DUKE ELLINGTON - The Conny Plank Session
Gröenland Records
Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Mercer Ellington, Fred Stone, Nelson Williams(t); Booty Wood, Malcolm Taylor(tb); Chuck Connors(btb); Russell Procope(cl,as); Norris Turney(fl,cl,as,ts); Harold Ashby(ts,cl); Paul Gonsalves(ts); Harry Carney(cl,bcl,as,bar); Duke Ellington(p); Wild Bill Davis(o); Joe Benjamin(sb); Rufus Jones(d)
Cologne 9th July 1970
This is a unique album. Conny Plank who recorded the session was used to working with musicians such as Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Ultravox and Devo. Plank in his field was an innovative producer. However, no one is quite sure how he came to be working with Ellington. Ellington did not like to waste time and if he had a spare day he would often book studio time to record and experiment and to build up his stockpile of recordings. That stockpile bequeathed to Danish Radio by Mercer Ellington is still yielding beautiful music.
The music on the CD was found in the archive of Conny Plant who died in 1987. It consists of two compositions ‘Afrique’ by Ellington and ‘Alerado’ by organ player. Wild Bill Davis. Davis played with the orchestra for a couple of years The real interest in the session is hearing how Ellington radically develops the two pieces.
Recent biographies of Ellington have continued to push the idea that Ellington reached a peak in the 1940s and declined steadily after that. The work on this CD gives the lie to that. Ellington in the 1960s was as vital as at any time in his life. It was then that he worked with Mingus and Max Roach on ‘Money Jungle’. On Impulse he produced an album with John Coltrane. For Reprise he created ‘Afro Bossa’ and ‘The Virgin Island Suite’. On RCA came ‘The Far East Suite’. ‘The Latin American Suite’ was written at the same time as ‘The New Orleans Suite’ and ‘The Togo Brava Suite’ and ‘The Afro Eurasian Eclipse’. Hardly someone in decline, resting on their laurels.
The first take of ‘Alerado’ has solos for flute and trumpet as well as Ellington’s piano. The second take is slow and the solos condensed. The third version is very slow with a different rhythmic accents and features a saxophone solo and sounds from Wild Bill.
‘Afrique’ eventually ended up as part of the album ‘Afro-Eurasian Eclipse’. It is interesting to compare that version with the three here. Rufus Jones, the drummer, is at the heart of all three pieces. This is almost a return to the Ellington of the twenties: the jungle period. The first take has a great deal of Wild Bill. The second take features a duet between Paul Gonsalves, and Ellington who plays like a restrained Cecil Taylor. The third take features an uncredited female vocalist, Wild Bill Davis, and Gonsalves . This is reminiscent of the kind of wordless vocalising that Ellington used in the 40s. ‘Afrique’ was eventually recorded again a few months later in New York without Davis and without vocals.
Ellington’s piano work always creative at this time had a keen harder edge. The fascination of this short album is listening to Ellington work with the band on the evolution of a small part of his music.
The whole album is 29 minutes and is very well recorded. Two of the tracks were issued by Storyville in 2008 on ‘Duke Ellington. New York, New York’ (1018402).
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Gröenland Records
Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, Mercer Ellington, Fred Stone, Nelson Williams(t); Booty Wood, Malcolm Taylor(tb); Chuck Connors(btb); Russell Procope(cl,as); Norris Turney(fl,cl,as,ts); Harold Ashby(ts,cl); Paul Gonsalves(ts); Harry Carney(cl,bcl,as,bar); Duke Ellington(p); Wild Bill Davis(o); Joe Benjamin(sb); Rufus Jones(d)
Cologne 9th July 1970
This is a unique album. Conny Plank who recorded the session was used to working with musicians such as Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Ultravox and Devo. Plank in his field was an innovative producer. However, no one is quite sure how he came to be working with Ellington. Ellington did not like to waste time and if he had a spare day he would often book studio time to record and experiment and to build up his stockpile of recordings. That stockpile bequeathed to Danish Radio by Mercer Ellington is still yielding beautiful music.
The music on the CD was found in the archive of Conny Plant who died in 1987. It consists of two compositions ‘Afrique’ by Ellington and ‘Alerado’ by organ player. Wild Bill Davis. Davis played with the orchestra for a couple of years The real interest in the session is hearing how Ellington radically develops the two pieces.
Recent biographies of Ellington have continued to push the idea that Ellington reached a peak in the 1940s and declined steadily after that. The work on this CD gives the lie to that. Ellington in the 1960s was as vital as at any time in his life. It was then that he worked with Mingus and Max Roach on ‘Money Jungle’. On Impulse he produced an album with John Coltrane. For Reprise he created ‘Afro Bossa’ and ‘The Virgin Island Suite’. On RCA came ‘The Far East Suite’. ‘The Latin American Suite’ was written at the same time as ‘The New Orleans Suite’ and ‘The Togo Brava Suite’ and ‘The Afro Eurasian Eclipse’. Hardly someone in decline, resting on their laurels.
The first take of ‘Alerado’ has solos for flute and trumpet as well as Ellington’s piano. The second take is slow and the solos condensed. The third version is very slow with a different rhythmic accents and features a saxophone solo and sounds from Wild Bill.
‘Afrique’ eventually ended up as part of the album ‘Afro-Eurasian Eclipse’. It is interesting to compare that version with the three here. Rufus Jones, the drummer, is at the heart of all three pieces. This is almost a return to the Ellington of the twenties: the jungle period. The first take has a great deal of Wild Bill. The second take features a duet between Paul Gonsalves, and Ellington who plays like a restrained Cecil Taylor. The third take features an uncredited female vocalist, Wild Bill Davis, and Gonsalves . This is reminiscent of the kind of wordless vocalising that Ellington used in the 40s. ‘Afrique’ was eventually recorded again a few months later in New York without Davis and without vocals.
Ellington’s piano work always creative at this time had a keen harder edge. The fascination of this short album is listening to Ellington work with the band on the evolution of a small part of his music.
The whole album is 29 minutes and is very well recorded. Two of the tracks were issued by Storyville in 2008 on ‘Duke Ellington. New York, New York’ (1018402).
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
|
|
|
