Duke Ellington – The Big Band Feeling: Stars Of Jazz
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Music: B-
Somewhat similar to the Koch Swinging At His Best
set on Duke Ellington we previous covered on this site, this MVD-issued Stars
Of Jazz series release offers a compilation (versus the CBS TV program it
did with Miles Davis we just did) in a series of Snader Telescripts. The tracks here are:
1) Sophisticated
Lady (Snader #13003; 1952)
2) Caravan
(#13001)
3) The
Mooch (#13006)
4) V.I.P.’s
Boogie (#13002)
5) Solitude
(#13007; vocal by Jimmy Grissom)
6) Mood
Ingido (#13004)
7) The Hawk
Talks (#13005; featuring Louie Bellson)
8) I Got It
Bad & That Ain’t Good (Soundie directed by Josef Berne/Sam Coslow
producer)
9) Bli-Blip (1952
Soundie)
10) Flamingo (Soundie directed by
Josef Berne/Sam Coslow producer)
11) Cottontail (Soundie directed by
Josef Berne/Sam Coslow producer)
12) C Jam Blues (also
from Hot Chocolate)
Both have twelve tracks and nine overlap. It may be similar, but this is more complete
and not the run-on of the Koch version. If you have to choose between the two, serious collectors might
want to get this one first, though they are both inexpensive and completists
will want both. The 1.33 X 1 monochrome
picture quality is a bit better here than on the Koch release, but not by
much. That also goes for the Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono, which is a bit better here, but this is old audio that is
going to need more restoration for future use down the line. The only “extra” is a list of the musicians
missing from the Koch, but MVD did not improve much in this respect their set
over Koch’s either. It does run 43
minutes, or about two or three more than the Koch set, but ultimately the three
different songs do not make a big difference.
This is the more well rounded information wise and slightly more
refined, but I am disappointed by the performance of I Got It Bad & That
Ain’t Good, which is much better in Robert Aldrich’s 1955 Film Noir classic
Kiss Me Deadly. That is a big
problem that prevents it from being above the Koch set. Now, you can choose for yourself.
- Nicholas Sheffo
