The Duke Box #2

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

This is not my review, but rather, one that features on Amazon.com.

It’s written by a British Jazz fan and I wanted to use it to bring the companion set to your attention as a follow up to my recent piece on the Storyville Records 8 CD - The Duke Box.

It provides a brief but detailed description of The Duke Box #2 and may serve as a helpful guide should you be interested in this follow-up compilation.

“Other than Elvis Presley, I can't think of any other giant of popular music who has had so much new material released posthumously. However, whereas Elvis's continual roll-out of unissued material is mostly made up of alternate takes and so-so soundboard recordings of concerts with repetitive track listings (mostly due to them all coming from a seven year period), Ellington's posthumous releases are a mix of unreleased live performances, radio recordings, and the "stockpile" - studio recordings that Ellington undertook mostly for his own satisfaction or in order to reflect on new compositions and arrangements. What is clear by how much there is of the stockpile is that Ellington just loved to make music, and that love of music-making is very much in evidence in this collection of seven CDs and a DVD.

For the most part, this is a throwing together of various Storyville releases from the last fifteen years into a box with a booklet. It's almost like a second volume to the ten-CD "private collection" that appeared many moons ago. The first disc is made up of radio broadcasts from Birdland that, by their very nature, are a little ragged at times, but show Ellington and his band to be in fine form in 1952 as they celebrate their 25th anniversary. The second disc is from Munich in 1958. A little more sedate overall, but a fine performance nonetheless, even if some will object to the lengthy hits medley. The third disc is just a little odd. Recorded in Sweden in 1963, it is from the same set of recordings as those on the double Storyville release at Grona Lund, released in 2014. However, these are different performances. Oddly, the sound is more stable and vibrant here than on the double disc but there is only half an hour of material here (again, mostly a hits medley) and it just feels like a half-hearted disc of leftovers. Then we move on to studio material, starting with "The Piano Player," recorded over the course of a decade and concentrating on Ellington's piano playing itself. It's a low key effort after the live performances but very pleasant indeed, even if there is nothing to make you go "wow!". "The Jaywalker" is quite the opposite. This is a loud, energetic bunch of tracks with the full orchestra from 1966-7, some of which was written for a play that may or may not have been performed. This is stirring stuff, and my favorite disc of the set by far. "New York New York" collects together material from the early 1970s and is also very interesting, especially given there are, I believe, compositions here that had not been released before in any form. Alas, the title song is one of the least inspiring on the disc. Finally, we get the "Togo Brava Suite" - not the live rendition, but the piece in its complete form recorded in the studio in 1971, together with a bunch of other tracks from the stockpile recorded at the same time. The DVD is a short affair, but marred by the fact that the band are miming to pre-recorded tracks. Personally, I find it difficult to see beyond that, but others might not have that problem.

For anyone looking to expand their Ellington collection beyond the original albums, this is a good collection at a good price of around £5 [$6.37] a disc. It's not all vintage stuff, but each disc is enjoyable and the sound is generally excellent. The only difficulty is that many Ellington fans will already own six of these discs from when they were released separately. Otherwise highly recommended.”