Ellington Uptown (1951) Album Review

Recorded over a number of dates between December 1951 and December 1952, this album contains an array of material, from the traditional to the fairly experimental. THE MOOCHE, a tune that goes back to the 1920s, features some beautiful clarinet work by

Yes, this is the beautiful album where Betty Roche sings on Take the A-train, Clark Terry shines on Perdido, the whole band gives a classic re-working of The Mooche, Louis Bellson

Really great Ellington's album. It contains Bellson's original Skin Deep, Ellington's Harlem Suite and two great covers - Mooche - for me the best from late versions of this stuff and Take The A Train - with vocal and long Paul Gonsalves tenor solo in

THIS IS JUST ANOTHER OF A STRING OF GREAT DUKE ELLINGTON RELEASES FROM THE 1950'S, WHEN THE LP FORMAT FIRST CAME INTO PLAY. ELLINGTON WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL JAZZ ARTIST AT THAT TIME TO MAKE THAT TRANSITION, AND PART OF THE REASON WAS THAT HIS ALBUMS

The creativity displayed throughout this disc is awesome - fecund, endless...Whose creativity? Duke's, Strayhorn's and all of the members of the band. But it isn't a masterpiece. So much [..] interruptus - events go to a point where I feel like the

The essential Ellington masterpiece! Everything afterwards was downhill.... Recommended cuts are '"A" Train' and 'Skin Deep'.

It's somewhat unsettling these days to see the number of "desert island" lists that omit any mention of the Ellington band. Apparently the maestro is receiving ever-growing recognition for his popular song output as well as his iconic but hardly

A great many things might be implied by the titling of Duke Ellington's thrice released and cherished album "Ellington Uptown," (Columbia) and the concept of something being "classy" is only one of those possibilities. Surely, Ellington was the grand

This is the album that made a household name of Louie Bellson and the tune that turned the drumming world on its ear. No one had heard anything quite like "Skin Deep" in 1952, and it is still remarkable by any standard. Constructed within the framework

These 1951-52 recordings capture Ellington and co-arranger Billy Strayhorn in a period of deepening exploration of composition and tone, bringing an acrobatic, deft modernism to bear on older songs such as "Perdido," "The Mooche" and