AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Pure Pleasure / Columbia - PPAN ML4418  - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100%  Analogue -  Pressed at Pallas Germany - Limited Edition

Mastered by Ray Staff at Air London - Columbia ML4418

This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production

The music is only part of what made this album special. Those who were able to lay hands on a decent original copy claimed the sound, mono though it is, was spectacular. This Pure Pleasure reissue shows that that claim was founded on solid fact. I’ve reviewed quite a few Pure Pleasure offerings, and I can confidently state that this Pallas-pressed LP, remastered from analog tapes, not digital files, is, if not at the very apex of sound quality, then damn close to it. All of the instruments have a sense of realness, and there is space around the band -- something of a surprise from such an early LP, and in mono to boot. From the plucked bass lines to the sparkle of each cymbal strike, everything rings true. The musicians seem to exist in their own space while still being part of the whole.   I’ll put this one by Pure Pleasure right at the top of the list. I simply can’t imagine this LP sounding better. No matter which you choose, this is an album you really need to have in your library. Getting the chance to hear one of Ellington’s greatest bands give full-length versions of these four tunes is using your stereo for its intended purpose -- stepping back in time and reliving an era when this was the music to hear. This Pure Pleasure LP is flat, dead silent, and wonderfully musical. Oh, and one last tidbit to really ice the cake: Pure Pleasure's deluxe gatefold sleeve is of superior quality and includes pictures of Ellington at work in the center. - The Audio Beat

To restate: top-quality sound, top-quality packaging, and perhaps the greatest big band in jazz history to whisk you back to late 1950 and delight you with exquisite music. What more can one ask for from a reissue?

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra consisting of Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves and more, perform four selections including "Mood Indigo" and "Sophisticated Lady".

"When Ellington went into the studio in 1950 to record the longer tracks on this LP, his orchestra was a bridge between its late-1940's configuration (the 5-man trumpet section) and its mid-1950's personnel. The sax section had settled into the form it would have for most of the ensuing two decades (old-timers Hodges and Carney and newcomers Procope, Hamilton and Gonsalves); the trombone section had long-timer Lawrence Brown as well as Tyree Glenn and newcomer Quentin Jackson; and the drummer was still Sonny Greer, who had anchored the rhythm section since the beginning. Greer would retire at the end of the year, Hodges would defect for two years, Brown and Glenn would leave; Louis Bellson and Cat Anderson would join up and Ellington would begin to re-form. Ellington's orchestra from 1953 on would be a great, swinging and sensitive one, but it would not make the same lush sound that this one did.

"The arrangements and orchestrations all bear the hallmarks of Ellington's collaboration with Billy Strayhorn in the late 1940's: they are lush, symphonic, impressionistic, and densely (and adventurously) harmonic. "Mood Indigo", in particular, is a 15-minute tone-poem with shifting colors and key relationships as Ellington and Strayhorn bring the melody through a wide variety of guises, from Glenn's wah-wah trombone solo to Shorty Baker's lyrical waltz to orchestral and piano passages which do homage to the influence which Ravel and Stravinsky had on both of them. Great solos abound here and on the other tracks, most notably from Hodges, Brown, Hamilton, Gonsalves, Carney, trumpeters Baker and Ray Nance, and (most probably) Billy Strayhorn on piano, especially in "Mood Indigo"

"'The Tattooed Bride' is the only new piece from the original "Masterpieces by Ellington" LP, and it is a beauty. The others of the original tracks -- "Sophisticated Lady" and "Solitude" -- are not laid out as inventively in their harmonics or structure. Of the group, "Solitude" is perhaps the weakest, but this is a relative term. Ellington would go on to pen many more extended, symphonic works, but none would have quite the multicolored, impressionistic tone-palate that these do. And Strayhorn's presence would not be as pronounced in those future works as it is here: the orchestration and harmonies in particular bear his mark. These are masterpieces indeed: great works of art by two of our greatest composers/orchestrators, and played by one of the greatest orchestras in Afro-American music." - Andrew R. 

• Remastered By Ray Staff at Air Mastering

Musicians:
Duke Ellington, piano
Billy Strayhorn, piano
Mercer Ellington, flugelhorn
Cat Anderson, trumpet
Andrew Ford, trumpet
Harold Baker, trumpet
Nelson Williams, trumpet
Ray Nance, trumpet
Quentin Jackson, trombone
Tyree Glenn, trombone
Lawrence Brown, trombone
Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone
Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone
Jimmy Hamilton, clarinet
Russell Procope, clarinet & alto saxophone
Wendell Marshall, bass
Sonny Greer, drums
Yvonne, vocals

Selections:
Side A :
1. Mood Indigo
2. Sophisticated Lady
Side B:
1. The Tattooed Bride
2. Solitude

Recorded December 19, 1950