Search - Duke Ellington :: Duke Ellington 1940

If you could only have ONE...

Joe Richards | Belgium | 07/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you could only have just ONE CD in your collection, this would be THE one to have. This is DE at the peak of his peak with one fastastic track after another. My favorite on here is Dusk but they are all outstanding. This may sound a little strange, but the opening track sounds more like Glenn Miller than DE. Here and there in DE's work of this period you can hear a little of GM's reed sound, but on this track it's the entire arrangement. I'm not saying this is bad or anything negative and I think it's quite interesting. Anyway, I've had this for some time now and I can't tell you how many times it's been played. For most of that time it's been the only CD in my car and my drive to work is between 50 and 60 minutes. I just found a pair of these new in Paris for less than original retail, so I'm quite pleased. I do wish that Classics would reissue this entire series. Some are hard to find and usually quite expensive when you do get lucky. And a few of the most difficult ones that don't turn up on here very often have astronomical price tags (for a CD at any rate) attached"