Ellington Uptown (1953)

About this title: Even back in the early '50s, Columbia Records took Duke Ellington seriously enough to place this album on its prestigious Masterworks label, heretofore reserved mostly for highbrow classical music and Broadway shows (later in the decade, though, it was retitled Hi-Fi Ellington Uptown and reissued on the pop series with an additional piece, "The Controversial Suite"). Also, this LP explodes the critical line that the early '50s was a relatively fallow period for the Duke; any of these smoking, concert-length tracks will torpedo that notion. The young Louis Bellson was powering the Ellington ... read more

Tracks:

1. Skin Deep [Bellson]
2. The Mooche [Ellington/Mills]
3. Take the "A" Train [Strayhorn]
4. Tone Parallel to Harlem (The Harlem Suite) [Ellington]
5. Perdido [Drake/Lengsfelder]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.