In 1958, at an arts festival in Yorkshire, Duke Ellington was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. They tied up the reception line for a few minutes, exchanging royal pleasantries; our Duke politely flirted with Her Majesty. Soon afterward, maybe that very night, Ellington outlined the movements of The Queen's Suite. He recorded it with his orchestra the following year, sent it to Her Majesty, and declined to release it to the public in his lifetime. It's not clear whether Queen Elizabeth has listened to it.
Ellington devoted special attention to The Queen's Suite, which in the end hewed closely to his original sketch. Its six episodes were inspired by natural phenomena encountered in his travels: bird calls of two continents ("Sunset and the Mocking Bird," featuring clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton, was based on a bird call Ellington overheard in Florida), the Northern Lights seen from a Canadian roadside, and a ballet of hundreds of lightning bugs, accompanied by a chorus of bullfrogs, along the Ohio River. Ellington's alter ego Billy Strayhorn wasn't there that night, but composed "Lightning Bugs and Frogs" from Ellington's description.
The suites Duke Ellington wrote with Billy Strayhorn were sometimes loosely tied together. The Queen's Suite is unified by prominent use of clarinets, their woodiness reinforcing the nature theme. Ellington ties that back to his royal subject via the movement "Apes and Peacocks." Those were among the annual tributes bestowed on the Bible's King Solomon — natural wonders presented for a monarch's delight. It's on a new edition of The Ellington Suites, which has three of them.
The Goutelas Suite was recorded in 1971, after Strayhorn's passing. It commemorated a ceremony Ellington had participated in years earlier, in which the restored wing of a medieval chateau was unveiled in the French hills. In a journal, Ellington wrote warmly of how the countryside's aristocrats and commoners — its intellectuals, artisans and laborers, its Catholics and communists — had all banded together on the project. Ellington's orchestral concept was based on a similar idea, which he'd learned hanging around a D.C. pool hall as a kid: "All levels could and should mix."
The album The Ellington Suites also contains the Uwis Suite of 1972, composed for a University of Wisconsin festival. It's best remembered for Ellington's novelty polka, "Klop." But it also includes "Loco Madi," the last of the many train songs Ellington recorded, in a tradition that began with his inaugural session in 1924. A new edit gives us three more minutes before the fadeout. There's also a previously unreleased tune from the Uwis session, although not part of the suite; "The Kiss," like "Loco Madi," adds electric bass to the rhythm section. Neither of those performances is a model of ensemble polish. But all posthumous Ellington is of interest — even if it can't all be The Queen's Suite. - Kevin Whitehead
It should not be so hard to identify the most important jazz musician in the history of the genre. It is one of five artists: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis. Much can be made for Ellington being the logical choice. Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899-1974) lived the entire history of jazz. He led arguably the most important big band of the swing era while also recording widely in smaller formats. But Ellington considered his music well beyond the definition of jazz. The extended compositions championed by Wynton Marsalis in the 1980s and '90s, germinated in the band book of Ellington.
The three suites included here were recorded between 1959 and 1972. "The Queen's Suite" was composed shortly after the coronation of Great Britain's Elizabeth II in 1955 and contains a solo piano (supported by string bass) composition, "Single Petal of a Rose." The Goutelas and Uwis Suites are 1970s products. The latter is supplemented with "The Kiss" recorded at the same time as the suite. Ellington still featured Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges, whose voices loom large on this recording.
Ellington's suites may have suffered from under exposure for their forward thinking approach of melding jazz and classical forms. But listening to these pieces, the thread of Ellington, that creative remnant that matured in the late 1920s is in fully flowered evidence on these relatively late career recordings. These pieces make it hard to dispute Ellington's supremacy in American jazz. - C. Michael Bailey
Tracks
THE QUEEN'S SUITE
1. Sunset And The Mockingbird
2. Lightning Bugs And Frogs
3. Le Sucrier Velours
4. Northern Lights
5. The Single Petal Of A Rose
6. Apes And Peacocks
Duke Ellington (piano), Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Shorty Baker, Ray Nance (trumpets), Britt Woodman, Quentin Jackson, John Sanders (trombones), Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope, Jimmy Hamilton, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney (reeds), Jimmy Woode (bass), Jimmy Johnson (drums)
Recorded in 1959
THE GOUTELA'S SUITE
7. Fanfare
8. Goutelas
9. Get-With-It-Ness
10. Something
11. Having At It
12. Fanfare
Duke Ellington (piano), Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Money Johnson, Eddie Preston (trumpets), Booty Wood, Malcolm Taylor, Chuck Connors (trombones), Harold Minerve, Norris Turney, Paul Gonsalves, Harold Ashby, Harry Carney (reeds), Joe Benjamin (bass), Rufus Jones (drums)
Recorded in 1971
THE UWIS SUITE
13. Uwis
14. Klop
15. Loco Madi
Duke Ellington (piano), Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Money Johnson, Johnny Coles (trumpets), Booty Wood, Vince Prudente , Chuck Connors (trombones), Russell Procope, Harold Minerve, Norris Turney, Harold Ashby, Russ Andrews, Harry Carney (reeds), Joe Benjamin (bass), Rufus Jones (drums), Wulf Freedman (electric bass "Loco Madi" only)
Recorded in 1972
All Selections composed by Duke Ellington
Pablo Records (1976) Fantasy Records (1990)