Search - Rhythm & Brass :: More Money Jungle: Ellington Explorations

Few collections allow themselves the variety of interpretations invited by the original Duke Ellington-Charles Mingus-Max Roach Money Jungle trio session. With a flush of five horns and a drummer, Rhythm & Brass have a great platform for these Ellington gems, only a few of which were originals on the Money Jungle session. That leaves the pre-1940s Ellington canon for R&B to whip into a brassy froth. They play with the force of a New Orleans marching brass ensemble, making their rhythms stomp-heavy with tuba rumble and snare snaps. Where the Ellington ensembles shone, though, is in the trombone and trumpets, and this band catches Roy Eldridge's fullness of tone and both Bubber Miley and Tricky Sam Nanton's muted growls and effects. When they're playing the early-Duke card, R&B do a splendid orchestral job, too, making their slimness in numbers sound entirely illusory as each member takes parts of whole Ellington band sections. More than a simple tribute by far, R&B's More Money Jungle is a slimmed-down but fattened-up run on these familiar, well-rendered tunes. --Andrew Bartlett