Tír Na HiFi

Fran wrote:I like that Sean, good link!

Thanks Fran, I'm glad you like it.

On the TT:



This studio recording includes an extended version of "If I were a rich man" and here are the brother's John (bass) and Jeff (oboe) performing live:

I have increased the size of my Jazz collection by 100% with the arrival of my second Ellington CD....





....and I really like this one also!

fergus wrote:I have increased the size of my Jazz collection by 100% with the arrival of my second Ellington CD....





....and I really like this one also!

Fergus, I am delighted to hear it.

The New Orleans Suite was Ellington's last great work and recording too. The orchestra went rapidly downhill shortly after that. The ensemble that performed in Dublin in the old Carlton Cinema in November 1973 was a pale imitation of his great orchestras.

This was one of Buddy's best bands. He had Al Porcino on lead trumpet, Rick Stepton on trombone, the young and multi-talented Don Menza on tenor and Art Pepper on lead alto. Art was on recent release from San Quentin and was in a bad state: physically, emotionally and financially, and when a friend of his gave him a call to audition for Buddy's Band he jumped at the opportunity. Art was broke so Don Menza lent him his alto saxophone and during his tenure he had a terrific impact on the band. He stayed with Buddy for almost a year: playing lead alto and was a major soloist (which was unusal for Buddy because he preferred tenor players, but this was Art after all), and he even spent time in hospital with a ruptured spleen during his sojurn. Buddy was good to him and Art never forgot that.

This is a fine album.

Maybe this is a tad too smooth, but a pleasing listen nonetheless, and a lovely recording too.

Fran wrote:

Maybe this is a tad too smooth,

For me yes, I'm afraid so.

On the TT, this gorgeous set from 1963:



I bought this two LP set way back in August 1975 and I can still remember the excitement I felt then when listening to it for the first time, at that time most of my friends were into Slade and the Bay City Rollers.

Ellington had rebuilt his orchestra after the upheavel of 1960-1961 when two members of his trumpet section and his entire trombone section had departed. However, Lawrence Brown had returned after an absence of 15 years, the saxophone section retained the same personnel and Cootie Williams, who had played with Duke from 1928 until 1940 and had left after a row with Ellington over money, rejoined the orchestra in 1962. Ray Nance took Cootie's place in the trumpet section in 1940. Cootie returned as a replacment for Nance who left the Orchestra in 1963, both of them are on these live recordings, that's continuity.
It comes highly recommended by yours truly.

Are you trying to lure me further down the road to ruin?!?!