Duke's longform works are astounding, "B, B & B" in particular- he truly found common ground between jazz, gospel and classical music here.
After this story was first published, Sony reissued the album on CD with bonus tracks of additional material presumably cut from the original issue, and extended liner notes, as part of their reissuing of Duke's Columbia albums. Although I don't believe a full unedited version of it has ever been made yet...
I remember finding a mono copy of the Columbia recording when I was ten and falling in love with the piece, especially Mahalia's passionate rendition of "Come Sunday" then Ray Nance's astounding violin solo in the next track. I've always felt that the "23rd Psalm" finale was Ellington's attempt to bring closure to the piece but it always feels like the orchestra improvising clashes badly with Mahalia's interpretation of the words and it really needed further polishing (I now own a Canadian stereo pressing that I treasure). There was also a recording-not of the complete piece-on Naxos by the Buffalo Philharmonic in 2012 that was interesting but nowhere near as compelling as either of the Ellington recordings. Lastly, I found a copy of that 78 double set at a Goodwill some years back that had one of the discs cracked but the jacket was clean and a buyer on Discogs snapped it up in less than 24 hours for $30!
Duke's longform works are astounding, "B, B & B" in particular- he truly found common ground between jazz, gospel and classical music here.
After this story was first published, Sony reissued the album on CD with bonus tracks of additional material presumably cut from the original issue, and extended liner notes, as part of their reissuing of Duke's Columbia albums. Although I don't believe a full unedited version of it has ever been made yet...
Wow, David this is a great article. Ellington was a master.
I remember finding a mono copy of the Columbia recording when I was ten and falling in love with the piece, especially Mahalia's passionate rendition of "Come Sunday" then Ray Nance's astounding violin solo in the next track. I've always felt that the "23rd Psalm" finale was Ellington's attempt to bring closure to the piece but it always feels like the orchestra improvising clashes badly with Mahalia's interpretation of the words and it really needed further polishing (I now own a Canadian stereo pressing that I treasure). There was also a recording-not of the complete piece-on Naxos by the Buffalo Philharmonic in 2012 that was interesting but nowhere near as compelling as either of the Ellington recordings. Lastly, I found a copy of that 78 double set at a Goodwill some years back that had one of the discs cracked but the jacket was clean and a buyer on Discogs snapped it up in less than 24 hours for $30!