Search - Duke Ellington :: Live at Carnegie Hall Dec 11,1943

Great Ellington Live Performance

James S. Jones Jr. | Athens, GA | 06/07/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This concert is very enjoyable. While not comparing in importance with the Ellington's first Carnegie Hall concert just 11 months earlier (the premiere of Black, Brown, and Beige), this set presents many Ellington gems.The quality of the original glass based acetate recordings is very good; don't come looking for "high fidelity;" that didn't even exist in 1943, but it's pretty good. The CD transfer is excellent. This was put through the CEDAR process, which removes a lot of extraneous disc noise (and, hopefully, not much "original sound"). Regardless, this set sounds darn good.It's great hearing Ellington's fine band in live performance. I would also recommend his Live at the Blue Note 2 disc CD set for a great live recording..."

Get it for the B B + B excerpts and Black and Tan

jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 03/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a nice Ellington concert. In general, nothing really special. But since it took place during the recording ban, it's important for giving us a sense of this transitional year. And it contains phenomenal performances of West Indian Influence and Lighter Attitude from Black Brown and Beige. Otherwise, lots of OK features for the newer members, blowing on standards. This is not incredibly "Ellingtonian". Some pretty vibe-less performances of classics like C Jam Blues and Jack The Bear. An extremely anachronistic performance of Trumpet in Spades (it sounds SO dated!). The cursed "Medley"... The big work on this concert was Duke's new suite New World A Comin', which sounds like an update of James P. Johnson's Yamecraw. It's got this "Big Tune" which kinda goes around and around with all kinds of embellishments. It's got some great moments of Stride Piano. The scoring is really perfunctory - I'm pretty sure Duke wrote everything but farmed out the orchestration. It's better solo (see the Whitney Museum concert). Every large work of Duke's is moving in some sense though, because the man's genius always shines through. But this isn't one of the best. Near the end of the concert, Tricky Sam Nanton truly blows us away with his masterpiece solo on an extended version of Black and Tan Fantasy. People laugh, because who knows what to do in the face of something so exposed? So you see, even on a less - than - perfect Ellington concert, there are moments that can change your life."