MAO LEGENDARY ALBUMS | LOUIS ARMSTRONG & DUKE ELLINGTON – RECORDING TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
In the Legendary Albums series, the Modern Art Orchestra performs material from albums of particular significance to jazz history. The concerts are not only a tribute to jazz legends and their works - the workshop behind the Legendary Albums is also a process of development. The musicians of the MAO study and internalise all of the current album material, leaving the musical structures and instrumentation intact for the performances. As improvisation and soloistic expression are essential components of the jazz language, the musicians naturally perform improvised solos at the concerts. Thanks to the respect for original compositions and orchestrations and the improvisations of musicians of the quality that the Modern Art Orchestra is known for, the Legendary Albums bring listeners into contact with the tradition of jazz masterpieces and guarantee a fresh musical experience. In the autumn season, the orchestra will commemorate two centenaries, while the other two evenings will bring back memorable collaborations.
Schedule
The most important word in this long title is "and", because it is not only the first, but also the only time Armstrong and Ellington made studio recordings together. The two defined what we mean by jazz from the 1920s until their deaths in the 1970s. After several attempts and a joint soundtrack to Paris Blues, Bob Thiele brought about the big meeting in April 1961 by putting Ellington at the piano with the Armstrong All Stars. The decisive moment was that only Ellington's songs were performed. Of these, Armstrong had played and sung relatively few up to that point, but later added several to his late repertoire. They open with C-Jam Blues (aka Duke's Place) and for the next ten tracks it is a marvel to hear Armstrong carefully but effortlessly embrace Ellington's famous numbers (Cottontail etc), including some that Ellington composed at the time.
And the pianist is brilliant as accompanist. In The Mooche and a few other numbers, clarinettist Barney Bigard takes centre stage. His autobiography is titled With Louis And The Duke, as he was a long-time soloist with these two bands from the mid-twenties onwards, and composed Mood Indigo with Ellington, which can also be heard here. This album, for which seven more tracks recorded during the session were issued as a follow-up, has now been released in well over fifty different editions, and it is reasonable that tracks that were either dropped or re-recorded have been released. On them, too, you can sense that these two immense greats approached each other not only with respect and openness, but with outright love.
Opus Jazz Club
Adventurous European jazz and great Hungarian cuisine in the heart of Budapest