Search - Duke Ellington :: Treasury Shows 10

So-So. Moments of Great, Good, Bad and Ugly.

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 02/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is my first (and only, so far) set from the Treasury Shows series and I have mixed feelings about it. There is some great stuff, some good stuff, and some stuff I have no trouble skipping right over... and the sound is kinda blah. Jelly Roll Morton's electric sides from the '20s and early '30s sound better than much of this.



Just in case you don't know, these Treasury Shows were radio programs sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department to sell war bonds. The dates of the shows contained here are...



Treasury Broadcast #18, Radio City Studio 6-B. NYC, 8/11/45.



Broadcast from the New Zanzibar. NYC, 9/26/45.



Treasury Broadcast #19, Radio City Studio 6-B. NYC, 8/18/45.



Broadcast from the 400 Restaurant. NYC, 5/4/45.



Beyond just the Ellington aspect of this (and the rest of the series, I'm sure) set, it's interesting as an historical snapshot of the style and mood of an era. An announcer introduces (sometimes condescendingly) the band and sets up war-bond promos read by Duke himself. If your parents or grandparents are of the Depression/WWII generation, they would no doubt find this disc interesting for this aspect of it, as well as the music (if this was their favored style of music back then).



My main complaint about this disc is that the band didn't seem to be miked all that well. Actually the reeds and everything are fine, but the brass is usually sort of muffled in the background. For purely sonic quality, this disc isn't even close to sounding as good as the Duke's Joint disc (also previously unreleased radio broadcasts from 1945). If this band/era is new to you and you're just looking for a first disc to check out, don't get this one. Head straight to the Duke's Joint disc and buy it.



I'm no Ellingtonologist. I can't sit here and compare/contrast 9 different versions of all these tunes, but there is certainly some great stuff here. Out of This World is nightmarishly bad, especially in light of the great Harlem Air Shaft preceeding it. Joya Sherrill is the vocal star of this set, for me. Vocal jazz will never be my favorite, but I really like almost everything she does here. The guys and Kay Davis only help to bring this set down.



With all the Ellington originals here I know this may sound bad, but my favorite track is Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies". Wow! There's no other tune on this set that illustrates how great this band was more than this one. The liner-notes say it's a Mary-Lou Williams arrangement of the tune. All I know is that it swings like mad and is one of my all-time favorite versions of this tune. I wish it was about 7 minutes long instead of 3-and-a-half.



I only have a handful of Ellington discs. As I said before, I am no expert, but based on my limited knowledge, for the most part there are better discs of his than this one. I have to assume that the deep Ellington fan who already owns 50 Duke discs will enjoy this set more than someone who is just getting into him.































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