CD-Charts Position 61
Average Rating:

Live at the Blue Note

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Duke Ellington

Release Date May 31, 1994
Intimate, you are there in sound, and the sound quality and musicianship are unsurpassed. One of my favorite CDs (really two CDs). If you love Ellington, or Jazz, or fine music in general this is a must have imho.

CD-Charts Position 62
Average Rating:

The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Stan Kenton

Release Date July 01, 1997
One of Kenton's best when it come to soft music.

CD-Charts Position 63
Average Rating:

The Great Summit: The Complete Sessions

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington

Release Date August 01, 2000
I can't image why these two CDs are rarely listed under essential to a well rounded jazz collection. The two greatest jazz masters unite along with Young,Bigard, Herbert and Barcelona, who are also wonderful. With Ellington's compositions & piano playing and Armstrong's strong voice & trumpet performance, both hold the listener spellbound. Plus, we get to listen in on the false starts and the conversations between takes!

CD-Charts Position 64
Average Rating:

Last Tango In Paris: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
from: Rykodisc

Release Date June 09, 1998
The movie was shocking enough,but the music from the soundtrack blew me away, just listening to the music can recall every graphic and tragic image of the film. Its the frist time I every appreatiated that gerne of music its as classic as any music score every created, Brennie Herman would be proud or was if he had the chance to hear this wonderful movie score.

CD-Charts Position 65
Average Rating:

Cool, Hot & Swingin'

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Stan Kenton Orchestra

Release Date July 10, 2007
Tantara producer Bill Lichtenauer has the knack of unearthing and releasing some rare and often unique Kenton material (eg. the highly recommended Neophonic concerts, as well as material from Kenton's final two road tours). It must be said that "Cool, Hot and Swingin'" is a bit more conventional in this regard. Except for two or three charts the music on this concert recording will sound very familiar to Kenton buffs. Indeed, the band itself is well-known to Kenton fans, being essentially the same band as heard on bootlegs from the band's March 1956 European tour and the monumental "Cuban Fire" album recorded in May of 1956.

The music on the appropriately titled "Cool, Hot & Swingin'" was recorded February 2, 1956 at the Civic Auditorium ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 66
Average Rating:

Kenton '76

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Stan Kenton

Release Date October 14, 1994
When I was in high school (12 year ago) John Harner (solo trumpet on this CD) was the band director at Xenia High School (I believe), and came and played with our jazz band. I was 1st trumpet, so I stood right next to the guy while he wailed on a couple of tunes with us.

CD-Charts Position 67
Average Rating:

Complete Columbia & RCA Victor Recordings

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: John Kirby Sextet

Release Date April 05, 2004
This was one of the best bands, little or big, of the swing era. It contained a great trumpet player in Charlie Shavers. I saw him with Tommy Dorsey at the Aragon ballroom in Chicago -1945. And again with JATP.
The other personal are all fine in their own right!
These CD's cover the years from 1938 through 1942 and most of all the recordings he made in that era.
Fifty-two selections, a great example of his work and the best of his work!
I was so glad to get these on CD. I had very little of his music till now.
Highly recommended!

Rod

CD-Charts Position 68
Average Rating:

The Heart Speaks

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Terence Blanchard

Release Date February 06, 1996
Excellent album. It is an instant jazz classic. Even years after it's release, I find myself coming back to it. Lins is brilliant, and Blanchard does his work a most fine service. Apreceida is Perfect.

CD-Charts Position 69
Average Rating:

Beyond Category: The Musical Genius of Duke Ellington

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Duke Ellington

Release Date June 29, 1999
This cd box set (originally a three disk set) is probably one of the best compilations his music I have heard as yet. Duke Ellington's approach to the blues and swinging fusion Jazz makes for great jams as well as some awsome vocals by the likes of Sarah Vaughn and Billy Epsen. One of my favorites by far is the upbeat version of the C-jam blues on this album. Well done Sir Duke!

CD-Charts Position 70
Average Rating:

Classic Ellington

CD-Charts > Music > Orchestral Jazz
by: Simon Rattle

Release Date September 26, 2000
Okay, I'll bite...

In an alternate universe, one wonders what Duke and Stray might have given us if they adapted Brahms, Mahler and Beethoven symphonies for their orchestra.

EKE's original long form compositions are true works of genius. Note Ellington Suites written for the Queen England in 1959 or his clever, uncompromising jazz nod to Tchaikovsky in "Arabesque Cookie" and Grieg's "Peer Gynt".

There are conductors who could handle a project like this credibly: Andre Previn, Gunther Schuller? That said, and despite heroic efforts of soloists both gifted and renown, nothing can save Sir Rattle and his orchestra (Cough, "band"). They are out of their element and beyond redemption on this album.

One star because Clark ... Read More: