." - Wilhelm Furtwängler
In 1945 Igor Stravinsky was so taken with the calibre of the standard of musicianship in Woody Herman's Jazz Orchestra (or Herd) that he wrote a composition for Herman's Herd entitled the Ebony Concerto, this was my first encounter with Stravinsky and I LOVED it:
Stravinsky even included a harp in the instrumentation in an effort to prevent Woody from swinging his way through it.
A year letter Woody assembled his Second (and greatest) Herd and recorded one of the most famous of all Jazz recordings, 'Four Brothers'. It was a magnificent orchestra and featured two young men who would go on to be two of the greatest tenor saxophone soloists in Jazz: Zoot Sims and Stan Getz, the other two brothers are Serge Chaloff on baritone and Herbie Steward on Tenor.
"FOUR BROTHERS"
Woody Herman and His Orchestra
Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Stan Fishelson, Shorty Rogers, Marky Markowitz (trumpet)
Earl Swope, Ollie Wilson, Bob Swift (trombone)
Woody Herman (clarinet,alto sax)
Sam Marowitz (alto sax)
Herbie Steward, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims (tenor sax)
Serge Chaloff (baritone sax)
Fred Otis (piano)
Gene Sargent (guitar)
Walter Yoder (bass)
Don Lamond (drums)
Recorded in December 27, 1947
"To appreciate the greatness of the Masters is to keep faith in the greatness of humanity." - Wilhelm Furtwängler
Duke's orchestra had a familiar look and feel to it in the early sixties: his glorious sax section was intact; Lawrence Brown had returned to resume ownership of the lead trombone chair made vacant following the departure of his earlier replacement Britt Woodman; Cootie Williams has also returned after an absence of 22 years to replace his replacement, Ray Nance. Nance stayed with Ellington for a few months in 1963 and departed shortly are the tour had finished. This is one of the best series of performances of Ellington's music available on record.
Personnel :
Duke Ellington pianist, conductor, composer, arranger, band leader, man manager, etc, etc, etc.
Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Roy Burrowes (trumpet), Ray Nance (cornet, violin),
Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper, Chuck Connors (trombone),
Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Russell Procope (clarinet, alto sax), Jimmy Hamilton (clarinet, tenor sax), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Harry Carney (baritone sax),
Ernie Shepard (bass), Sam Woodyard (drums)
rec. Feb.1963 Olympia Theatre, Paris
Perdido:
"To appreciate the greatness of the Masters is to keep faith in the greatness of humanity." - Wilhelm Furtwängler
