Duke Ellington – Berlin Jazz Festival 1969-73 – The Lost Recordings 180g Vinyl

In a kind of rattle, the Duke launches “La plus Belle Africaine”. A baroque but perfectly mastered mixture of sunny colors captured during a tour in Dakar, launched on the solo saxophone and then taken up with flashes of inventiveness by all or part of the orchestra. The tone is set. Cat Anderson launches into a furious “El Gato” that shakes the audience with its squeaks, its voluntary deconstructions and evokes the revolutionary, fragmentary and unfinished gestures of a Thelonious Monk or a Cecil Taylor. A studied contrast with the gentle continuation of “I Can’t Get Started”, just before the 43-second parenthesis of “Caravan”, set as a mischievous link to the flamboyant “Satin Doll” which masterfully punctuates this concert.

In 1973, a few months before his death, Duke returned to Berlin in a formation organized on the basis of his trio (Joe Benjamin on double bass and Quinten “Rocky” White Jr. on drums), joined by Harold Johnson on trumpet, clarinetist and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney – and by his long-time sidekick, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. Duke Ellington gives a central place to his piano, making it both the driving force of the ensemble and its harmonic and rhythmic framework.

In this Blues that opens the concert, we hear some Debussy. This is followed by “Take the A train”. The Duke likes changes of mood. Only, here and there, touches of discontinuous speech remind us how much the Duke knew how to draw with sagacity from the audacious harmonies of his contemporaries. And then he dares everything. Like offering his band the rhythmic virtuosity of Baby Laurence on tap dance in “Tap Dance”. The magic works. The success is total.

Two concerts in Berlin, two facets of a poetic universe, two visions of an alchemist who knew how to draw with lightness but also with a mixture of jubilation and authority, in the harmonic sources of all the musics and which make so relevant the formula which he liked: “there are only two kinds of music: the good and the bad”. We have had the extreme privilege of resurrecting the best.

1. 1. • • Duke Ellington, Piano
        • Joe Benjamin, Bass
        • Quinten “Rocky” White Jr, Drums
        • Harold “Money” Johnson, Trumpet
        • Paul Gonsalves, Saxophone
        • Harry Carney, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet

1. 1. • *Duke Ellington, Piano, Leader
      • And his Orchestra, Featuring:
      • Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Trumpet
      • Harold Ashby, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Russell Procope, Saxophone
      • Harry Carney, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet
      • Rufus Jones, Drums

Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonic
Berliner Jazztage, 2.XI.1973
STEREO ℗ 1973 RBB

*Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonic
Berliner Jazztage, 8.XI.1969
MONO ℗ 1969 RBB

Remastered by ℗ & © 2022 The Lost Recordings
Made and printed in Germany

Remastered from the original analog tapes
Lacquer-cuts: Kevin Gray
Masters & Mothers: Quality Record Pressings
180g Single 33rpm vinyl album
2nd edition