His music has slowly, over the last five decades, become almost sacred in my listening world, the scope and depth of his work is one that takes a lifetime to really explore and digest. At least that is my experience.
From the first time I was presented anything by Ellington in an analytical context - in other words not just “A-Train” or “It Don’t Mean a Swing if you Ain’t Got No Thing” (I might have typed that wrong) - I was forever mesmerized by what he could do with sound. My first “blown away” moment was the 1943 recording of “Work Song”, followed soon by “Creole Rhapsody” (1931)
I just found that there’s a High Definition Tape Transfer version of Blues in Orbit, so it’s next on my list. So yeah, for the rest of my days, I’ll be learning and hearing more from Duke Ellington.
Well for the Armstrong I don’t necessarily hear imbalances the way that you do–that may be system dependent. And with “favorite” recordings I’m not as “absolutist”–that realism and the “spirit” I hear in the recordings sets it apart and makes it tower in my holdings and I’ve listened to it since '75 (there’s a distinct history with this recording) and love it to death. It’s just that type of honest and vivid recording that I value far more than purist and exceedingly clean recordings.
I don’t like to listen to Americana and pop and a lot of styles any longer or never did . . . no matter how good they sound. I grew up on classical, then in my youth rock and blues, and then as a young adult jazz overcame me and only Brazilian music has really seduced me in the fifty years since. So my “favorites”–and what is best recorded that I listen to, and what I will follow through with recommendatons for–is going to be in the jazz world, on discs as I don’t stream or use files. I hope you enjoy “Blues in Orbit”–it’s distinctly an Ellington work.
Hey Craig, just previewed a little of Grace Morrison’s album. Her voice strikes me in a similar way as Iris Dement’s. From what I heard, the recording will be great to listen to deeply. And the “physical space” of a well-conceived recording. What a fantastic description - you will be proud to know that I have just stolen that idea from you!
Well it’s not on any original version of the LP nor is it on any reissue I own.
Edit to add: sorry Craig, I had assumed you were discussing “Blues in Orbit” which I had just posted about, but now assume you mean “Indigos” which does lead off with “Solitude.”
No worries. Older recordings get shuffled and reissued so frequently, I was prepared to accept that the original LP and the CD reissue were different. Actually, without having them both in hand, they could very well turn out to be different in some other way, too, whether song selection or actual recordings.
“Blues in Orbit” has been lucky in official releases, especially in digital form. The first US cd reissue had additional material recorded at the sessions but not released at the time added, and other releases from Columbia have retained these, and officially leased versions released have I think uniformly just issued the original album as originally released.
Hey, I hope you understand that I am NOT AT ALL saying anything bad about your musical TASTE. For the vast majority of my listening life, I have cared only about musicianship about 90 percent of the time - as long as it was captured well enough, I was happy. I grew up on jazz first, then classical, then got into alternative and progressive rock in college. Classic rock and pop were there running in the background and I liked some of it. About 20 years ago a friend got me into Americana and some country. Just to give you an idea of where my ears have been, here’s a pic of my media closet and around 1000 78 rpm records I collected over the years. Don’t play them as much these days, but sure love having them.
PS: many of the spines on the albums were eaten off by a schnauzer puppy who apparently loved the taste of the glue or something. Glad she wasn’t into shellac.
Ron Cuzner was the best. A bunch of his old shows are posted on YouTube. He was my late night soundtrack for many years. I used to die laughing just listening to him read the news and sports scores. Unique man. In addition to opening with Solitude, he closed every show with Don Shirley’s “Trilogy”.
I didn’t get any such idea. I was just hoping to explain that I am not going to be recommending or getting excited about Americana, singer-songwriter, classic rock, etc. recordings.
And I guess I’ve listed my favorites that fall into this category, the fact of the matter is that “absolute sound quality” is not something I pursue or analyze for–the music itself and its place in the tradition and my history is more important. I hope you get lots of recommendations to explore and discuss!
Hey, I got a chance to listen twice to Ellington’s Blues in Orbit. It’s strange, but in a great way. Compared to so much else of what I’ve heard from The Duke, I’m not sure what the intention of the recording was, aside from just getting in the studio and doing it, if that makes sense. In other words, it might have a commercial end to it, but it’s still got Ellington’s characteristic interest in arranging and sound. One thing I read about the session - and I think this might explain it - is that it was thrown together - almost arranged on the spot. So maybe a lot of the sound spectrum was an “experiment” that in a more rehearsed setting would have sounded more “deliberate.” I just found myself often with a puzzled look in my mind.
But all that being said, the musicianship is great and so is the recording. The soundstage is very real and very wide. There’s great individual clarity with each instrumentalist. “Sweet and Pungent” is incredible. I love how the clarinet is almost buried back in the mix, appearing almost “off-stage”. But the improvisation is so good it pulls the clarinet through the crowd. “The Swinger’s Jump” swings like nobody’s business! Every track has its unique thing to contribute.
But here’s something maybe you could help me with. I dropped $16 to download the 24/96 version from High Definition Tape Transfers. I really like the feeling that I’m getting closer to the “source” with their work, but I ran into a few problems which made me question what “tape transfer” they were working from. First, the tracks were totally in a different order from the original and included “CD only” tracks as described in the Wikipedia article. Perhaps HDTT got hold of a master tape with those tracks, I don’t know. But my bigger concern is the track “Three J’s Blues” - about halfway through, there are very audible high-pitch glitches that sure sound digital to me. I checked the Qobuz version and the glitches are there too. I guess they could be electronic on the master analog tapes, but could you give it a listen on one of your vinyl pressings and see whether it’s there? If not, I’m wondering if HDTT did a transfer from CD to tape, then back to digital, which seems kind of dumb to me, but what do I know.
Either way, it’s a great recording and bears future listens. Thanks for the suggestion.
I’m glad you found so much to enjoy in the performances and recording.
Personally, I’ve never found any puzzlement in the playback. If I am remembering correctly this is near a crucial point in the Columbia contract and he was putting together a few sessions quickly for release. This has a “sister” recording in “The Cosmic Scene”–another smaller than full orchestra recording that has a jam session feel, and seems like the sort of recording that Duke made for his “stockpile” to experiment with different instrumentation and arrangements. Both are tied in “titularly” to the nascent space program and the excitement in the air in the nation at the time. (I remember some of this as a child, and remember that anything about the space program was among the few things that we were allowed to watch on TV at the time).
Through the Private Collection (and through some unauthorized recordings that I traded for last century when I was in a collector trading network) I’m quite comfortable with these sort of Duke works, and really feel that all through the decades of work by Duke and his men there is a sense of looseness (one friend of mine calls it “slop”) that is an important component to the “feel” of the music and “Blues in Orbit” exemplifies that in the way it swings and the sedate raucusness of the ensemble writing and delivery–all captured so well by the engineering staff.
As for the source tape? I’m pretty sure HDTT uses commercial tape reels (not any label masters or safetys etc.) for their purposes. I have not bought any of their files as I don’t DO files, but I did buy a handful of their cdrs when they were selling them, and have “Indigos” which is an okay transfer, sounds like from a home reel to reel copy, and the sides are reversed (B before A). I have an Impex gold cd version that sounds better to me, and the LPs do as well. As for glyphs, I don’t think I hear them on my SACDs, my LP copies are in storage and I won’t be getting to that unit for a spell. I’ll try to listen closely to the SACDs (MoFi and AP) to verify that.
Hey, thanks so much for the full explanation. Sounds like you’ve got a few years on me - I was born right at the time “Blues in Orbit” was recorded. I followed the space race as soon as I was old enough to watch it on TV. I got my early love of jazz from my father and my grandfather, who was actually a semi-professional jazz band pianist.
I think for many jazz recordings, there was some “slop” built in that was probably recognized as necessary to convey its freedom and “folkness” as opposed to classical music at the time. I’ve watched a lot of studio film footage shot during the 50s and 60s and that seems to be the vibe.
As for HDTT, I emailed them to ask whether they might have gone from CD to tape, for whatever reason. The only non-CD explanation is that the “glitches” got there at some point of the analog progression, but when they also included several tracks that are called “CD only” elsewhere sure has me scratching my head. I’ll be interested in what they have to say.
