#billystrayhorn

[projazznet]

Honoring Billy Strayhorn on his 110th birthday.

BILLY STRAYHORN & DUKE ELLINGTON’S ORCHESTRA – TAKE THE “A” TRAIN

[jonny-white]

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Listen to 3 tracks from Duke Ellington’s ‘Far East Suite’ LP (RCA, LSA 3063 [LSP 3782] TPRS 9145, UK, 1972, originally released in 1967).

It’s touching 33.5° Celsius in the jazz lounge. That’s nearly 93° to you Fahrenheit Philistines, but whichever way you look at it, that’s hot. So, I fancy some hot jazz and here it is in the shape of Duke Ellington’s late 1966 recording ‘Far East Suite’. It’s a bit of a misnomer to be truthful as the Duke’s inspiration for this record began back in the Autumn on 1963 when he and his orchestra embarked on a US State Department tour that took in Ankara, Amman, Damascus, New Delhi, Madras and Bombay, as well as Terhan, Kabul and Sri Lanka. They didn’t actually reach the real ‘far east’ until a separate tour to Japan later the following year but hey, record companies just love to bundle things up and keep it simple for us so we’re left with a far east suite inspired by the scales, melodies and rhythms of The Levant, The Middle East, Persia and the Indian sub-continent.

Introducing the Duke, you’ll hear the whisper of Miles Davis followed by Ravi Shankar counting the orchestra in, but probably not in the same time signature that they’re playing in. All the skullduggery is necessary as the tumblr fuzz are getting pretty hot at spotting copyrighted material. Talking of hot, this isn’t really ‘hot jazz’ at all- strictly speaking, that term belongs to the New Orleans sound from the first two decades of the 20th Century, you know, cornets, clarinets and banjos. Yes, jazz constantly evolves, it’s always going somewhere, and it’s been places too, but it can still be extremely irritating. Banjos? Nope. The Duke? Yes indeed. Sizzling.

[nini-eternalsolentertainment]

#ilovejazz 🎵🎶🎼❤ 🎹 #billystrayhorn

[projazznet]

Rosemary Clooney And Duke Ellington And His Orchestra – Blue Rose (Full Album)

“Rosemary Clooney may have seemed to be a surprising choice to be featured with Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, but this collaboration is extremely successful in spite of the fact that Clooney was unable to join the band in the studio due to complications of a very difficult pregnancy. The solution was for the band to record the music (after Billy Strayhorn made the first of several trips to Los Angeles to consult with her). The results are stunning and not in the least bit canned, due to the professionalism of all parties involved and a stellar engineering of the separately recorded tracks. Clooney swings throughout “Me and You” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing” without excess, her wordless vocal on “Blue Rose,” and a captivating “Mood Indigo” are among the many highlights. The sound on this Legacy series reissue is greatly improved over the earlier Mobile Fidelity CD, plus there are two tracks added, the obscure but appealing “If You Were in My Place (What Would You Do?)” and “Just a-Sittin’ and a-Rockin’,” that were only issued as a single and omitted from the original release. It’s a pity that the collaboration of Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington was only a one-shot deal, as she easily ranks as one of the greatest vocalists to appear on record with the maestro.” – Ken Dryden/AllMusic.

[projazznet]

The Lush Life Of Billy Strayhorn (Photo: David Redfern/Getty Images)

The fruitful collaboration between Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington is widely known to have brought us such classics as "Take The 'A' Train," "Chelsea Bridge" and "Isfahan." But behind the music, Strayhorn's life and identity were complex.

While composing some of the most harmonically rich jazz of its time — often in Ellington's shadow — Strayhorn was an outlier in that he led an openly gay life as a black man in the 1940s, an era rife with homophobia and racism.

[polyrhythmicbw]

Isfahan

[philajazzproject]

LAST FROM THE PAST: Pretty Girl featuring vocalist Kevin Valentine from Lush Life: Philadelphia Celebrates Billy Strayhorn Concert, as part of the OutBeat Jazz Festival - bringing together straight & LGBTQ artists in the first Gay Jazz festival in the US, back in September 2014, at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia. SEE THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/iYRnMWqLp88 #PhillyJazz #BillyStrayhorn #DukeEllington #OutBeatJazzFestival #KevinValentine #JazzSinger #SingPhillySing (at Suzanne Roberts Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7l7TnJ48k/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[philajazzproject]

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Blues In Orbit featuring: DivaNation vocalists, Ella Gahnt, Barbara Montgomery and Liz Filante, from Lush Life: Philadelphia Celebrates Billy Strayhorn Concert, September 19th, 2014 at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia. SEE THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/WVHvAzhMhtQ #PhillyJazz #BillyStrayhorn #DukeEllington #OutBeatJazzFestival #EllaGahnt #BarbaraMontgomery #LizFilante #SingPhillySing (at Suzanne Roberts Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdoqBViJ8Xg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=