Search - Duke Ellington :: Togo Brava Suite

Danish Record Label Releases More from Ellington's Stockpile

Michael J. Connor | Waltham, MA USA | 06/05/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am reviewing "Togo Brava Suite" on Storyville Records (Denmark)You should not confuse this "Togo Brava Suite" with the 1995 Blue Note CD called "Togo Brava Suite." The Blue Note CD is really a retitled reissue of a live album culled from two concerts in England in 1971. The CD is no longer carried by Blue Note, though it is available on BGO out of the UK as "The English Concert." This Storyville release contains studio recordings from 1971 including a seven part Togo Brava Suite. So many things about Ellington are counter intuative. In later years he seemed to record more when he did not have a recording contract than when he did. Go figure. Ellington continued to record because he kept writing new material. And in concert he would feature his new compositions along with his old hits. When asked what his favorite composition was he would say "the next one." He probably would have said the same thing about his next recording session or his next concert. And now here are these never released studio recordings and I marvel. Highlights on this disk include the seven part "Togo Brava Suite, and Norris Turney's "Checkered Hat." "There's a Place" seems to be a piece of Sacred Music that was left out of the Third Sacred Concert, "Blues" features interplay between Ellington and organist Wild Bill Davis. "Grap" is another version of a section of "The River" called "Giggling Rapids." We even get a cover. "Lover Man" was a feature for the singer Ellington had at the time Nell Brookshire. If your one of those that thinks that anything Ellington wrote after 1941 is not worth listening to (and you know who you are) this CD is not for you. For the rest of us this CD whets our appitite for more. Storyville Brava--Brava Storyville!"

Mostly For Die-hard Ellington Fans

Robert Szarka | Norwich, CT USA | 02/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you're new to Ellington's music, you'll almost certainly want to start elsewhere. Ellington was America's most prolific composer, and his recordings span half of the 20th-century, so there's much better material to choose from. (Ellington At Newport 1956, The Blanton-Webster Years, and The OKeh Ellington, for example.) The recordings presented here are from late in Ellington's career, when some of the most brilliant members of his orchestra were gone; worse, they're essentially rehearsals rather than full-blown recording sessions or public performances.



Having said that, this motley collection of tracks has something to please most Ellington fans, and will be of interest to those who've already heard the bulk of his work. For starters, we have here the full seven parts of Ellington's Togo Brava Suite--not a major work, perhaps, but not without its modest charms (e.g. the flute in "Toto"). Second, there's the presence of Wild Bill Davis on several of the other tracks. There's even one or two tracks that swing along at a nice tempo for dancing. All-in-all, not Ellington at his best; but proof that Ellington's worst is still pretty good."