Duke Ellington

• 2 ORIGINAL ALBUMS ON 2-CD SET

• INCLUDES 18 BONUS TRACKS

• 20-PAGE BOOKLET

After the successful orbital launch of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 mission on October 4 1957, the space race was on and the possibility of space travel was on everyone’s mind worldwide. That event explains the titles of the two Duke Ellington albums presented here in their entireties: Blues in Orbit (Columbia CS-8241) and Duke Ellington’s Spacemen: The Cosmic Scene (Columbia CL-1198). Beyond their titles, however, both are pure and earthy Ellington masterpieces with no touch of outer space.

While the former has the full band, the latter presents a nonet. Both are an interesting combination of old standards rearranged and renewed, and fresh compositions, some of which would never be recorded again by Duke. All existing others tunes or alternative takes from the sessions have been added to this set, which also presents 10 bonus tracks consisting of different versions of tunes from the LPs.

PERSONNEL:

• DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA:

• COLLECTIVE PERSONNEL:
• Cat Anderson, Clark Terry, Willie Cook (tp), Ray Nance (tp, vln, vcl), Quentin Jackson, John Sanders, Booty Wood, Matthew Gee, Britt Woodman (tb), Jimmy Hamilton (cl, ts), Russell Procope (as, cl), Johnny Hodges (as), Paul Gonsalves (ts), Harry Carney (bar, cl, b-cl), Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn (p), Jimmy Woode (b), Sam Woodyard, Jimmy Johnson (d), among others.

Recorded in New York & Los Angeles, 1958-59.

TRACKS:

• CD 1: BLUES IN ORBIT
• 01 THREE J’S BLUES
• 02 SMADA
• 03 PIE EYE’S BLUES
• 04 SWEET & PUNGENT
• 05 C JAM BLUES
• 06 IN A MELLOW TONE
• 07 BLUES IN BLUEPRINT
• 08 THE SWINGERS GET THE BLUES, TOO
• 09 THE SWINGER’S JUMP
• 10 BLUES IN ORBIT
• 11 VILLES VILLE IS THE PLACE, MAN
• 12 TRACK 360
• 13 SENTIMENTAL LADY [aka I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT YOU]
• 14 BROWN PENNY
• 15 PIE EYE’S BLUES [alt tk] (*)
• 16 SWEET & PUNGENT [alt tk] (*)
• 17 THE SWINGER’S JUMP [alt tk] (*)
• 18 BLUES IN ORBIT [alt tk] (*)
• 19 TRACK 360 [alt tk 1] (*)
• 20 TRACK 360 [alt tk 2] (*)
• 21 SMADA [original 1951 version] (**)
• 22 SMADA [rare 1951 alt tk] (**)
• 23 BROWN PENNY [original 1947 version] (**)
• TOTAL TIME: 73:14 min.

• CD 2: DUKE ELLINGTON'S SPACEMEN: COSMIC SCENE
• 01 AVALON
• 02 BODY AND SOUL
• 03 BASS-MENT [aka DISCONTENTED]
• 04 EARLY AUTUMN
• 05 JONES
• 06 PERDIDO
• 07 ST. LOUIS BLUES
• 08 SPACEMEN
• 09 MIDNIGHT SUN
• 10 TAKE THE “A” TRAIN
• 11 BODY AND SOUL [alt tk] (*)
• 12 JONES [alt tk] (*)
• 13 BODY AND SOUL [1952 Columbia version] (**)
• 14 BODY AND SOUL [1955 Capitol version] (**)
• 15 BASS-MENT [aka DISCONTENTED] [1956 version] (**)
• 16 PERDIDO [1959 version] (**)
• 17 ST. LOUIS BLUES [1959 version] (**)
• 18 SPACEMEN [aka THREE TRUMPS] [1957 version] (**)
• 19 TAKE THE “A” TRAIN [1952 version](**)
• TOTAL TIME: 76:40 Min.
• (*) From the same sessions, but not included on the original albums
• (**) Duke Ellington & His Orchestra on all tracks. Recorded between 1947 & 1959.